By Dr. Tro Kalayjian
Opening my own medical practice was truly a humble beginning for me.
When I left the large hospital system I was working for, I was not allowed to practice in my geographic area because of a non-compete clause.
I had elderly patients I would often visit at their homes, as well as nursing home patients and office patients that could not continue seeing me. This was devastating.
Leaving this big hospital system was awful at the time. I had no income and I felt like I had abandoned my patients, but it became the best thing that ever happened to me. It’s how I started practicing telemedicine.
Not being permitted to open a physical location within 15 miles of my old office, I wondered how could I serve my community,
That’s when I started practicing lifestyle medicine online.
I used a medical teleconferencing app. Patients would be monitored with remote bioimpedance scales, blood pressure cuffs, smartwatches, remote ECG and CGMs. I quickly learned to leverage technology to help patients.
When it came time to open a physical location, I had to start with relatively humble beginnings.
I looked at several medical buildings that were available, but nothing was right…
Then one day, I was driving past a strip mall near my childhood home and noticed that the space where Anna’s Chocolates used to be was still vacant…
It was at that moment that it dawned on me… THIS was exactly where I was going to start.
Growing up, we were very familiar with Anna’s Chocolates… the sweet smells and delicious tastes…
I thought, just like I was given a new beginning with my weight loss journey, the vacant retail space that was once Anna’s Chocolates needed a new beginning.
So this formerly obese weight loss doctor transformed the formerly delicious (but diabetogenic) chocolate store into a weight loss & lifestyle medicine clinic.
No, it’s not a fancy medical building, but it’s serving its purpose quite well, and it has a special meaning to me.
Dr. Tro Kalayjian is a physician who is board certified in Obesity Medicine and Internal Medicine. Visit www.doctortro.com/ or call/text 845-397-CURE to make an appointment.
