Bridging the Gap: Inside The Fight for Healthcare Equity

7 Apr 2026 · 56 min · 21 chapters

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In short

Healthcare equity and access to specialty care, using an entrepreneurial, tech-enabled model to reduce fragmentation and prevent unnecessary ED visits.

Guests (and backgrounds)

Stan Frencher, MD—director of urology and chair of preoperative services and medical director of surgical outcomes/quality at MLK Jr. Community Health in South Los Angeles; associate clinical professor and UCLA Urology director of justice/equity/diversity/inclusion; CEO of HubMD and chief medical officer/EVP at Afia Global. Background includes training at Michigan, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Yale residency, and a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars fellowship at UCLA; co-led the Black Barbershop Health Outreach Program.

Key claims

Access gaps are driven by system fragmentation and social determinants (housing, food insecurity, transportation, inability to schedule/follow up). Solutions require designing ambulatory care around patients, not forcing patients into the existing system. Tech alone isn’t enough; “concierge” navigation and local partnerships are essential.

Notable examples

HubMD started with one health plan (Empire) and bootstrapped growth to 35 employees; serves California’s 25 prisons, many Medi-Cal managed plans, indigenous populations, and jails; completed 500,000+ encounters; uses telemedicine/e-consults and AI tools to predict who needs help most.

Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.

Chapters

Tap a time to open that second in VO

Stan Frencher's Journey to Urology

6:00 to 10:00

Listen to Stan Frencher share his path to becoming a healthcare leader.

“and medical director of surgical outcomes and quality at Martin Luther King Jr.”

Impact of Family on Medical Career

10:00 to 14:01

Explore how Stan's family background influenced his career in medicine.

“in nursing, who focused on women's health.”

Family Conversations on Community Service

14:01 to 15:00

Explore the narrator's family discussions on serving the community and healthcare.

“And my dad would kind of lay on the carpeted family room, and my grandfather in a lazy boy chair, and he would have these, like, conversations about how do you serve the community?”

Building Compassionate Healthcare Systems

15:01 to 16:15

Learn about transforming individual care into community health systems.

“And so that's what I've been trying to do all the time out here.”

Leadership Lessons in Healthcare

16:16 to 17:45

Discover key leadership strategies for building effective healthcare teams.

“which it sounds like you get from your granddad a bit.”

The Milk Analogy: Access to Care Challenges

17:46 to 21:05

Understand the complexities of healthcare access using a milk analogy.

“And so I think the early lessons were really leveraging lots of expertise and people and mentors outside of me.”

Designing Patient-Centric Healthcare Systems

21:06 to 23:29

Learn how to create healthcare systems that prioritize patient needs.

“You layer on top of that how complex healthcare is, and now you're trying to interact with a complex healthcare system.”

Success Stories in Entrepreneurial Healthcare

23:30 to 27:12

Hear about successful entrepreneurial efforts in enhancing healthcare access.

“So that's how I've thought about the problem and how we've tried to work on it.”

Healthcare Access: Urban and Rural Solutions

30:42 to 34:19

Explore how healthcare access solutions are similar in urban and rural areas.

“It's almost using healthcare, or at least access to healthcare as something that will serve as the glue that keeps this beautiful country together.”

Entrepreneurship in Healthcare: Merging Tech and People

34:20 to 36:34

Understand the importance of combining technology and personal touch in healthcare.

“So we have a whole host of what we call concierge support team that help folks navigate both sides of that equation.”
Show all 21 chapters

Future of Healthcare: Sustainable Models and Mentorship

36:35 to 42:04

Discuss the need for sustainable healthcare models and the role of mentorship.

“I mean, that's part of the joy at this point.”

Community Impact and Mentorship

42:04 to 43:10

Learn about the importance of engaging with the community through mentorship in healthcare.

“And it's one of the most gratifying things I certainly do as an academic urologist is trying to get into the community to encourage people.”

Building Sustainable Health Systems

43:11 to 44:31

Discover how to create sustainable healthcare models that support underserved communities.

“It's like my grandfather, he started a construction company like here in Flint, Michigan, you know, where we're growing up.”

Personal Stories in Medicine

44:32 to 46:35

Hear a personal story reflecting the commitment of healthcare professionals to their patients.

“say it's not even a sacrifice, but it's a fulfillment.”

Lessons from Family and Parenting

46:36 to 48:20

Explore how family influences and lessons learned from children shape communication in healthcare.

“So when I say I didn't have a choice, I mean, it was just that's just that was that was the family business.”

Reflections on Community Health Work

51:44 to 56:00

Gain insights into impactful community health work through personal experiences.

“But what questions do you have about the work Stan's doing in the community or just about what makes Stan Stan?”

Addressing Healthcare Disparities

56:00 to 57:25

Learn how systemic issues in healthcare impact Black men's health outcomes.

“And I just said, well, I don't know how, but sounds like the right thing to do.”

Community Health Challenges

57:25 to 59:35

Explore the need for coordinated efforts in community health to address resource limitations.

“And there's so many things for you to be individually proud of that you actually called out one of your community health workers as changing the lives of so many people around you.”

Daily Routines for Success

59:35 to 1:00:09

Discover the importance of daily wellness practices in achieving personal and professional goals.

“and continue to like bring to fixing these problems.”

Stan French's Commitment to Health

1:00:09 to 1:02:31

Hear about Stan French's approaches to maintaining health and community service.

