Health Coaches: A Vegas Gamble

This week on White Coat Black Art: a trip to Vegas to get a prescription for an ailing health care system. Dr. Brian Goldman head to the Strip to meet up wtih Zubin Damania- aka ZDogg MD, a larger-than-life Vegas-based MD who writes and stars in wicked musical parodies. You might remember him from our Doctor BS show

Damania is involved in a bold experiment aimed at making some of sickest people in Sin City well again, while spending less money on health care.  It`s a bold promise but Damania has what he says is a secret weapon: the health coach, a new breed of health care worker that helps keep patients in the pink and out of hospital. 

Brian tours Turntable Health, a shiny new primary care clinic in the heart of The Downtown Project. Eighty dollars a month gets patients same day appointments, 24/7 access by phone, fitness and a yoga studio. The emphasis is prevention so that the clients-- mostly millennials who work in the hospitality industry and their young families --  won't age into patients who need a lot of expensive hospital care.

Brian then heads home to Canada to talk to Durhane Wong Reiger, the president and CEO of the Institute for Optimizing Health Outcomes. This leading health care advocate tells us why she thinks coaches could make a big difference here if we'd only let them into the game. 

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