A day in the life: Kristen Newsom, MD

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In college, I ended up pursuing a bachelor's degree in art. I was encouraged to kind of blaze my own trail.

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You know, I think there are really a lot of parallels between art and practicing medicine because you have to have kind of a vision for the future. I'm actually a third generation family doctor very proudly, but I was never really pressured in that direction.

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But I always kind of knew that medicine was my career calling.

I'm a morning person, so I wake up early, come into to work a few minutes early so, again, I can kind of get settled and then discuss anything with my staff. I see patients full days, several days a week, so that kind of keeps me busy.

Most of time, by 5:00, I'm done. You know, my staff gets to go home at a reasonable time because we've all been working together during the day and then wake up and do it [INAUDIBLE] next day.

People haven't changed a whole lot. The medicine we know a lot more now, and that's a lot more complex. The system has changed so much and there's so many external forces on us, I think it's becoming really challenging for a lot of physicians who are still trying to do solo practice. It becomes burdensome.

Not to say that they can't do it, but my sort of vision is we're stronger together. So I was very excited at the opportunity for us to partner with Optum Care because Optum Care has so many more resources.

I think the most compelling reason to work for Optum Care care is they want to do the right thing. The underlying goal is a shared vision for this is what's best for the patient.