“Truly, you have ownership in making this world a better place.”

Final Thoughts and Promotion

1:02:31 to 1:03:21

Stan shares where to find his work and the importance of partnerships in healthcare.

“and the optimism and passion and enthusiasm you bring to medicine and to any community, rural, urban, or otherwise.”
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Transcript

Automatic transcript. May contain errors.

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3:35Dr. Jesse Mills:That's thehartford.com slash smallbusiness.

3:42Dr. Jesse Mills:Let's talk about every mailroom. Let's talk about it. Let's talk about every mailroom. Welcome to the mailroom. Hey, everybody. Dr. Mills back with another episode of The Mailroom with me and my indomitable producer, Jordan Runton. Jordan, how's life, man? How are you doing? I am good. And more importantly, how are you doing? You sound like you could use a trip to a dock yourself. You sound a little under the weather. What are you, my doctor? Come on, man. We have defined roles on this podcast, and there is no sickness on the mailroom. It's like the Big Rock Candy Mountain. You know what I'm saying?

4:24Dr. Jesse Mills:I mean, all the cops have wooden legs, and the bulldogs all have rubber teeth, and the Hensley soft-boiled eggs. It's the Big Rock Candy Mountain. That's what it is. I mean, this is where you get to suspend life for just a little bit, hang out, have some fun. And I'm telling you today, I know I say this, but at some point people are going to realize I hyperbolize. But I will guarantee at the end of this episode, you will realize that one of my truest and greatest friends in urology and life that we've been working together for over 10 years is a guy named Stan Frencher, who we just happened to have in studio today.

4:58Dr. Jesse Mills:And I cannot wait to introduce him to our audience. He is truly a legend in the field of urology in terms of what he's done for Access to Care. So I'm just going to hit his bio and then really today is going to be kind of loose. There's no theme other than maybe just talking about disparities in health care, because that is one of the things that Stan and I have worked on forever. We met each other after grand rounds when I was new to UCLA, and he was relatively new and realized that we live in this amazing city of Los Angeles and we're separated by a couple of zip codes. But who I see, who he sees, the access to care that the majority of my population has is very different than what he has.

5:37Dr. Jesse Mills:And so we have been building something together with the help of some colleagues, some amazing champions and administration at both hospitals. So we're going to talk about it because I think access to care and health care for everybody is important. And if one person is left behind, we're all left behind. So that's what we do as a team. Stan, in terms of what he does for his day job as the director of urology and chair of preoperative services and medical director of surgical outcomes and quality at Martin Luther King Jr. Community Health down in South Los Angeles. He's a lead physician of urology at MLK Jr.

6:09Dr. Jesse Mills:and he is a multi-special ambulatory care surgery center serving historically marginalized community in South LA. His dedication to underserved community started as early as his undergraduate time at Michigan, another Michigan guy. There's something so beautiful and humblingly great about people that are in my lives from Michigan. My dad went there and he doesn't let me forget it. Most of my colleagues, there's something that I just keep running into Michigan guys. So there's something in the water in Ann Arbor that makes greatness. And Stan is certainly one of them. He went on to Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

6:44Dr. Jesse Mills:He was awarded the first Gene L. Cook MD Memorial Award for medical excellence. And was honed during his training as Robert Wood Johnson, clinical scholar, while urology resident at Yali. No, I believe that's Yale. Sorry. It's an old Saturday. You remember that Saturday Night Live? Yes. I'm sorry to botch your intro, but one of the best Alec Baldwin Saturday Night Live skits of all time at Yali School of Medicine, where he He co-led the Black Barbershop Health Outreach Program, a national initiative aimed at improving health of black men. Currently, he is associate clinical professor and the director of justice, equity, diversity, inclusion for UCLA Urology.

7:19Dr. Jesse Mills:Dr. Frencher is also the chief executive officer of HubMD and chief medical officer and EVP executive vice president of Afia Global. I mean, I don't know when he has time to do everything else he does, which is, I don't know, playing basketball, powerlifting, paddleboarding, being at every one of his kids' games and helping coach. But he is also one of the top healthcare professionals under 40 from the National Medical Association. And he's happily married and truly a role model for all that is great in medicine. And anybody out there that's still thinking about applying to medical school and being a physician, Stan Frencher is that person that we all try to, I don't know if we say idolize, but at least emulate.

7:59Dr. Jesse Mills:Stan, I'm going to go on forever, man. I love you, brother. Welcome to the show. Thank you so much for giving up some of your crazy time where you're probably getting ready to present something in front of Congress or or take out a 12 centimeter renal mass from somebody. It's, you know, all in a day's work for you. Oh, and I just see it's an absolute pleasure to be here. There's no one I would more enjoy having a conversation with any time. And what better to do it here? And yes, there is something in the water in Ann Arbor. Michigan men are special. So, and I think we've been blessed to recruit a few of them.

8:34Dr. Jesse Mills:We have. I mean, the only thing that LA has in Michigan is that it's 78 degrees today. And it is, we are finishing up the shortest month of the year. Also happens to be Black History Month in February of 2026. And we are delighted to have you here. And we'll take anybody from Michigan. I don't know. I'm not going to get political. But anyway, we'll take almost anybody from Michigan. good. We'll just leave it. We'll just leave it there. Let's read between the lines. My goodness. So Stan, yeah, we're just going to have some fun. You know, we're going to talk about what you do, but part of what I like to do on this show is just sort of go into what got you to where you are.

