"From the time I was in high school, I knew I wanted to be a doctor. I had a very special relationship with my grandmother; she largely raised me because my parents owned a retail store and often worked nights and weekends. When my grandmother was 68 years old, she developed early onset dementia. As her condition steadily declined, so did the care that she received. I watched in sadness as my favorite person became a victim of a broken healthcare system. This was the catalyst to my career in medicine. I completed my undergraduate degree in Biology at the University of Pennsylvania; I attended the University of Massachusetts Medical School; and I completed my residency in Family Medicine in 2005 in Scottsdale, AZ. Upon completing my residency, I moved back to Swampscott and over the course of the next 10 years, I worked for both a private practice and a hospital run practice. In both cases, the way in which I was forced to practice medicine, was not at all aligned with the vision I had as I sat at my grandmother’s bedside. My performance reviews and pay scale became determined, not by the quality of care that I provided, but by the quantity of patients I could see in a day. In 2014, I learned about the Direct Primary Care (DPC) movement. It allowed for physicians to contract directly with the patient, without third party interference from insurance companies. In 2015, I opened Gold Direct Care (GDC). Since GDC opened, we’ve added a physician, Dr. Carmela Mancini; we’ve grown to over 600 patients; and my passion for medicine has been renewed!"
