The Birth of OneHealth

Dr. Cook and Dr. Sharawy have been on a mission bigger than themselves for over 30 years, steadfastly committed to a vision that not everyone understood. In our conversation, we explore the birth of OneHealth, a culmination of a lifelong pursuit to create a healthcare system that truly embodies a clear set of core values and principles. Keeping in mind the trials and tribulations they faced in their former lives, the good doctors came to the realization that they needed to create a new healthcare model that focused on the importance of accountable autonomy, where providers have the freedom to drive and own their practice while collaborating with others who share the same goal. At OneHealth, we have an unwavering commitment to a cause much bigger than ourselves, even when faced with the temptation of private equity or venture capital. We built a governance structure from the bottom up, ensuring that providers have a voice and are part of the decision-making process. We recognize that our model may not be for everyone, but we have a commitment to lifting all boats around us. Our ferocious growth at OneHealth gives us the potential for national expansion.

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Liam

Welcome to the One Health Modern Primary Care podcast. One health is a value based primary care platform that enhances the patient experience, improves the health of individuals and populations, and reduces medical costs with a laser focus on provider wellness and care for all. Doctor Cook and Doctor Sahrawi have been on a mission bigger than themselves for over 30 years.

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Liam

Steadfastly committed to a vision that not everyone understood. In today's conversation, we explore the birth of one health. Let's jump in.

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Dr. Ehab Sharawy

Yeah, I'll start in, David. And, you know, we could take these beginnings way back. Okay. Because One Health is a name, and I think it's a name that that, that that by the stuff that's underneath, it means something to people. It means some to people. But it's it's really started from the core of. I could speak for all of us now that we're here, talking of what we felt medicine was supposed to be like when we decided to take the mCAT and go to medical school.

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Dr. Ehab Sharawy

I tell people all the time, when you're in medical school, you're in it in this bubble, this nurtured environment. I sometimes I'll describe it this way, but hopefully don't. Dear people who want to go. Misery loves company. Okay, so we work. When you're in it together, you love each other because you're in this thing that's, really intense and important.

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Dr. Ehab Sharawy

Then you go into residency and you find yourself in this. This what I would call sacred bubble. And we can all say that right where it's like me. And this is this is this is it. We're all a lot of the things that we talked about before. We're learning these tools where we're doing it, by the way, who we were in our core.

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Dr. Ehab Sharawy

Then something else happens, okay. You get out into the real world. Okay. And despite all best intentions, it kind of beats it down a bit. So we I tell people all the time, I said, I have a Ph.D., okay. And in David's got something called a PhD, if we can call it in. It's a PhD in hard knocks.

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Dr. Ehab Sharawy

Okay. We've we've had to go through and I don't knock that for anything. That part of it shapes your experience in life and what you do. So I think one health is a culmination of what we've always wanted. Those of us that came out as a physician, not just us, many others that wanted to do that, and we had to go through, I'll say, some trials and tribulations.

00;02;14;29 - 00;02;35;17

Dr. Ehab Sharawy

We had to go through great times where we were able to build things. And what happened is, is that, you know, I'll speak to my group and then David's group, in informal lives, we had, an ability to grow pretty large. And from some point, some large parts in the state of North Carolina built around all the cultures that we're talking about.

00;02;35;20 - 00;03;04;21

Dr. Ehab Sharawy

And we did it in an environment that we I think we succeeded very well till we couldn't. Okay. Till we couldn't. And I'm not pointing fingers. Okay. This is again the evolution of health care and how health comes. So one health came out of was a desire pretty amazingly by a group of physicians that stayed together again through trials and tribulations and difficulty, because the common purpose was so strong that it said to us, look, we need to really come out okay.

00;03;04;27 - 00;03;28;12

Dr. Ehab Sharawy

So it's important for us to have accountable autonomy, okay? The autonomy, that's not just autonomy that we can leverage ourselves to do that. No. So count being accountable to have the autonomy to be the driver, the owner, and also don't do it in a setting where we're coming out from from a previous life of employment and being out on an island that we knew was extremely important.

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Dr. Ehab Sharawy

So One Health is built on the importance of collaborating with partnerships, with a great partnership with our partners that advocate, health. We're very lucky every day to have them as our partners. But, but but we did it understanding in the beginning that that we've got to do it focused on doing the right thing. So that's what one health was.

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Dr. Ehab Sharawy

And we came out with, with one health with a certain number of providers. and then our, you know, you're one of example, a comrade in arms for many, many years, you felt compelled to say, look, I want to be part of that. We're lucky every day that you decided to do that and then just expand that by 30 to 40% year over year growth.

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Dr. Ehab Sharawy

that's a lot of humility that we have. I, I'm humble every day when I think about the, the wonderful, folks that have joined us, to be at One Health, so again, just very, very thankful about that. And I'll let David.

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Dr. David Cook

Know how much to add to that, except that I would say that, I'm going to reiterate a couple things said. One is it's a it's always been a mission bigger than ourselves for 30 plus years. It's always been a collection of people that had a mission bigger than themselves. And it's always been the willingness of a group of physicians who hold steadfast to something that's very important that not everyone understood.

00;04;40;11 - 00;04;58;06

Dr. David Cook

And it's not we don't we don't judge or resent those that did not understand what we were trying to do. But if they didn't understand it, you know, oftentimes in the way the systems are built these days, the first thing we wanna do is break it down. Being able to stay steadfast, both in our other environment, in our transition and in this new environment, in a to want to give.

