Based on several years of research at Harvard University, our practice embodies several innovative features, including:

• Time and focus on preventive care and wellness, including a comprehensive annual strategic health assessment where we help patients make a plan to proactively maximize their health and provide resources such as nutrition and exercise counseling, stress reduction, and other classes to help achieve these goals.
• The ability for patients to directly contact their doctor anytime by phone or email, without having to go through receptionists, nurses, or other gatekeepers. Many times after we establish a relationship we expect these interactions can substitute for what is today done as a face to face visit
• Guaranteed same day or next day appointments, with no waiting when patients come in to the office
• A full spectrum of resources to help patients play a much more active role in their own health care, including 24/7 access to their own medical record (either online, on a secure key chain, or on paper), educational materials, and group visits/support groups
• Proactive management of patients' conditions rather than simply being reactive
• Full transparency as to how we are performing in terms of satisfaction, costs, and outcome variables
• The active involvement of patients who choose to do so to help us develop new services and continually improve the way we care for them

While none of these principles are new, and several practices implement one or two of them, no one we have found has tried to put these all together. We intend this practice to serve as a working lab for innovation in primary care, to develop a revolutionary new model to better serve the needs of our patients.