Independent Physician Spotlight: Desmond Ebanks

New feature! We put out a call to celebrate independent physicians, and we’re featuring a different doctor who’s decided to go (or remain!) independent to restore their autonomy and provide better patient care. This week, meet Desmond Ebanks, who’s the founder and medical director of his own practice Alternity Healthcare in West Hartford, Connecticut. You can connect further with Desmond on LinkedIn.

1. Desmond, give us a little background on you and your practice. I’m a board-certified Internist with 37 years of clinical experience. I practiced Emergency and Occupational Medicine for the first 17-18 years of my career, had a brief stint in Insurance Medicine, and then decided to open my practice. Throughout, I avoided Internal Medicine practice because it never fixed anything. It’s as if you just help people tread water until they slowly got tired and drowned. I wanted to deliver something better and created Alternity Healthcare in 2008.

2. What were the biggest challenges for you as you decided to go independent? How did you overcome these challenges? I found my location, built out my office, and leased several hundred thousand dollars of diagnostic equipment so I could deliver an Executive Health-style evaluation. My focus was to collect as much objective data to hopefully motivate people to change behavior. In 2008, the idea of a membership-based concierge or cash practice focused on wellness, age management, and longevity was foreign to most and especially so in New England. I naively thought everyone would want this better “mousetrap” I had to offer, but it took 7 months to land my first member. During those months I was able to perform some diagnostics and Executive-style assessments, but there was much more money going out than coming in. My lack of understanding of marketing and sales were big challenges. Flash forward to now, longevity is one of the biggest buzz word in medicine.

3. What have the biggest benefits been for both you and your patients? Would you like to see more physicians consider this path? The satisfaction of seeing health transformations in my members. Not being beholden to the insurance industry mandates and limitations allows me to maintain autonomy over my expertise and practice truly proactive medicine to optimize health and wellbeing. My longest-tenured patient started with me in September 2008, retired and moved to Paris full-time 10 years ago, but has continued to fly back to see me at least once/year. She’s now 84. Without question, more physicians should consider this path

4. What's your advice to anyone who's thinking about making the leap or deciding what path to take straight out of training? Having a few years under the belt treating ill patients may be advantageous, but my advice is to seek additional knowledge in Functional and Integrative medicine, Longevity Medicine, Precision Medicine. Also, seek out knowledge about the business of running a practice and get familiar with the various AI tools available to you now.

5. Are there any resources you can recommend to help physicians who are considering this pathway? LongevityDocs is creating a curriculum and certification in Longevity Medicine. I’ll be part of the faculty. Other resources I would recommend include: Institute for Functional Medicine, Age Management Medical Group, SSRP Institute for Cellular Medicine, MGMA Physician Business Training.

6. How can other physicians who are inspired support you? Get in touch on the following channels: Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, or Alternity Healthcare's website.

Connect with Desmond on LinkedIn and learn more about his practice here.

Resources Referenced in This Interview

Here's Desmond's list of resources for anyone who wants to go independent or remain independent as a physician.