Hey Doc,
Back from Memorial Day weekend. I walked on the beach. Coffee dates with Moana. Met dozens of friends. Amazing dinners, great lunches, crepes for breakfast. I cooked, swam, ran, lifted, did webinars, played games. Friends laughed at me, I made fun of them. Tried golf for the first time with Tayron, talked about the future of the world with family, and laughed a lot too. I lived.
I started writing this newsletter somewhere between the crepes and the pool. Over the weekend I talked to several doctors. The same two problems kept coming up. Some don’t have enough patients to make a good living. Others have too many patients to live a good life. Both feel stuck.
I had a cover story ready on the Enhanced Games and performance medicine. It can wait. The doctors I talked to this weekend aren’t thinking about the Enhanced Games. They’re thinking about Monday morning. So I rewrote this week’s newsletter for them.
How to find the right patients. How to build a practice that sustains you. And how to make sure the life you’re building for your patients is one you’re also living yourself.
Issue #95 is out, for my full perspective read and subscribe to my newsletter.
Why Physician-Patient Fit Matters More Than Marketing
In startups, nothing happens until you find product-market fit. In longevity medicine, nothing happens until you find patient-physician fit (PPF). This is the foundation of sustainable practice growth.
Define Your Ideal Patient Profile (IPP)
Before you build anything, create your IPP by answering questions like these. Prevention or performance? Content creators or hedge fund managers? Weight, hormones, cognition, or annual checkups? Digital or in person? $2K or $20K annually? Social media or country club?
If you can't answer these in one sentence each, you're fishing in the ocean. Fish in a pond. Write your IPP on one page. Every decision flows from it.
Pillar 1: Build Authority (How Patients Find You)
How the right patient finds you and trusts you before the first call.
Speak where your IPP gathers.
One talk at a wealth advisory dinner converts better than 10,000 Instagram impressions.
Conduct clinical research and publish.
Case series, posters, clinical letters. Content says you're informed. Research says you're contributing.
Get credentialed with CLD certification.
Get your CLD credential. It answers the question every prospective patient is already asking: how do I know this doctor is serious?
Create short-form content for attention.
60-second explainers, study carousels, quick commentary. Top of funnel. Earns the click to your long-form.
Leverage local press and PR.
One newspaper feature puts you in front of 50,000 people in your market. Start local.
Build long-form content that builds trust.
Monthly newsletter, YouTube, LinkedIn articles. Let the right patient spend 20 minutes inside your clinical thinking before they call.
Publish a book or ebook.
Could be a 50-page ebook. A clear thesis on how you practice longevity medicine. It works while you sleep.
Volunteer and give back.
Free workshops, pro bono screenings, community webinars. Earns trust no marketing budget can buy.
Pillar 2: Build Community (How Patients Get Referred)
How the right patient gets referred to you.
Build your physician referral network.
Cardiologists, endocrinologists, concierge PCPs. Coffee plus a one-page summary of your practice. Remove every barrier to that referral.
Nurture your patient referral network.
A patient who feels seen over years tells their inner circle. That compounds faster than any ad spend.
Join a professional physician community.
Inside longevitydocs, 1,000+ physicians across 68 countries. A CLD graduate in Miami refers a relocating patient to a CLD graduate in San Francisco. Trust transfers.
Host events and create gathering spaces.
Annual retreat/summit, dinner talks, small-group Q&As. Builds loyalty and generates referrals no platform can replicate.
Build an ecosystem of partners.
Country clubs, gyms, media, other clinics, personal trainers, hotels.
Pillar 3: Build Strategy (How Patients Stay)
Authority gets you found. Community multiplies your reach. Strategy makes it run.
Write your practice growth plan.
One page. New patients per month, conversion rate, retention at 12 and 24 months, revenue per patient, referral rate, cost per acquisition by channel. Review monthly. What gets measured gets managed.
Hire a team you don't have to replace.
You cannot be the clinician, marketer, scheduler, and content creator. Hire a concierge manager who owns the patient experience between visits. Contract a content coordinator. Delegate everything that doesn't require your medical license.
Invest in the right tools and software.
CRM that tracks every patient touchpoint and referral source. Website that answers three questions (measure, prescribe, relationship). Analytics on every channel. Digital intake forms that screen for fit before you invest time.
Design an intentional patient experience.
NPS survey quarterly. Design every touchpoint: first email after enrollment, lab results delivered with context (not a portal dump), quarterly reviews, annual reassessments. Patients leave practices that feel transactional. They stay in practices that feel intentional.
Message your patients consistently.
Monthly newsletter. Quarterly check-in from the concierge manager. Lab reminders before they're due. Reactivation outreach for patients who lapse. Silence between visits communicates that you only care when they're paying.
Leverage AI to expand quality of care.
Documentation tools give you 60 minutes back per day and can compound. AI lab interpretation flags trends across panels. Automated scheduling reduces no-shows. Use AI to expand quality of care, not just volume.
How to Get Started This Week
"Define your IPP. Build authority so that patient finds you. Build community so that patient gets referred to you. Build strategy so that patient stays.Pick your IPP this week. Everything downstream gets easier once you do."
- Dr. David Luu
How to Acquire Patients Better: The Physician-Patient Fit Checklist
Acquire Patients Better: The Physician-Patient Fit Checklist
In startups, nothing happens until you find product-market fit. In longevity medicine, nothing happens until you find patient-physician fit.
