We were lucky to catch up with Leigh Lewis recently and have shared our conversation below.

Leigh, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. 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?

I have been in practice for 20 years, the majority of those in someone else’s practice. I realized I was giving away a large percentage of my income to other people and did not have a commensurate input into how things were being run. In addition, I found myself working with people who did not share my values in patient care or offering gimmicky or non-evidenced based services.

In 2016, I finally decided to venture out on my own, bucking the trend to establish a large, spa-like clinic with multiple providers and support staff in favor of a 380 sqft “micro-clinic” with a very low overhead that allowed me to operate in keeping with my vision of patient care while increasing my net income and deceasing my hours, even though I do everything myself. In fact, I have been able to sublet my space when I am not there to new providers at a very affordable rate while decreasing further my already low overhead…win-win.

In addition, these changes allowed me to easily adapt to the demands COVID placed on medical providers: I was already offering telemedicine services across the state and my sole provider status meant that patients could continue to see me in clinic without having to interact with anyone else.

I would say the most important advice I have to share with young providers is something I read in the Paul Jarvis’ book, “A Company of One”: Overhead is death. If you don’t have control of your costs you will constantly be throwing money away.

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 started as a psychiatric case manager after college and quickly realized that to work with patients the way that I wanted would require me to take a different path from traditional medical school. After obtaining my medical and acupuncture degrees, I was able to do post-graduate training in integrative medicine, doing hundreds of hours of rotations with women’s health specialists from general & reproductive endocrinologists to OBGYNs and menopause specialists. I was also fortunate to have the opportunity to work for years in a clinic with gynecologists in a truly integrative setting, where all providers knew there was a time and place for all therapies from diet, lifestyle & acupuncture to medications and surgery and patients loved it!

Currently, I specialize in providing integrative evidenced-based medical care to women of all ages: adolescence, preconception, pregnancy, postpartum, and menopause. I offer a combination of services to address physical and psychological symptoms including nutrition & acupuncture to medications, according to patient preferences and needs. I have worked hard to create an excellent referral network of physicical therapists, registered dietitians, psychotherapists, specialists & surgeons to be sure my patients have access to the holistic physical & mental health care they need.

I have furthered my education in this specialization through training, certification and memberships in the American Society of Reproductive Medicine, Postpartum Support International, North American Menopause Society, International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health, and the American Board of Oriental Reproductive Medicine, the first two in leadership positions. Education is a key component to my practice, and I cannot educate others if I do not educate myself first.

Many who specialize in women’s health often promote non-evidenced based services and products as a way to generate income, especially in the subspecialties of fertility & menopause. I have chosen not to do this, focusing on providing care in conjunction with best practice advice from international societies. Not only does this approach yield improved health & safety, but a secondary benefit of this is that it often long-term improvement in health and cost-savings for patients.

I general, I try to offer practical, responsible medical advice that I would give to my mother, sister, and best friends. It’s not sexy and I don’t have tens of thousands of followers, but I believe each of my patients knows that I am working hard to help them feel better.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

In my final semester of medical school, my husband who was also in my program died suddenly in front of me. Thanks to the support from my family, friends, and therapist, I was able to complete my degree, pass my boards and continue on my path of post-graduate training. This incredible loss also allows me to help patients as they struggle with their own losses, whether it be the loss of a loved one, relationship, a pregnancy, or of physical health. I also understand the importance of mental health care in medicine and that there is truly a mind body connection that cannot be ignored.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Personally, I think and have heard from others that I get a lot of word-of-mouth and referrals from other health care providers because I offer a practical , affordable, common sense approach to medicine that relies on science rather than gimmicks & fads. I cannot be everything to every person and you’ll note from my website that I do not list every possible disease or service as a speciality. I try to meet patients where they are and focus on progress rather than perfection for long -term health impacts and prevention of chronic disease. For example, I often discuss the ’80/20 rule’ for nutrition: Try to eat a high quality, healthful, plant-based diet 80% of the time while leaving the other 20% for celebrating and enjoying time with friends & family and adhere to the basic principles of intuitive eating and “Health at Every Size”. I also practice what I preach: I have a vegetable garden, am physically active, eat whole food/home cooked meals most of the time and keep up on cancer screenings and vaccinations just as I encourage patients to do.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.arcadiawomenswellness.com
• Instagram: dr_leigh_lewis
• Linkedin: Leigh Lewis
• Yelp: Arcadia Women’s Wellness

Image Credits
all photos are from me and my iPhone