9:14Dr. Jesse Mills:How'd you come to LA? Talk to me about what brought you and what drew you to South Los Angeles to take care of, of a rapidly changing, but still, you know, moderately marginalized community. So talk to me about that. Yeah, you know, it's interesting. Everyone has some origin story or path that they have to get to being a doctor. And the beginning of mine will probably sound very similar to others. I was blessed to have a father who was a physician, who is a physician. He's a primary care doc who grew up in Detroit. He actually serves in the very neighborhood that he grew up in, like on the east side of Detroit, which was at the time an underserved community.

9:54He was part of the National Health Service Corps. He also, a Michigan man with the University of Michigan, where he met my mom, who is a nurse, a nurse practitioner now, a doctorate in nursing, who focused on women's health. So I grew up around healthcare as a kid and grew up kind of seeing the disparities that he was addressing. In fact, the irony is he was the chief of staff of the last Black hospital in Detroit, and I get a chance to come out and help open MLK Community Hospital in South Los Angeles. So I mean, I think that for me, it's kind of was always a full circle moment to be able to kind of like live in his, you know, and kind of stand on his shoulders as someone who always inspired me.

10:37I'm a namesake. I'm a junior. So I guess I kind of had no choice in the matter. I was going to, I wanted to be like him from kind of day one. So, and so I think that's, that's, that was where the impetus came from. And then over the years, it was just kind of helping to hone that interest through a lot of different experiences. Like anyone else, I was very blessed after leaving Michigan. I had amazing mentors like Sherman James, who focused on John Henryism, which was kind of the study of why does racism and all the things that impact Black men from a social perspective, from a social justice perspective, impact their health.

11:11And I'm learning that at 18. And it was kind of just happenstance that I was really interested in political science, but couldn't get in that course because it was already full. And I studied sociology instead as my social science, and then ended up majoring in that and focusing on race, ethnicity, culture, and health. And so it kind of evolved that like, I'm interested in being a doc like my dad, but I'm also interested in like, all the things that that caused the situation that he was trying to treat, you know, that he would see his patients having that he would tell us stories about when he'd come home where, you know, he was treating patients who were homeless, or he was working in the jail system, or he was taking care of patients, irrespective of their ability to pay, and they were bringing him oranges and, and eggs and whatever it is they could pay with.

11:56And so for me, finding my way to South LA, it was kind of predestined from when I was a teenager. But the real direct route was once I was finally, you know, in through medical school and into residency, I continued to get experiences that kind of helped to grow that interest in things outside of medicine, you know, worked on the Hill and got an MPH and focused on those things. and then did a fellowship that was the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program. It was a health services research fellowship. And I happened to be blessed to do it at UCLA. And that's where I met Mark Littman. And that's where it kind of all came together for me that like, man, it would be pretty amazing to do this work in Los Angeles because it just had all the things.

12:41I mean, I had the support of a really amazing mentor, had a department that kind of believed in equity and social justice as part of its mission. And then I had a place where I could just pour myself into and do all the things that I had been learning over the years in terms of building systems that would improve access and working directly with patients who needed my help most. So yeah, I mean, it was kind of a no-brainer to come out here to LA.

13:07Dr. Jesse Mills:Yeah, it sounds like, I mean, you didn't have a chance to be an attorney, an accountant, you know. I mean, it was like mom and dad are like, no, Stan, this is it, brother. This is what you're doing. We got to get you out there. What have you taught your dad? So, I mean, here's a boots on the ground, you know, haggard, trided, true, you know, shoe leather across Detroit physician. And now you've gained, I mean, you've in some ways pioneered a field of academic medicine in access to care. So when you have morning coffee and he's coming out to visit or you're back in Michigan, do you ever say, hey, dad?

13:42Dr. Jesse Mills:And then how does the conversation go? Yeah, yeah. The amazing part is, so my wife will usually come home with us when we go home, and she already prepares. She already knows what's going to happen. So in our house, growing up, my grandfather also was, like, he was an entrepreneur, and I used to grow up watching he and my dad kind of interact. And my dad would kind of lay on the carpeted family room, and my grandfather in a lazy boy chair, and he would have these, like, conversations about how do you serve the community? How do you help people? Like that's kind of ingrained kind of in the DNA of kind of the men in my family.

14:16And so you can imagine that the scene looks very similar. I come home. My dad's in a lazy boy chair now. I'm lying on the floor. And yeah, the conversation immediately goes to. So are things going out there in L.A.? And and, you know, I get a chance to kind of go over with him like all the things. Right. It's like, you know, Pops, I've been really trying to build a department, a system, a company that embodies the commitment and compassion you had all these years. How do you take what someone does as an individual, like toiling away in the clinic and seeing 80 patients and taking care of them one person at a time, and then translate that into systems of care that have that same level of care, empathy, and compassion?

15:01And so that's what I've been trying to do all the time out here. I mean, when we started at MLK, it was really about how do we bring the right people there? How do we build the right culture? How do we help to create the right pathways for folks? And how do we do so even though they don't have all the resources they need to maybe do what folks would do in other areas of the city? They can't schedule their own appointment. They can't follow up as easily. That's where our conversations often go. And usually it gives me an opportunity to kind of like, you know, hear kind of his perspective on like how things are changing.

