Benjamin Hagopian, MD, MPH

Dr. Benjamin Hagopian practices direct primary care at Maine Integrative Family Care in South Portland.

He believes the biggest problem in primary care isn't a shortage of physicians but a shortage of time, since time is the most valuable thing a doctor can offer a patient. Under the traditional model, a twenty or thirty minute appointment often amounted to just ten or fifteen minutes of real attention, with much of the rest spent staring at a screen. Direct primary care let him change that. Now he gives each patient as much time as the visit actually calls for, usually about thirty minutes but sometimes sixty or ninety when the situation warrants it.

He sees the old system as built around turnover and volume rather than people, and he argues the only way forward is putting the control back in the hands of patients and their doctors.