Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Dr. Jennifer Dilts. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Dr. Jennifer, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about how you went about setting up your own practice and if you have any advice for professionals who might be considering starting their own?

For the first 18 years of my career I was an employed physician. I loved my colleagues but I became increasingly frustrated by the healthcare system. It was no longer serving my patients, and this was really frustrating. I couldn’t see my patients when they needed to be seen, and I had very little control over the patient experience. I felt called to do things a different way. I love direct medical care because there are no barriers between my patients and me. My patients and their parents can talk directly with me whenever they need to, and they get convenient appointments that aren’t rushed. Leaving the big medical system was scary. I had no business training and didn’t know how to market myself, build a website, or create social media videos. Business was really slow at first, because I didn’t know how to reach the patients who needed me. I read a lot of books and listened to a lot of podcasts. I tried things and if they didn’t work, I tweaked things a little bit and tried again. I reached out to other medical professionals in my area and got to know them, even when it felt out of my comfort zone.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a pediatrician and medical acupuncturist. I have additional pediatric training in headache medicine and mental health. Through membership-based care for headaches, anxiety, depression, and ADHD, I’m able to work closely with patients and their parents. My appointments are much longer than the typical doctor’s appointment. I spend 60-90 minutes with patients so that I can really get to know them and help them in a comprehensive way. We discuss lifestyle factors, stress reduction, medications, acupuncture, and neuromodulation (devices that help calm down the nerves to help with headaches, sleep, and anxiety). I see patients in-person at Bloom Pediatrics in Kansas City, Kansas, and virtually throughout the states of Kansas and Missouri. Additionally, I provide acupuncture for both kids and adults. Acupuncture is an evidence-based way to improve pain conditions like migraine, back pain, and other types of musculoskeletal pain.

If you could go back in time, do you think you would have chosen a different profession or specialty?

I would absolutely choose to be a pediatrician if I could do it all over again. I really love connecting with kids and teens. They energize me! The way that our brains develop throughout childhood and adolescence fascinates me, and I love helping kids understand how their brains work. Additionally, helping kids feel better can have a huge impact on their future health and well-being. For example, many kids begin having migraine attacks in elementary school. Left untreated, migraine can worsen, sometimes to the point that teens are having daily headaches and missing lots of school. However, migraine is a really treatable condition, with lots of evidence-based therapies. Treating a child for migraine when they are young and the migraine attacks are still infrequent lessens the chance that the child will go on to have frequent/severe migraine attacks as an adult.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I failed my first anatomy test in medical school. I had been in medical school for a few weeks, and anatomy didn’t come easily to me. Additionally, I had gotten good grades throughout high school and college, but I hadn’t learned how to study in a comprehensive way. I was a “crammer”, stuffing facts into my brain the night before tests and then promptly forgetting a lot of that information. In medical school I quickly learned that the pace was really fast, and cramming wasn’t going to cut it. I was devastated when I failed that test, and I wondered if I could really succeed in medical school. I didn’t quit, though. Instead I learned how to study. I studied for several hours each day after class and ended up graduating at the top of my medical school class 4 years later. I proved to myself that I could work hard and excel in the things that matter to me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://drjenniferdilts.com/
• Instagram: @drjenniferdilts
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-dilts-40611b3a

Image Credits
Caroline Dilts Photography