Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Solving Rural Physician Shortages and Restoring Joy in Medicine with Dr. Joseph Pazona

Transcript

Solving Rural Physician Shortages and Restoring Joy in Medicine with Dr. Joseph Pazona · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello, and welcome to the Becker's Healthcare podcast.
• 0:02
  My name is Chanel Bongard. Today, I have
• 0:04
  the pleasure of speaking with doctor Joseph Pizzona,
• 0:08
  the CEO at Virtu Care, joins the podcast
• 0:10
  today to share insights in his background, turns
• 0:12
  he's keeping an eye on and a bit
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  more. Doctor Pizzona, thank you so much for
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  joining me today. Thank you, Chanel. I'm excited
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  to be here. Perfect. Well, to get us
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  started out, could you introduce yourself and tell
• 0:21
  us a bit about your background and Virtu
• 0:24
  Care?
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  Absolutely.
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  I am a board certified urologist,
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  and the CEO and founder of VirtuCare.
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  Initially, I thought I was just gonna focus
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  on being a physician like many, many doctors.
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  No doctors in my family. And so I
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  don't think I truly knew what I was
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  getting into when I when I went to
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  medical school, but but it was definitely my
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  calling and loved it.
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  And quickly saw, as my first job was
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  in rural America,
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  the challenges
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  that patients,
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  health care administrators, and physicians all face in
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  rural markets.
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  It's a a wonderful place to practice, but
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  you don't have the same resources as the
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  big cities.
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  And so I saw opportunities
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  to innovate, saw opportunities to improve access to
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  care,
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  but kept being,
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  stifled and hit with various constraints.
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  And I think, the most dangerous phrase in
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  medicine is, well, we've always done it this
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  way.
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  And, as someone who's not a complacent person,
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  that didn't sit well with me. So I
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  did something about it. Ultimately relocated to, Nashville,
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  and it is here that I not only
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  started my own independent practice, but started VirtuCare,
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  a health care company that partners with rural
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  health care systems
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  to implement,
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  grow
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  outpatient urology service lines with surgical procedures. As
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  a urologist, that's what I've started with and
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  what I saw as a big opportunity.
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  And, we're very excited with the impact we're
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  making in rural America to keep care local.
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  Awesome. Thank you so much for that introduction.
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  And now moving forward, can you talk about
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  what trends you're watching either in rural health,
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  urology, or just health care overall?
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  I think the the the 800 pound gorilla
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  in the room is physician shortages and how
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  they're impacting these rural communities.
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  So I'll speak from the perspective of,
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  urology.
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  Right now, there's over 1,100
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  job postings for urologists in this country,
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  predominantly in underserved areas,
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  and yet we only train 300 urologists
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  a year.
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  And I'm not a statistician or a math
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  major, but those numbers don't work out.
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  Half of those urologists are gonna complete a
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  fellowship and to subspecialize
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  and go join a major academic center or
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  work at a large group.
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  95%
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  of docs coming out of training are gonna
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  choose to live in major to midsize markets.
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  So we have this asymmetry
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  where
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  most of the doctors that are coming out
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  are going to the areas where we have
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  the largest surplus,
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  and yet the biggest need is in rural
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  America.
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  And this story is the same in other
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  specialties.
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  So we've gotta move beyond this notion of
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  every community having a full breadth of medical
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  services.
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  You're not getting any arguments from me, Chanel.
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  That's the ideal. But, unfortunately, it's not practical.
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  And so we need to start adopting
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  innovative,
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  highly leveraged care models
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  because I believe your ZIP code shouldn't determine
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  your access to quality health care.
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  Absolutely.
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  And now, I have a two parter question
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  here. So looking forward, what are you most
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  focused on and excited about? And then looking
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  in the past, six to eighteen months or
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  so, can you talk about an initiative or
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  project or just something that you're proud of?
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  Absolutely. Yeah. I'll start with the latter.
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  We doubled our hospital partnerships in 2025,
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  and so excited to see that our innovative
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  care model is getting adopted and
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  that
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  we are on pace to double our partnerships
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  again probably in the first half of this
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  year.
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  So we're starting to really get traction.
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  We're
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  getting a lot of physicians who
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  say, yes. I'm burnt out, but I have
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  a lot to give. I just don't wanna
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  be on call, or I don't wanna keep
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  clicking buttons, or I'm tired of every year
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  working harder,
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  for the same amount of money and having
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  to do more administrative burden. And so we're
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  really allowing our doctors to operate top of
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  license.
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  And I'm excited to continue to grow our
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  model because the more burnt out physicians we
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  can serve,
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  the more physicians who can rediscover their joy
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  in medicine.
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  I believe most physicians at their heart went
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  into health care for the right reasons just
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  as most executives
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  and other health care professionals.
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  But, unfortunately, the system has been designed
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  for most of us to turn cynical and
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  pessimistic.
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  And I believe if we can turn that
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  around and provide a better landing ground for
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  these physicians,
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  in turn, we'll be able to serve more
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  patients.
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  In terms of our focus moving forward, in
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  addition to continuing the scale in urology, we're
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  likely gonna be expanding into additional specialties
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  so we can really provide enterprise solutions for
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  our hospital partners
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  and help expand our impact,
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  in the
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  nonurgent
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  outpatient space so other physicians, not just urologists,
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  can find their new home.
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  Got it. Got it. Well, I'm curious to
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  hear from your perspective,
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  as a an entrepreneur starting your own business
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  and as a provider,
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  what advice would you give to emerging leaders
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  looking to have the same success and impact
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  in their careers as you have?
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  Take action.
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  Every day, patients are suffering because they lack
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  access to timely medical care. Every day, physicians
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  are burning out and leaving health care, and
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  that we all must do everything in our
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  power to make the patient physician relationship as
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  frictionless as possible.
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  Right now, there's too many silos and too
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  many internal battles. And and when we do
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  that,
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  patients lose.
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  And it sounds cliche, but if we really
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  look
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  to all the areas where we are in
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  alignment,
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  that if we take great care of patients
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  and we do so by taking really good
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  care of our doctors, making sure they are
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  top of license,
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  everything improves.
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  Quality,
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  revenue,
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  access,
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  patient safety, and most importantly, trust. And I
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  believe that's how we'll win in health care.
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  We've got to take action. We've got to
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  work together, and we've got to remember what
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  the the core of what we're doing is.
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  And it's about physicians taking exceptional care of
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  patients. If we focus on that and make
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  that relationship
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  the
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  primary priority,
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  everything else will get better.
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  Love it. Excellent advice. Well, doctor Pizzona, I
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  wanna thank you for your time today. But
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  before I let you go and while you
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  have the ears of many health care leaders
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  across the country, is there anything else that
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  listeners should know?
• 6:48
  No. I think the best way to keep
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  in touch would be on LinkedIn, doctor Joseph
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  Pizzona.
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  I try to post regularly some actual original
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  thought, not just AI generated stuff.
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  And,
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  I think that's the best way to,
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  keep,
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  you know, keep in touch and follow what
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  I believe are trends and important things from
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  the perspective of a physician,
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  but also now someone who is focusing on
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  the executive side, who's looking to bridge that
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  gap,
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  to to solve these big problems. So feel
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  free to shoot me a DM there and
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  and connect. And if we can ever serve
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  any of you, I would, I'd welcome that
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  conversation.
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  Sounds great. Well, doctor Bresson, I wanna thank
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  you once again for your time today and
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  for sharing your insights on the Becker's Healthcare
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  podcast. Thank you so much.
• 7:32
  It's my pleasure. Thank you for having me.