15:36Like, you know, the technology that we now integrate into the work to try to make things easier. But it always still comes back to talking about people. And I think that that's what I appreciate about my conversation with him is that while I get the chance to like, he was a guy who would never have joined, have gotten on an EHR or never touched telemedicine. And now he exclusively sees patients via video visits. And, you know, and has been able to extend his career, you know, overseeing his colleagues, like using technology. So that's one thing I've been able to like, you know, add to his experience.

16:06But I think I continue to learn lessons going back and talking to him all the time about the importance of having the right people involved in all this work and focusing in on people.

16:14Dr. Jesse Mills:So we're going to talk about, you know, one of the things that makes you, if not unique, at least incredibly focused, special is you look at the world of public health and access to care through an entrepreneurial lens, which it sounds like you get from your granddad a bit. And that, I think, is always going to be the path forward, right, is looking at how do you kind of create an opportunity for people to take care of themselves. And it sounds like technology is a big part of this. But how did you build your team? You know, just because, again, I remember when we first met, you know, you came to my office after ground rounds.

16:51Dr. Jesse Mills:We sat down. And this was over 10 years ago. And, you know, we both had this vision. But then you just exploded. I mean, in fact, technically, you got your men's health clinic off the ground even about a year before I actually opened the doors on our freestanding men's clinic in Santa Monica. So how did you muster up that kind of support? Talk to me just about lessons in leadership that people can take away from this. Yeah, I think that it's been fun trying to do that work. I think that part of it is passion, like I'm at, you know, because in persistence, you know, so from when we started doing this work, people didn't have the same vision that we had, right?

17:30Like it was like, let's open the hospital. Let's take care of the immediate needs of the patients who were there. We opened a hospital. It was my first job out of residency. Like, you know, starting a department, I'm literally like trying to figure out my own preference cards and then trying to order equipment for everybody else. Right. And so I think the early lessons were really leveraging lots of expertise and people and mentors outside of me. Like I have an amazing cohort of mentors, including you. Like I can always like lean on or like helping to guide and help me to make decisions. So I think that was part of some of the early lessons.

18:06strategically, it was, I think, one of the best tools for anyone who's trying to lead anything. I learned from playing sports, right? Like many of us came from, played basketball, point guard, you know, quarterback, football, that kind of thing. Anticipation, like being able to see what's coming. And I think that for me, I knew that we needed to create something that would be able to take care of patients outside of the emergency room, while others didn't. Others were kind of focused on, we just, we need to do whatever we can to take care of what's coming to see us. And so, yeah, we were like, I focused intently on like, how can we set up a clinic?

18:38Like, even if it's just seeing post-discharge patients from the hospital initially, until we can figure out how to better partner and collaborate with the local primary care physicians to route patients to us. I think thinking of everyone as a potential partner, thinking of ands rather than ors. So it's like, how can I bring more people to solving this problem? not kind of competing with others or thinking about ways or reasons why, like that's not going to work, you know, coming to each partner and each idea with, okay, let's figure out how this is going to work. And I think that's how the men's clinic started.

19:10It was plenty of people who had lots of reasons why it wasn't going to work. Like, how are we going to hire that person? How are we going to pay them? Like, where are they going to come from? Why would somebody want to practice here? And you and I both know, I mean, we found the right person. We found that person's support. And that's where it starts. And then you continue to build from there.

19:26Dr. Jesse Mills:Who just happened to come from Michigan. Dr. Juan Andino, who's a lifer, a lifer, undergrad all the way through. And we were able to convince him to come out here to MLK and UCLA. So what I let me see them, see if you will afford me this analogy. But imagine back in the day when you're when your dad was early in his practice and there were still milkmen and glass bottles of milk delivered to the front step. and imagine you'd go inside and you have this full bottle of milk and you're so excited to drink it and then you drop it on the tile floor and a full bottle of milk shatters and there's glass everywhere and there's milk on the ground.

20:05Dr. Jesse Mills:Tell me if that is sort of what access to care and underrepresented areas look like and how do you get from sweeping up the broken glass and the spilled milk to get back to the bottle on the counter so that people are not having to have their bottleneck at the emergency room because that's kind of how I see things too is that that the goal is to keep everybody out of the emergency room except for you know somebody that accidentally took a nail gun through their foot on a work site or something Jordan gets queasy when I talk about anything blood likes I just want to see if I can get him to pass out yeah all right you want me to say that again just to really see if I can go to anything else that's why Stan and I would be in the ER if the nail gun was uh less appropriately placed I got pillows all around this area in case I pass out.

20:48Dr. Jesse Mills:Your color is still good. Your color is still good. But is that a reasonable analogy to say, gosh, we got to keep the milk from dropping on the ground in the first place? Yeah, yeah. I think that you're right. To take that analogy further, I mean, the system is fragmented, right? And so for the folks that we're caring for, they have life circumstance that doesn't make it easy to interact with any system. You layer on top of that how complex healthcare is, and now you're trying to interact with a complex healthcare system. And then when we design it, we're not thinking of their needs in mind in the first place.

21:20So I think part of the reason I was really interested in coming up with solutions from an entrepreneurial perspective is because I felt like we needed a bit of a blank slate. We kind of needed to step back and say, understanding what the challenges are for our patients, how can we design something for them? rather than trying to get them to fit into the broader healthcare system. And so for many of the patients that we serve through the work that I do, they're largely on Medicaid. They may be in correctional health facilities. They may be indigenous populations in our community. They may be in rural areas.

