Military physician to telehealth entrepreneur

Laura Purdy MD is based in Nashville, originates from southern Kentucky and grew up in Indiana. She did her medical training and first seven years of medical practice in the US Army and when her contract ended she moved into the telemedicine or digital medicine sector. Laura is licensed in 50 states so has patients all across the country as well as four children under the age of nine so she really ‘gets’ things from a working mother’s perspective. She is also an entrepreneur and currently has two businesses in the Nashville area that she owns and runs as well as having been heavily involved in telehealth start-ups as a co-founder, senior advisor and executive.

Laura started her military career in Washington DC where she did her training at Walter Reed Military Hospital before moving to Fort Benning in southern Georgia. She also served at Fort Bragg in north Carolina and Fort Campbell in Kentucky which led her back to her roots. She also spent time in Hawaii, Seattle, Texas and Virginia.

As a physician in the army you can practice at clinics where you deal with children and veterans so it’s similar to working in general practice. Laura did this but also spent time as a unit physician and in a hospital in-patient role dealing almost exclusivity with soldiers or veterans. Here the most common problems were musculoskeletal but there were also heat, blast and war injuries as well as a tremendous amount of mental health and behavioural health disorders.

As well as PTSD and trauma, adjustment disorder, depression and anxiety were very common. Military personnel are constantly being moved around – they are relocated, separated from their friends and family as well as having to live up to high expectations of performance and physical challenges. Work requirements mean early starts, late nights, weekend working and uncertainty about taking time off. Even if you don't experience deployment, war or combat, the military is a very stressful and demanding lifestyle so its not surprising that adjustment disorder, depression and anxiety are prevalent. The family network can also be an asset or a liability as can the quality of the professional support system which can greatly impact the outcomes and trajectory of the people going through a stressful or challenging situation.

In business, mindset and change are often linked together. Some people feel that the military is far more capable of dealing with adjustment because the level of constant change is more natural and frequent.  This can create its own set of problems with constant frequent movement either creating higher adjustment disorder or helping your ability to deal with change.

Laura’s last job in the Army was as Chief Medical Officer of the Warrior Transition Battalion where she was dealing with soldiers who were no longer physically or mentally fit to serve. Over 50% of that population had some behavioural health condition. This may have been the reason for their discharge or it may be comorbid with something else. Whilst there are a lot of people out there who are exceeding, excelling and doing well with that operational tempo, Laura also spent a lot of time working with people who had trouble adjusting – they weren’t a good fit for the lifestyle.

After her seven-year residency Laura knew would not be staying in the military until the end of her contract. She was stationed apart from her husband for the first three years of their marriage and during that period she had a baby and was effectively a single parent for nine months. There had been an option for them to be together so at that point she decided the best thing for her was to leave as soon as her contract would allow. It took eight years for her contract to end and it took a few years to arrive at the point where she wasn't bitter, angry or passive aggressive. She had to get to the point where could make some mature decisions, that she was going to make the best of it and going to choose to get as much out of it as she could.

A lot of people who leave an occupation like the military or after achieving something like an Olympic medal often find it difficult to decide where to go next or what to do with their life. Laura started by deciding what she didn’t want to and then doing a backwards plan. This was how she arrived at telehealth, entrepreneurship and digital health – all were things she felt would be components of a lifestyle and career she could create that would keep her out of the things she didn’t want to do.

Laura feels she is really a businesswoman disguised as a doctor and as a soldier. Her father was a businessman and did his MBA when Laura was in high school. She was really interested in what he was doing as well as in his business so she spent a lot of time discussing it with him. When she graduated in 2008 she was uncertain of what she was going to do but her father told her she should go into healthcare. She had seen the sacrifices he had made to keep his business going so she followed his advice. She then spent considerable amounts of her time getting out of providing healthcare and into the administration and business of healthcare because that was what she really enjoyed.

In the army you have complex problems to solve with fixed or few resources and a short timeframe in which to do it and that's what Laura feels entrepreneurship is.  Innovation, creativity, rolling up your sleeves, self sacrifice and dedication are all values of entrepreneurship so Laura feels her army and entrepreneur careers are directly related.

Laura feels telehealth and digital health are the progression and future of healthcare. She sees healthcare as following the way the banking industry has evolved – we do almost everything remotely, rarely go to the bank and when we do its’ an inconvenience. If healthcare follows that trend, as technology is developed and adoption increases it will get to the point where the first thing we think about in getting care is how do we do it digitally and the last thing we think about, unless its an emergency and needs in-person care is actually going to see someone. Laura feels this will disempower institutions and health insurers and give access to care in new ways and bring cost reductions, increased efficiency and, in some ways, better care. With the progress, changes and innovation there will be a complete transformation in the entire way we do health care.

Every day Laura comes across circumstances where she finds herself reflecting back to people she knew, positions she had, decisions she needed to make, life lessons and values of the military and she feels her military experience has had a tremendous positive impact on everything she does.

You can find out more at https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-purdy-md/

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