What is Direct Primary Care?

A membership-based model where patients pay a monthly fee directly to their doctor or clinic, bypassing insurance. It allows for longer visits, easy communication, and a more personal relationship between patient and provider.

What is Functional Medicine?

Functional medicine asks how and why illness occurs and restores health by addressing the root causes of disease for each individual. It is an approach to patient care that views health and illness as part of a continuum in which all components of the human biological system interact dynamically with the environment, producing patterns and effects that change over time. Functional medicine may be described as the clinical application of systems biology. Chronic disease is usually preceded by a period of declining function in one or more of the body’s systems. Restoration of health requires improving the specific dysfunctions that have contributed to the disease state. Functional medicine provides tools and a reproducible method to enable clinicians to identify dysfunction and promote balance in physiology as the primary means of improving patient health.

Functional medicine involves understanding the origins, prevention, and treatment of complex, chronic diseases. Hallmarks of a functional medicine approach include:

• Patient-centered care. The focus of functional medicine is on patient centered care, promoting health as a positive vitality, beyond just the absence of disease.

• An integrative, science-based healthcare approach. Functional medicine practitioners look “upstream” to consider the complex web of interactions in the patient’s history, physiology, and lifestyle that can lead to illness. The unique genetic makeup of each patient is considered, along with both internal (mind, body, and spirit) and external (physical and social environment) factors that affect total functioning.

• A combination of best medical practices. Functional medicine integrates traditional Western medical practices with what are sometimes considered “alternative” or “integrative” medicine, creating a focus on prevention through nutrition, diet, and exercise; use of the latest laboratory testing and other diagnostic techniques; and prescribed combinations of drugs and/or botanical medicines, supplements, therapeutic diets, detoxification programs, or stress-management techniques.

Why do we need Functional Medicine?

Functional medicine addresses the whole person, not just an isolated set of symptoms. Functional medicine practitioners spend more time with their patients, listening to their histories and looking at the interactions between environmental, lifestyle, and genetic factors that influence health. The functional medicine practitioner will consider multiple factors, including:

• Environmental inputs: The air you breathe and the water you drink, the diet you eat, the quality of the food available to you, your level of physical activity, and toxic exposures or traumas you have experienced affect your health and well-being.

• Mind-body connections: Psychological, spiritual, and social factors can all have a profound influence on your health. Considering these areas helps the functional medicine practitioner see your health in the context of you as a whole person, not just your physical symptoms.

• Genetic makeup: Although individual genes may make you more susceptible to some diseases, your DNA is not an unchanging blueprint for your life. Emerging research shows that your genes may be influenced by your environment, as well as your experiences, attitudes, and beliefs. That means it is possible to change the way genes are activated and expressed.

By understanding the genetic, lifestyle, and environmental factors unique to each person, a functional medicine practitioner can identify which bodily processes are affected. Some occur at the cellular level and involve how cells function, repair, and maintain themselves. Others are related to how your body processes and uses nutrients. These processes include:

• How your body rids itself of toxins

• Regulation of hormones and neurotransmitters (nerve messengers)

• Immune system function

• Inflammatory responses

• Digestion and absorption of nutrients and the health of the digestive tract

• Structural integrity

• Psychological and spiritual balance

• How you produce energy

Any of these bodily processes can become imbalanced or disrupted, which can cause symptoms and accelerate disease.

A Comprehensive Approach to Treatment:

• The good news is that most imbalances can be addressed to restore or substantially improve a person’s health.

• Prevention is key. Nearly every complex, chronic disease is preceded by long-term disturbances in function that can be identified relatively early on and effectively managed.

• Changing how the systems function can have a major impact on health. The functional medicine practitioner examines a wide array of available interventions and customizes a treatment plan, including those with the most impact on your health.

• Functional medicine expands the clinician’s tool kit. Treatments may include combinations of drugs, botanical medicines, nutritional supplements, therapeutic diets, or detoxification programs. They may also include counseling on lifestyle, exercise, or stress-management techniques.

• The patient becomes a partner. As a patient, you become an active partner with your functional medicine practitioner. Such a partnership allows you to be in charge of improving your health and changing the outcome of disease.

What sets Raphael Direct Primary Care apart from other practices?

At Raphael DPC we are creating an integrated DPC family medicine and functional medicine practice, which has many benefits to both patients and the doctor:

• Patients pay a set monthly fee, like a subscription.

• They get very flexible access to their doctor.

• Visits are longer, allowing deep dives into a patient's history, lifestyle, diet, genetics, environment, etc.

• The doctor uses a functional medicine approach to design truly individualized care plans — often focusing on nutrition, sleep, stress, detoxification, supplements, exercise, and sometimes more advanced testing (gut microbiome, hormones, etc.).

• There's often more coaching involved.

• It's relationship-driven, proactive, and prevention-focused rather than transactional and reactive.

Key benefits for patients:

• More time with your doctor

• Focus on getting to the root cause of illness

• Better coordination of care

• Often faster communication via text/email/phone

• A holistic, whole-body healing approach

For the provider:

• Freedom from insurance constraints

• Ability to practice medicine the way they believe is most effective

• More satisfaction and less burnout

Can I meet the physician and tour the clinic before I decide to enroll in Raphael Direct Primary Care?

Yes! We’d love to meet you. At Raphael Direct Primary Care, you are welcome to schedule a complimentary 15-minute visit with our physician. This gives you the chance to tour the clinic, ask questions, and see if our practice is the right fit for you—all free of charge.

Can I contact my physician after hours?

Your health is our priority. If you are experiencing a life-threatening emergency, please call 911 immediately or go to the nearest emergency department.

For urgent medical concerns outside of regular office hours, you may reach your doctor directly by phone, text, or email.

For non-urgent questions or routine matters, please contact us during normal office hours so we can provide you with the thorough care and attention you deserve.

We appreciate your understanding and look forward to supporting your health.