21:54We serve all of those populations of folks throughout the state of California. And each has some nuances, but one of the similarities is that the system wasn't built with them in mind, period. right? And so to get us back to trying to figure out how do we prevent people from getting the ED, I think we have to design a system on the ambulatory side that actually has them in mind. And so part of that is, of course, addressing things like their social determinant of health needs, things like housing, food insecurity, transportation. Those are the reasons why people don't get to a visit, right? There's the reasons why people don't get to a visit.

22:28They can't find the clinic. They can't get to a clinic. They can't call the clinic. I mean, it's not complicated. But But if you don't have systems to address those things, because we're so focused over here on all the things we need to be focused on, you know, complex clinical pathways and trying to make sure people get the right medications and the right surgeries, those are all important. But you don't even get there if you don't solve those other problems. And so, you know, when we set out to, like, try to address these issues, we started there. Like, what are the things, what are the barriers and facilitators of getting people into care?

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22:57And then what are other things that we can do along that continuum, that pathway to get people care while they're waiting to get into the broader system? And that's where things like telemedicine, e-consults, which are kind of our ability to asynchronously dialogue with one's primary care physician as a specialist. That's where those tools, I think, are super helpful. And so that's where we set out the build. And I think that that's how you kind of get to a point where you put that, you know, you hopefully try to prevent the fragmentation from affecting someone's life in the first place. But even if they find themselves in one of those ERs or in the wrong physician's office or the wrong specialist, you can navigate them back into the right place using those same tools.

23:39So that's how I've thought about the problem and how we've tried to work on it.

23:43Dr. Jesse Mills:Tell me some good news. Tell me how you've been successful with this effort and just talk a little bit about your work in the entrepreneurial space and maybe talk about some of your investors and sort of the buy-in that you're getting from not only the community, but government sources and the community writ large. Yeah, it's been pretty amazing. So we started about eight years ago and me and my business partner, Sajid Ahmed, we started with a single client, a single health plan, an empire health plan, trying to solve a problem, their access to specialty care problem. So no investment, all bootstrapped, been profitable since year one and been able to grow that to a company that's 35 employees.

24:26We've been able to build our own tech, like a communications platform or referral platform that allows folks to be able to navigate and communicate easily throughout that continuum care from being seen in their primary care doctor to ultimately see a specialist. We serve the entire state prison system exclusively in terms of the 25 prisons throughout the state of California. We serve most of the large managed Medi-Cal health plans in the state, serve indigenous populations throughout the state of California. We serve now a number of jails. We partnered with a national health care provider for jail systems in other states and now work in Maryland and Minnesota and a few other states.

25:06And so, you know, in that time frame, just for sheer numbers sake, I mean, we've done over 500 ,000 encounters in that time frame. We serve now tens of thousands of patients. We partner with thousands of primary care physicians. and we're headquartered in Redlands, California. I mean, the connections that I try to build, so my grandfather was a Baptist minister. And so when we were looking to figure out where we're gonna headquarter our business, we found a small church in Redlands, California, which is east of Pasadena where I live in Altadena. And so it's out in the Ulland Empire because we serve a lot of folks in that area.

25:46So we decided to set up shop there in a revitalization area in Redlands. It has a long history, but this church, we gutted it. We kept the look and feel of the chapel and brought in lots of things to make it look like a modern digital health company facility on the inside. But it speaks to kind of like the connectivity. When we even came up with the name Hub MD, the idea was that the important part of the work we were doing was trying to fill gaps by connecting folks. Like there's my grandfather used to say as a minister, there are hubs and spokes out there. And like, and some people are spokes, some people are hubs.

26:20I raised you to be a hub and I can, you're a connector. And so, you know, the goal has been really to connect folks. So we call it HubMD and, you know, I've gotten a chance to now kind of appreciate the fact that I can get to house the whole thing in a church. So I think that, yeah, I think everything about it for me is about passion and about what we're doing. And we partner with a lot of different organizations, like the health plans. But we haven't had to take on any funding, fortunately. And I think at this point that we've been able to grow organically through the work and partnerships we've been able to build with other tech organizations, like other groups now in the rural health space, in some of the domestic violence space, interestingly enough, some spaces around immigration health now.

27:05And so I think that they're essentially wherever there's opportunities to work with people who are often left behind or most vulnerable. You know, that's where we look to work with.

27:43Dr. Jesse Mills:We'll see you next time.

28:13Dr. Jesse Mills:We'll be right back.

28:41Dr. Jesse Mills:Thank you. Bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com slash podcast. Paid for by Public Investing. Brokered services by Open to the Public Investing, Inc., member FINRA, and SIPC. Advisory services by Public Advisors, LLC, SEC Registered Advisor. Generated assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com slash disclosures. Who doesn't love warm, carby comfort? Satisfying sandwiches, loaded bagels, rich mac and cheese. Crave-worthy and smart, Hero Bread's loaves, bagels, and noodles have just zero to five gram snack carbs, zero gram sugar and up to 19 grams of protein and 32 grams of fiber per serving hero bread bakes with heart healthy olive oil and delivers a soft fluffy flavorful experience you love shop now on hero.co use code iheart for 10 off that's hero.co per serving not a low calorie food some products contain allulose see nutrition info on hero.co for sodium and sugar content every small business starts with a dream and the courage to chase it but even the strongest dreams need protection.

