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Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Solving Rural Physician Shortages and Restoring Joy in Medicine with Dr. Joseph Pazona
00:07:38
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- [00:00]
A
Hello and welcome to the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. My name is Chanel Bunger. Today I have the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Joseph Pizzona. The CEO at VirtuCare joins the podcast today to share insights in his background trends he's keeping an eye on and a bit more. Dr. Pizzona, thank you so much for joining me today.
- [00:17]
B
Thank you, Chanel. I'm excited to be here.
- [00:19]
A
Perfect. Well, to get us started out, could you introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your background and Virtucare?
- [00:25]
B
Absolutely. I am a board certified urologist and the CEO and founder of Virtucare. Initially I thought I was just going to focus on being a physician, like many, many doctors, no doctors in my family. And so I don't think I truly knew what I was getting into when I went to medical school. But it was definitely my calling and loved it and quickly saw, as my first job was in rural America, the challenges that patients, healthcare administrators and physicians all face in rural markets. It's a wonderful place to practice, but you don't have the same resources as the big C. And so I saw opportunities to innovate, saw opportunities to improve access to care, but kept being stifled and hit with various constraints. And I think the most dangerous phrase in medicine is, well, we've always done it this way. And as someone who's not a complacent person, that didn't sit well with me. So I did something about it, ultimately relocated to Nashville. And it is here that I not only started my own independent practice, but started Virtucare, a healthcare company that partners with rural healthcare systems to implement grow outpatient urology service lines with surgical procedures. As a urologist, that's what I've started with and what I saw as a big opportunity. And we're very excited with the impact we're making in rural America to keep care local.
- [02:00]
A
Awesome. Thank you so much for that introduction. And now moving forward, thank you. Can you talk about what trends you're watching either in rural health, urology, or just healthcare overall?
- [02:09]
B
I think the 800 pound gorilla in the room is physician shortages and how they're impacting these rural communities. So I'll speak from the perspective of urology. Right now there's over 1100 job postings for urologists in this country, predominantly in underserved areas, and yet we only train 300 urologists a year. And I'm not a statistician or a math major, but those numbers don't work out. Half of those urologists are going to complete a Fellowship and to subspecialize and go join a major academic center or work at a large group. 95% of docs coming out of training are going to choose to live in major to mid sized markets. We have this asymmetry where most of the doctors that are coming out are going to the areas where we have the largest surplus and, and yet the biggest need is in rural America. And this story is the same in other specialties. So we've got to move beyond this notion of every community having a full breadth of medical services. You're not getting any arguments from me, Chanel. That's the ideal, but unfortunately it's not practical. And so we need to start adopting innovative, highly leveraged care models because I believe your zip code shouldn't determine your access to quality healthcare.
- [03:29]
A
Absolutely. And now I have a two parter question here. So looking forward, what are you most focused on and excited about and then looking in the past six to 18 months or so, can you talk about an initiative or project or just something that you're proud of?
- [03:42]
B
Absolutely, I'll start with the latter. We doubled our hospital partnerships in 2025 and so excited to see that our innovative care model is getting adopted and that we are on pace to double our partnerships again. Probably in the first half of this we're starting to really get traction. We're getting a lot of physicians who say, yes, I'm burnt out but I have a lot to give. I just don't want to be on call or I don't want to keep clicking buttons or I'm tired of every year working harder for the same amount of money and having to do more administrative burden. And so we're really allowing our doctors to operate top of license. And I'm excited to continue to grow our model because the more burnt out physicians we can serve, the more physicians who can rediscover their joy in medicine. I believe most physicians at their heart went into health care for the right reasons, just as most executives and other health care professionals. But unfortunately the system has been designed for most of us to turn cynical and pessimistic. And I believe if we can turn that around and provide a better landing ground for these physicians, in turn, we'll be able to serve more patients in terms of our focus moving forward. In addition to continuing to scale in urology, we're likely to be expanding into additional specialties so we can really provide enterprise solutions for our hospital partners and help expand our impact in the non urgent outpatient space so other physicians, not just urologists, can Find their new home.
- [05:16]
A
Got it. Got it. Well, I'm curious to hear from your perspective as an entrepreneur starting your own business and as a provider. What advice would you give to emerging leaders looking to have the same success and impact in their careers as you have?
- [05:31]
B
Take action. Every day, patients are suffering because they lack access to timely medical care. Every day, physicians are burning out and leaving healthcare. And that we all must do everything in our power to make the patient physician relationship as frictionless as possible. Right now, there's too many silos and too many internal battles, and when we do that, patients lose. And it sounds cliched, but if we really look to all the areas where we are in alignment, that if we take great care of patients, and we do so by taking really good care of our doctors, making sure they are top of license, everything improves quality, revenue, access, patient safety, and most importantly, trust. And I believe that's how we'll win in healthcare. We've got to take action, we've got to work together, and we've got to remember what the core of what we're doing is. And it's about physicians taking exceptional care of patients. If we focus on that and make that relationship the primary priority, everything else will get better.
- [06:38]
A
Love it. Excellent advice. Well, Dr. Pizzona, I want to thank you for your time today. But before I let you go, and while you have the ears of many healthcare leaders across the country, is there anything else that listeners should know?
- [06:48]
B
I think the best way to keep in touch would be on LinkedIn. Dr. Joseph Pizzona. I try to post regularly some actual original thought, not just AI generated stuff. And I think that's the best way to keep, you know, keep in touch and follow what I believe are trends and important things from the perspective of a physician, but also now someone who is focusing on the executive side, who's looking to bridge that gap to solve these big problems. So feel free to shoot me a DM there and connect. And if we can ever serve any of you, I would welcome that conversation.
- [07:26]
A
Sounds Great. Well, Dr. Brazon, I want to thank you once again for your time today and for sharing your insights on the Baker's Healthcare podcast. Thank you so much.
- [07:33]
B
It's my pleasure. Thank you for having me.