Islon Woolf MD
Concierge Medicine Miami Beach
About
Islon Woolf MD
I was born in Johannesburg, South Africa and grew up in Toronto, Canada. I began my undergraduate training at the University of Toronto studying Biology and Physics. At age nineteen. I was awarded two academic scholarships gaining me an early acceptance to the University of Toronto's medical school (ranked #5 in the world).
After graduation in 1993, I moved to the United States for postgraduate training. First, an internship at the University of Southern California, followed by a residency in Internal Medicine at the Mayo Clinic. Finally, in 1997, I completed my training as Chief Resident at the Cleveland Clinic where I helped design and initiate their Florida teaching program. I am board certified in Internal Medicine, and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians FACP.
Concierge Medicine model
I have been practicing Internal Medicine in Miami Beach for twenty-five years. In that time, my goal has been to create the optimal practice for patients. I learned very quickly that the traditional practice model, a fifteen minute office visit, did not afford me with enough time to get to know my patients, properly care for them, and solve their problems.
As a solution, I was one of the first doctors in the city to adopt the Concierge Medicine model. Simply put, my patients subsidize my practice with an annual fee to ensure I spend more time with fewer patients. My practice is limited to three hundred patients; and I typically see only two to four patients per day. This simple model frees me from the constraints of time, insurance, and conflicts of interest. Properly applied, the Concierge Medicine model has many advantages over the traditional practice model.
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Advantages of
Concierge Medicine
Caring
1
My practice is small. It gives me the opportunity to get close to my patients. Every patient is important. Every patient is unique. No problem is too big and no problem is too small.
Direct Access
2
Direct access means no barrier to communication or appointments with your doctor. Tasks are handled directly by the doctor, not delegated to subordinates. Direct access leads to earlier diagnosis and treatment, more accurate diagnosis and treatment, and better outcomes.
Continuity of Care
3
Your health is dynamic and complex. It requires coordination, documentation, and follow through by someone that knows you well. This is continuity of care. It leads to better health outcomes and is a core feature of a small practice like mine.
Efficiency
4
Most doctors insist on an office visit to solve medical problems - only to punt them to a specialist. I try to handle your problems directly - without delay - making better use of your time. Either in the office, out of the office, after office hours, or on our devices.
Lifelong learning
5
Medical school is only the beginning of learning. It has taken me decades to sharpen my diagnostic and critical thinking skills. It has taken me decades to learn topics not taught in medical school.
Accuracy
6
Overworked doctors with limited time and an obsolete knowledge base are prone to errors. My practice is designed to avoid these errors. Fewer patients permit me more time to devote to your case and more time to update my knowledge base between cases.
Appropriate Incentives
7
The current fee-for-service model of medicine financially incentivizes doctors to produce more visits, more tests, more medications, and more procedures. My practice, instead, financially incentivizes me to make you more healthy.
Review of Specialists
8
Specialists are particularly prone to bias. A lost yet essential role of a primary care doctor is to provide a review of specialist recommendations - to challenge and assess them objectively.
Comprehensive Approach
9
There are many treatment options outside of pharmaceuticals and surgery. There are many philosophies of practice outside of science-based medicine. You need to know all of your options in order to make informed decisions.
Critical Thinking
10
A comprehensive approach often produces an inundation of medical options. I can help you differentiate the options likely to work from the options less likely to work.
Shared Decision Making
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Most recommendations in medicine are based on weak evidence. Shared decision making is a collaborative process between you and your doctor to help with these difficult decisions. It incorporates your values and preferences to arrive at a personalized decision that is best for you.
Patient Empowerment
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An essential goal of modern medicine is to provide you with greater control over the decisions and actions affecting your health. This is patient empowerment. It relies on good information. Only with clear, accurate, unbiased, and complete information can you be empowered to make good decisions.
Patient Education
It has been estimated that only twenty percent of a doctor's visit is spent on patient education. In my practice this is reversed. I try to spend the majority of our time together on education. My goal is to empower you to make good medical decisions by leveling the information playing field between you and your doctors. This is accomplished by: making complex medical concepts understandable, providing good information (clear, accurate, unbiased, and complete), and teaching you how to distinguish good evidence from bad evidence. See my educational posts and lectures.