29:39Dr. Jesse Mills:That's why the Hartford has been a trusted partner for more than 1 million small business owners across America. From retail shops to financial professionals, the Hartford understands that every business is unique. Their customized coverage options help protect what matters most, your work, your people, and your future. Because when life throws the unexpected your way, you deserve a partner that helps you stand strong. Help protect your dream. Visit thehartford.com slash small business for a quote today. Tyler Reddick here from 2311 Racing. Another checkered flag for the books. Time to celebrate with Chumba.

30:20Dr. Jesse Mills:Jump in at chumbacasino.com. Let's Chumba. No purchase necessary. BTW Group. Void where prohibited by law. CT &C 21 Plus. Sponsored by Chumba Casino.

30:41Dr. Jesse Mills:Given the political environment we're all living under and there's this false dichotomy of rural versus urban and red versus blue, but in some ways, I mean, you're a company that started with urban roots addressing the access to care issues, and now you're expanding out into some of the most vulnerable in rural areas of this country too. It's almost using healthcare, or at least access to healthcare as something that will serve as the glue that keeps this beautiful country together. So that's pretty impressive. Yeah, I'll speak to you specifically. So literally two weeks ago, we were presenting at, we had won a competition locally here that was sponsored by Scale Health, which is a great organization that tries to bring together a lot of early startups in the digital health space.

31:29And so we won that competition and we're presenting at the American Hospital Association's Rural Health Conference in Texas. And to your point, I mean, the solution for access in urban areas is identical to the solution that we're offering in rural communities. And so because the problem is the same. If you look at South L.A., when we started, there was two urologists for one billion people. Right. And like in Spa 6 in that South L.A. area and you go to rural communities, maybe they got one urologist for half a million people. Right. And so in order to solve those problems, it's quite similar.

32:10You have to partner locally. You have to provide access that goes beyond the local available resources using virtual and telemedicine. And you have to help people navigate between those. And so it's the same. And I think that if people could see themselves as having more in common than they do differently, because in both communities, it is the limited resources. We may quibble about why there's limited resources in those communities or why folks are left behind in those areas. But we share the fact that we don't have everything that others have in those areas. and how do we bridge that gap? And I think some of the solutions are gonna be very similar.

32:51Dr. Jesse Mills:Right, yeah, I mean, and rural hospitals are closing at an alarmingly high rate as federal funding continues to get withdrawn. So people are having to drive farther and farther to get healthcare. That's where I see what you're doing with HubMD as bridging a little bit of that gap through your telehealth access. So talk to me through this. Is this one of these things where the idea has been there all along, but you're able, because of your mind for tech, your mind for business, and obviously your mind and your hands as a surgeon has all come together to say, no, I mean, we actually have a solution hiding in plain sight with the ability to see people.

33:29Dr. Jesse Mills:We bring this up on the show a few times, but the fact that I can have a video visit with somebody up in North, North, North California, 14 hour drive away, and they can still have a UCLA doctor if they want one, that's kind of what you're saying. But how does that work? You know, how is that going to work for you moving forward? Yeah, I think fundamentally, that's that's the hallmark of entrepreneurship. Right. I don't I don't think I've I haven't created anything anew, but creativity, which I think is all that entrepreneurship is, is like business plus creativity is just it's kind of thinking of things differently that already exists, to your point.

34:06Right. And so so putting it all together has been the key. It's not tech alone. That's the solution. Like it's not doctors and physicians alone. That solution. It's it's a combination of those things. And the glue that we put in the middle of that is is really a really intense focus on people supporting the tech and the dots. So we have a whole host of what we call concierge support team that help folks navigate both sides of that equation. And so as we move forward, I think it's going to be a combination of evolving our tech. We've already been able to start to integrate AI tools into our technology to make it more efficient, better at predicting who we need to help most.

34:48We've expanded the types of expertise we have on our ECM team to include behavioral therapists and folks who have addiction medicine. like understanding to support the community health workers, we're kind of the frontline people who do the boots on the ground work, and then continue to expand the group of physicians and the types of physicians that we're leveraging virtually and to evolve the types of conditions that we can help to support in that model. I think the other next step is partnering with the right local resources and organizations, like, so that like, we don't have to do all of them, right?

35:24I don't think we want to or plan to build all of them. But I think now that we have what a lot of organizations need, someone who has a really great tech platform, doesn't typically have the people, folks who have really good local resources, don't have that tech expertise. And we have enough of both of those to partner well with all of those groups. And so really most of my conversations these days, the four or five I had before we started talking today, are right. These types of organizations who have that need, who have figured out a solution for domestic violence folks and making sure that they have access to the services they need with, you know, in a, you know, in a way that doesn't expose them, like to some of the dangers of leaving that situation.

36:07but they don't have necessarily the clinical side figured out or the services side figured out. So we're able to partner with them or another group who, you know, has a specialized service that they want to provide, but doesn't really have the tech understanding. We're able to partner with them. So I think for us, that's really how we've thought about continuing to expand this work. And, you know, and it's just I continue to have fun with it. I think that the people I work with is what brings me joy these days. The solving big problems, I think, is important, but I think I've gotten a lot better about trying to find the people who I want to do it with, like Dr.

36:42Nino and yourself. I mean, that's part of the joy at this point.