Hey Doc,
Back from Memorial Day weekend. I walked on the beach. Coffee dates with Moana. Met dozens of friends. Amazing dinners, great lunches, crepes for breakfast. I cooked, swam, ran, lifted, did webinars, played games. Friends laughed at me, I made fun of them. Tried golf for the first time with Tayron, talked about the future of the world with family, and laughed a lot too. I lived.
I started writing this newsletter somewhere between the crepes and the pool. Over the weekend I talked to several doctors. The same two problems kept coming up. Some don’t have enough patients to make a good living. Others have too many patients to live a good life. Both feel stuck.
I had a cover story ready on the Enhanced Games and performance medicine. It can wait. The doctors I talked to this weekend aren’t thinking about the Enhanced Games. They’re thinking about Monday morning. So I rewrote this week’s newsletter for them.
How to find the right patients. How to build a practice that sustains you. And how to make sure the life you’re building for your patients is one you’re also living yourself.
Issue #95 is out, for my full perspective read and subscribe to my newsletter.
Why Physician-Patient Fit Matters More Than Marketing
In startups, nothing happens until you find product-market fit. In longevity medicine, nothing happens until you find patient-physician fit (PPF). This is the foundation of sustainable practice growth.
Define Your Ideal Patient Profile (IPP)
Before you build anything, create your IPP by answering questions like these. Prevention or performance? Content creators or hedge fund managers? Weight, hormones, cognition, or annual checkups? Digital or in person? $2K or $20K annually? Social media or country club?
If you can't answer these in one sentence each, you're fishing in the ocean. Fish in a pond. Write your IPP on one page. Every decision flows from it.
Pillar 1: Build Authority (How Patients Find You)
How the right patient finds you and trusts you before the first call.
Speak where your IPP gathers.
One talk at a wealth advisory dinner converts better than 10,000 Instagram impressions.
Conduct clinical research and publish.
Case series, posters, clinical letters. Content says you're informed. Research says you're contributing.
Get credentialed with CLD certification.
Get your CLD credential. It answers the question every prospective patient is already asking: how do I know this doctor is serious?
Create short-form content for attention.
60-second explainers, study carousels, quick commentary. Top of funnel. Earns the click to your long-form.
Leverage local press and PR.
One newspaper feature puts you in front of 50,000 people in your market. Start local.
Build long-form content that builds trust.
Monthly newsletter, YouTube, LinkedIn articles. Let the right patient spend 20 minutes inside your clinical thinking before they call.
Publish a book or ebook.
Could be a 50-page ebook. A clear thesis on how you practice longevity medicine. It works while you sleep.
Volunteer and give back.
Free workshops, pro bono screenings, community webinars. Earns trust no marketing budget can buy.
Pillar 2: Build Community (How Patients Get Referred)
How the right patient gets referred to you.
Build your physician referral network.
Cardiologists, endocrinologists, concierge PCPs. Coffee plus a one-page summary of your practice. Remove every barrier to that referral.
Nurture your patient referral network.
A patient who feels seen over years tells their inner circle. That compounds faster than any ad spend.
Join a professional physician community.
Inside longevitydocs, 1,000+ physicians across 68 countries. A CLD graduate in Miami refers a relocating patient to a CLD graduate in San Francisco. Trust transfers.
Host events and create gathering spaces.
Annual retreat/summit, dinner talks, small-group Q&As. Builds loyalty and generates referrals no platform can replicate.
Build an ecosystem of partners.
Country clubs, gyms, media, other clinics, personal trainers, hotels.
Pillar 3: Build Strategy (How Patients Stay)
Authority gets you found. Community multiplies your reach. Strategy makes it run.
Write your practice growth plan.
One page. New patients per month, conversion rate, retention at 12 and 24 months, revenue per patient, referral rate, cost per acquisition by channel. Review monthly. What gets measured gets managed.
Hire a team you don't have to replace.
You cannot be the clinician, marketer, scheduler, and content creator. Hire a concierge manager who owns the patient experience between visits. Contract a content coordinator. Delegate everything that doesn't require your medical license.
Invest in the right tools and software.
CRM that tracks every patient touchpoint and referral source. Website that answers three questions (measure, prescribe, relationship). Analytics on every channel. Digital intake forms that screen for fit before you invest time.
Design an intentional patient experience.
NPS survey quarterly. Design every touchpoint: first email after enrollment, lab results delivered with context (not a portal dump), quarterly reviews, annual reassessments. Patients leave practices that feel transactional. They stay in practices that feel intentional.
Message your patients consistently.
Monthly newsletter. Quarterly check-in from the concierge manager. Lab reminders before they're due. Reactivation outreach for patients who lapse. Silence between visits communicates that you only care when they're paying.
Leverage AI to expand quality of care.
Documentation tools give you 60 minutes back per day and can compound. AI lab interpretation flags trends across panels. Automated scheduling reduces no-shows. Use AI to expand quality of care, not just volume.
How to Get Started This Week
"Define your IPP. Build authority so that patient finds you. Build community so that patient gets referred to you. Build strategy so that patient stays.Pick your IPP this week. Everything downstream gets easier once you do."
- Dr. David Luu
This article is published exclusively for licensed healthcare professionals. It is not intended for consumers or patients.
All content is for continuing medical education and professional information purposes. It reflects emerging research, science, and technology with implications for medical practice. It does not constitute medical advice, clinical recommendations, or treatment guidance for any individual patient.
By reading, you confirm you are a licensed healthcare professional and will apply this information within your clinical judgment, professional obligations, and applicable regulations.