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Dr. David Cook

Kudos to Jean woods, the CEO of advocate, Scott Miller, the chief medical officer, Chris Shepherd, a very integral part of what we have done. And a whole group of individuals at Advocate who had heard our message, and we sat with them at a very difficult time when we were afraid, okay, are we going to have to do something like private equity or venture capital?

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Dr. David Cook

And what would that create if we created a One health that was based on that every 90 days, having to go to Wall Street for certain things. But we were lucky enough to be able to sit down with Gene woods, who's an amazing CEO and individual and connect together around a vision. And he to himself said to us, he looked at our eyes today, what we're doing is the right thing.

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Dr. David Cook

It's very it's going to be difficult. There's gonna be a rocky road, there's gonna be some walls we run into, and if we trust each other, we can get around this. The walls are over the walls and Cory will want to create. And it's just been a remarkable relationship, a remarkable partnership. But it's it's an unwavering, commitment to a cause much bigger than ourselves.

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Dr. Ehab Sharawy

Sometimes we look at it and say, is it too good to be true? I'll tell you, it doesn't come of that hard work. Okay, so it's not this thing we created that just that's the way it is. It's constantly putting the forefront, the mind, these eight pillars. So if somebody were to say, listen, I want to join that and be part of that, you are part of it.

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Dr. Ehab Sharawy

Because we can speak to how we speak because of the people that we actually have. David alluded earlier to the incredible providers, physicians and providers that we have in one Health. It's because they were drawn to the mission. And then, you know, see, if I articulate this right, we can speak to the mission because of the work that's being done.

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Dr. Ehab Sharawy

Okay, the lot of missions out there and a lot of statements and a lot of commercials that you see that there's not a whole lot underneath the service. It's the things that are underneath the surface that allow us to be who we are. And the other thing that we can say is that it's really critical for providers that one health is governed by the providers.

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Dr. Ehab Sharawy

So what we've been able to create a governance structure that's built, you know, again, I'm still David's terms. It's built from the bottom up okay. And that that us as physician leaders within one health we we sit to serve our constituents, which are our patients and our team members and providers. And so we've created and we can touch on this, you know, as we continue to talk, we've created governance within one Health.

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Dr. Ehab Sharawy

It was the right liberty step, by the way, before we did anything that was really, really critical that we did that because in order to never dilute the dilution that David's talking about, it's not because folks want to dilute all providers that come out. They want to do that. And by the way, you know, sometimes as we talk, we talk about that.

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Dr. Ehab Sharawy

There's not great things that there's great things happening every day. Every day. There's great doctors, great folks. But just in a system that doesn't allow them to be always focused on the everybody, espouse those eight pillars. But by provider looking at smoking that video, understand that you're not only just going to come in and plug in, you're going to be part of it.

00;08;05;06 - 00;08;25;21

Dr. Ehab Sharawy

You'll have a voice, your voices important, by the way. We're malleable, okay. We're not static because, we've had to change even in the, you know, over the last 3 or 4 years, we've had to change because guess what? There are too many external forces that change. Now, if you're just going to sit and be static to it, what happens is you do become you tend to regress to things.

00;08;25;23 - 00;08;45;13

Dr. Ehab Sharawy

No, we want to always be able to predict when we can adjust, when we have to, actually set the tone that creates the change. Even more importantly than those things. And I think as a provider, that's what we hope to, to train up. So another thing out, it may not be for everybody okay. And so so we recognize that as well.

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Dr. Ehab Sharawy

So we talked to a lot of folks and we'll support them in whatever decisions they make. But sometimes other environments might be more comfortable for for some people. And that's okay. Okay. That's okay. we want to lift all boats around us, and we want to be lifted by other boats that are around us as well. I think that's that's really, I think, promote, we say with all humility.

00;09;07;12 - 00;09;29;16

Dr. David Cook

Yeah. Well said it. You know, when you say you had that, that when you're in a no, it's been all of our missions for really since the beginning of this conversation. 30 years ago. If you when a provider comes in. I used to say this all time, you sort of kind of adopt a provider as if they were an adopted child.

00;09;29;19 - 00;09;48;15

Dr. David Cook

You would sacrifice for that, that human being you would give to that human being. You would do things. Our profession sort of meant to do that. But the way it's built now, in most places, a provider comes in and they're sort of walled off from everybody else because you either have an individual contract with an entity or just how the system works itself.

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Dr. David Cook

There's not a lot of advantage of helping a new provider out. At the core of what we do is adopting new providers. And, you know, our onboarding process that you guys have spoken about it. Mark, you've been really involved in doing, I think is key to that. But but for me, knowing that every time a provider comes in, I can say honestly, we'd hear 12 people asking me eight pillars to deliver on a mission statement and three outcomes that are we're not going to waver from that every day.

00;10;15;27 - 00;10;33;09

Dr. David Cook

We're going to do that. And it allows them to trust that, wow, okay, I'm in the system and you have to. Right? That's not a system that everyone wants to join. we do believe it's it's a fantastic system. And it's why so many people say that can't be true. And that's it can't be real. But it is, and it's growing.

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Dr. David Cook

ferociously now in a very hot market in the country. And we can see it expanding nationally.

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Liam

Thanks for listening. Please follow our Modern Primary Care podcast and visit us at One Health Modern Primary Care on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok and X.