36:47Dr. Jesse Mills:So where are we going a year from now? Where are we going five years from now? Yeah, yeah. You know, I think a year from now, you know, I think everybody's weathering this certain, this short-term austerity problem within health care where, you know, a lot of Medicaid is pulling back. a lot of people are becoming undocumented, like, or the undocumented are becoming uncovered, I should say, in terms of insurance status. I think over the next year, I think we're going to try to figure out creative solutions to those problems. Like, and I hope to be telling you a year from now that, you know, despite the fact that hundreds of thousands of people may not be insured in the next year because of changes to legislation, that we figured out a creative way to still provide them care.

37:30Like, I think that's a big problem that we're trying to focus on and to help solve. I think that five years from now, you know, I hope to see that the work that we do is more closely knitted to the traditional healthcare system, right? So we work with county facilities in the MN Empire, like Riverside University Health Systems or Our Head Regional Medical Center and Loma Linda. And so we've been able to work and collaborate with those groups. I think academic medical centers have to do a better job of providing their expertise, to your point, outside of just the confines of their local campuses.

38:08My brother happens to also be a physician, an interventional radiologist at the University of Michigan, and he's worked extremely hard to try to expand access to care for patients who have liver failure, for example, through providing telemedicine visits to people in the UP, they can come down and get his services. I think there's lots more opportunities that maybe academic medical centers, because it's not a very huge profit margin in this work, it's not necessarily highly sexy. I don't think it's something that's been focused on, but I think that the expertise lives there. And I think that we've been able to recruit really great board certified physicians.

38:47I think it would be amazing in five years if academic medical centers and centers of excellence are really exporting their expertise beyond like their local catchment rather than waiting for wealthy people to fly into their facilities. I'll just drop that.

39:04Dr. Jesse Mills:I know. I love that. I mean, I think about that a lot with physicians, you know, attorneys do pro bono work and, and, you know, sometimes I think if, if we had a, a really, not an indemnified, but at least some kind of system where, right, where we could figure out how to give back a lot easier and have a system other than, I mean, in academic centers, it's easy. We volunteer for this or that, or we see a certain number of underinsured or uninsured patients. And we can because we're in a system that can absorb that. But there's thousands upon, I mean, if you ask almost any physician in this country, we all go into this because we love it and we love taking care of people.

39:44Dr. Jesse Mills:And there are very few of us that don't have that altruism, but it's not always harnessed well because we don't have those systems. So I love the way you're thinking. No, and that's where I'm landing. It's like, I don't think it should be volunteerism. I think we do our patients a disservice. So for example, I completely admire and love the work of FQHCs and the work of some of our partners who get specialists to near retirement, volunteer to see patients. That's right. That is amazing. Right. It's not a system. I mean, the reason we have to build businesses around this work is we have to build sustainable models that don't rely on philanthropy and generosity to drive the quality of the care being rendered.

40:32And so the only way to do that is to make sure that there's a sustainable business model to make it happen. And part of that is figuring out ways to more effectively and efficiently deliver those services so we don't need to see everybody in person. People don't need every test. But if we can start to do some of that through asynchronous dialogues with patients, like not have them come in and see us in person, leverage physician's times more efficiently so they don't have to be live and talking to every person, like either through a video or in person, but rather can just text the information back and forth.

41:03Like if we can get patients to trust that kind of process, if we can move and push diagnostic modalities into their community so that they can get the testing done there and only come to see us when they need something physically done to them, I think there's a way for us to actually deliver those services more cheaply and effectively so that it doesn't hit the bottom line of academic medical centers.

41:23Dr. Jesse Mills:I know there is. I know. And also what it does is it opens up the ability for mentorship. You know, my, you know, as you know, my son is in the throes of applying for medical school and he's down in Houston at Rice and, and he works in a predominantly Spanish speaking community volunteering in a health system where, where a lot of the physicians are either retired or semi-retired and providing access to those marginalized care at an incredibly cheap rate. And so not only did the physician give patient care, but he's mentoring younger people that are the future. You and I have spent a lot of our time figuring out how to establish a pipeline so that we do get more people interested in being on the boots on the ground.

42:04Dr. Jesse Mills:And it's one of the most gratifying things I certainly do as an academic urologist is trying to get into the community to encourage people. But the way to do it is not to give a lecture. the way to do it is to put them in a health center and see how you can impact lives. I mean, there's nowhere more gratifying feeling. Jordan always talks about this. He's like, geez, Mills, you're running late because you have a surgery. I mean, I guess you probably ought to stick to the end of that surgery. I'm running late because the PowerPoint crashed. But there is something to that where we have this solemn oath that we give to patients.

42:34Dr. Jesse Mills:And I think a lot of younger people see that and they see the passion in people like you. And they're just like, put me in, coach. That's what Dr. Andino always says, right? Put me in, coach. I'm ready to play. And I think, you know, with your mentorship, your leadership, but again, the thing that makes you so different is you have this amazing entrepreneurial mind. You understand the finances of what this is. This isn't really altruism. It's actually health systems building and taking a traditionally difficult to sustain model and turning it into a sustainable model. That's the joy part of it.

43:06I feel like, and to your point, like you alluded to earlier, I think that's just in the DNA. It's like my grandfather, he started a construction company like here in Flint, Michigan, you know, where we're growing up. And, you know, my other grandfather started, you know, a series of restaurants after working for as a mail carrier for 20 years and saving up his money and opened up, you know, four or five restaurants in the city of Detroit. And in each of those examples growing up, I saw two men, two black men, like who were committed to their communities and building businesses that would support their family and support the community.

