The Origin Story of Aspen Health
Hello, and welcome to Aspen Health’s blog. I am Dr. Jay Benson, the founder and practicing physician at Aspen Health. This is the first of many posts where I will discuss important health topics and even share recipes and other useful information.
I wanted to share a little about myself and the history of how Aspen Health came to be.
My initial training was in family medicine that early on gave me a sense of how broken our healthcare system was at the time (and still is) and how it does a terrible job at preventing and treating chronic disease and at such a high cost. Although the current healthcare system is where it is today due to amazing advances in medicine over the years, it is primarily based on emergency medicine and surgery. The same rules that apply to these areas of medicine do not apply so well to treating chronic diseases and often make chronic diseases worse.
I realized early on that there must be a way I could as a physician focus on helping patients prevent and even reverse chronic disease.
As early as medical school, I had already begun reviewing published articles and books on the subjects of nutrition, prevention, and lifestyle medicine. I often stopped by local public libraries while driving to and from clinical rotation sites in order to find answers aside from my intense school curriculum which was greatly lacking in solid answers to my questions regarding the root causes of diseases and how to best treat them. I came to an epiphany and started making plans to someday open my own practice with a focus on preventing and treating chronic disease.
I have learned after working for years in a pay-per-service model of care that it didn’t serve patients well. I would offer advice about lifestyle changes that required a long-term commitment, encouragement, and frequent check-ups for accountability and problem-solving. However, many of these patients did not succeed over time due to multiple barriers. Patients focused on thinking about the cost of each visit, got confused about different information they encountered along the way, were tripped up with learning the new lifestyle strategies, and did not seem to recognize how much help and motivation they needed to stay on track.
A new model of care was needed.
I was very excited and admittedly nervous about starting a new style of practicing medicine where I would be better able to apply my experience and passion in the lifestyle and functional medicine space to help lower these barriers to success. I chose a membership model of care which included what patients need for a reasonable monthly price. This model avoids long delays in between visits and is more conducive to effective education and problem-solving in the long term. This way patients keep the momentum they need to move forward with their health goals and actually meet them.
Although Aspen Health is unique and stands out from the crowd of typical medical practices, I believe that it is an effective and valuable model for success.
At Aspen Health, the goal is to protect from disease and heal from damage.
The name, Aspen Health, and the leaf symbol represent a shield of protection and also represent regeneration. Aspen is derived from the Greek name for the Aspen tree, Aspis, which means “shield.” Aspen trees also have a unique ability to regenerate via their shared root system. Aspen trees are also part of my fond childhood memories of spending time in nature in the Rocky Mountains.
Each of us, myself included, needs motivation and support to implement and maintain healthy habits. Aspen Health was also born out of myself striving to learn the truth and how best to help myself, and so I am confident that you’ll benefit from it as well. If you have questions about myself or the Aspen Health membership, feel free to book a free Discovery Visit with me.