Episode Transcript
“Reimagining Rural Health,” a podcast series brought to you by Sanford Health. In this series, we explore the challenges facing health care systems across the country from improving access to equitable care, building a sustainable workforce, and discovering innovative ways to deliver high-quality, low-cost services in rural and underserved populations. Each episode examines how Sanford Health and other health systems are advancing care for the unique communities they serve.
In this episode, Courtney Collen with Sanford Health News talks with Dr. Dave Newman, medical officer, virtual care and medical director of Informatics, Sanford Health north region. Dr. Newman joins as moderator for the expert panel at the 2023 Summit on the Future of Rural Health Care with the topic: the state of providing rural care from Sanford Fargo.
Courtney Collen (Host):
Dr. David Newman, so glad to have you here with us.
Dr. David Newman:
Thanks for having me.
Courtney Collen (Host):
Thank you for being here. Where is Sanford Health leading in virtual care? What are we doing right today? And on the flip side, as a physician, what are our biggest opportunities?
Dr. David Newman:
Boy, so we have done a lot on the virtual care environment I would say over the last couple years. Our biggest frontier right now is telemedicine and serving our rural patients not just for primary care, but for subspecialists.
We recently opened a satellite clinic in Lidgerwood, North Dakota, and when we talked to the patients in Lidgerwood, they really told us that while they want to have urgent care, they want to have access to primary cares, they want to be able to see their specialists over the winter. They don’t want to have to drive to Fargo. They don’t want to have to drive to even Wahpeton.
And as soon as I told them, you could see their oncologist, you could see their endocrinologist, you could just see their face light up. That is really what we’ve made huge steps in over the last, I would say two years, is access to specialty care for everybody, not just the people in Fargo or Sioux Falls.
Courtney Collen (Host):
Our CEO Bill Gassen recently said we don’t want patients to have to travel very far if they don’t have to, especially during those winter months, which we are very familiar with up here. Serving rural communities as an endocrinologist, Dr. Newman, what do you want patients to know about the progress that Sanford Health is making to improve their access to care?
Dr. David Newman:
So I want them to know it’s way easier than you think it is. If you can turn on your smartphone and open an app, you can most likely do a video visit. And if you’re very uncomfortable with technology, we can set up a visit where you drive to your local clinic and whether you’re in Dickinson or whether you are in Bismarck or Watford City, and then you can see your provider in Fargo or Sioux Falls from that clinic.
So if you’re really uncomfortable with technology, we can make it work. It is kind of like eating brussels sprouts, that if you’re eating brussels sprouts and they don’t taste good, you’re doing it wrong. That we want to make sure that you’re doing things in the appropriate manner and we are here to help for that.
Courtney Collen (Host):
Gotta have the right seasoning. Yes, absolutely. The right way to cook ’em. Absolutely. Yeah. I agree a hundred percent. How are you using technology to provide patient care?
Dr. David Newman:
So I use it in a lot of ways. I do a lot of virtual visits in the wintertime. It’s like 20 to 30% of my practice. For diabetes remote monitoring, I can look at blood sugars, so blood glucose levels from people’s insulin pumps through their sensors. I can look at that remotely and I can take care of things asynchronously. So not at the same time. It’s very, very convenient for a patient to not have to come to my clinic to have their insulin titrated or to have their pump settings changed.
Courtney Collen (Host):
If you could share one piece of advice with a new clinician or physician entering the workforce today, what would that be?
Dr. David Newman:
Integrate virtual care into your practice from day one. Embrace the technology. It’s absolutely going to be a big part of your practice going forward. And the sooner you learn how to do it, the sooner you’ll be happier.
Courtney Collen (Host):
What does the future of Sanford Health look like when it comes to how we best serve those rural communities? And relative to that, what excites you the most about the future of rural health care?
Dr. David Newman:
I think as we get more providers to embrace the technology, the ZIP code won’t matter as much. You won’t have to drive to an urban center to see the subspecialists. The thing that really excites me is decreasing those disparities, making the same subspecialty care available to everybody regardless of the ZIP code is absolutely exciting.
Courtney Collen (Host):
Dr. David Newman, thank you so much for your time and for all you do for Sanford Health.
Dr. David Newman:
Absolutely. Thanks for having me.
Alan Helgeson:
You’ve been listening to “Reimagining Rural Health,” a podcast series brought to you by Sanford Health. Hear more episodes in this series or other Sanford Health series on Apple, Spotify, and news.sanfordhealth.org.
Learn more about this topic
- Rural health care workforce must ‘skill up, scale up’
- Help wanted: Health care workers in rural America
- Virtual care brings specialists to rural, underserved areas
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Posted In Community, Endocrinology, Fargo, Leadership in Health Care, News, People & Culture, Physicians and APPs, Rural Health, Virtual Care