43:38and the people they hired were often not people who would get hired by others. And I think that's the other side of it, right? I mean, you and I both are trying to build something that folks who look like us and who believe in the things that we're interested in want to come and work in those environments. And they want to do so without having to sacrifice all the other things that they need to do in terms of supporting their family. And I think that's the other side of this, which is that I don't think physicians should have to necessarily take huge sacrifices to come and work with me in South LA.

44:11So we have to work better about making sure those systems can self-fund and support themselves so that they can support physicians appropriately who want to come and work there. Because again, I think that all of us would sacrifice, would take less money to serve those who need it most, but that shouldn't be the sacrifice that they have to make in my opinion.

44:32Dr. Jesse Mills:And again, I would even push back and say it's not even a sacrifice, but it's a fulfillment. And it is that gratitude of knowing that you have this special skill set that people need and the gratitude that you receive for doing that. It goes across any socioeconomic platform. And that's what makes it so special that we get to do what we do. Yeah. Oh, I think that, you know, my father still practices. So he, I talked about the fact that he transitioned to doing video business. There's a reason. I mean, And he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma a few years ago, plasma cell leukemia, which is a real form of it.

45:08And, you know, I fortunately it happened better or worse. It happened during peak COVID. And I got a chance to go home. I remember that frame because we're doing a lot remotely. And, you know, I fly in. He's super stubborn. I take him to the emergency room and we get him diagnosed. And I had a chance to be at his bedside while he was getting treatment. And all he could talk about while we were in the hospital was how he's going to get back to his patients. Yeah. And, you know, and this is someone who's, you know, we're not sure how he's going to survive this or not. There's not really a high success rate in treatment of that particular cancer.

45:44He's still here. Like he is he has done extremely well based on all the amazing care he's received. And the first thing he did was start back to seeing patients. And I think that to your point, that's what this is about. I mean, I think that the special thing, you know, Jordan's right. I mean, it's like, I do not feel embarrassed to show up to things late when I'm taking care of other people. I mean, and it is the commitment that we make to our patients. And I learned that from early. Like, so my dad was a doctor. He was in medical school when I was born. So, I mean, like when I say I've been around medicine my whole life, like my uncles and aunts are all physicians like, you know, former chair of surgery at Howard University babysat me when I was like two years old.

46:31Right. I mean, it's so I mean, I teach you to tie knots before you can tie your shoe. So when I say I didn't have a choice, I mean, it was just that's just that was that was the family business.

46:43Dr. Jesse Mills:it seemed like. Well, I guess you, you know, your wife know what she bought into as well as did mine. You know, I think you, I had a professor early on my training, she was actually a psychiatrist. But she said, medicine is a jealous mistress. And at every time that, you know, my wife gave up on me about 28 years ago, when I said I'd be home at six. It just isn't that it. I mean, it's now I'm finally getting to a point in my career, literally 30 years on or so where, where I could actually be somewhat more reliable but uh yeah i'm sure you have the same uh same issues in the frencher household especially uh especially with you still have at least one young kid at home right yeah yeah for sure it's like donovan donovan kind of knows and like um and so he had a field trip down to ucla on wednesday i think oh man he should come by my office and uh yeah he was he was loving it he was like he's like man dad i may i may want to come here like his thing though however is his musical theater he's opened up an entire world to me like uh that i had no exposure to and uh he's just so passionate about it so good about it but i've served so i've learned so many lessons about it about inclusivity about the messages like through lots of the things that he's done it made me a better communicator like seeing how like you know they they tell stories and uh and so so yeah i think our kids like you know they they reflect back to us like so much and i probably learned more from him over the last like you know 10 years of his life than i'll probably ever be able to teach him but i love that but yeah giving me chills man that's so cool you

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51:35Dr. Jesse Mills:Well, Jordan, what did I miss? I mean, Stan's got to go off and he's got a whole day that we were able to sneak him away for about an hour or so. But what questions do you have about the work Stan's doing in the community or just about what makes Stan Stan? in. I mean, just hearing everything you said, the incredible infrastructure you put in the place and your entrepreneurship and all the ways you give back. I mean, it's really overwhelming to hear, is there, and this is an unfair question and I'm really putting you on the spot, but is there - We'll fix it in post. Yeah, exactly. I'll fix it in post.

52:07Dr. Jesse Mills:Is there something that comes to mind for you that really is just something that you are, if not the most proud of, comes to mind as something that you are extremely, extremely proud of? A moment, a particular case with an individual not asking you to violate any HIPAA violations or anything, but is there anything that comes to mind that really just speaks to, you know, that sums it up when you think of the work that you do? That's a great question. There are a lot. I would say the thing that's brought everything together, so every Friday I get a chance to come out and go out to Redlands and meet with my team.

52:40And so we We usually do like, you know, an all staff meeting or a leadership meeting. And usually like once a month, I love to hear stories from our community health workers, because I mean, we go over numbers and like the finances and all the typical like businessy stuff that we need to projections and all that. And but I always like part of it to be rooted in like the stories of like the work that's happening and the people we're impacting. So we'll have like the community health workers kind of come in and tell me a little bit about what's going on. And I remember the first couple of times they would come in and similarly try to like tell me how many people they saw.

53:13And I was like, no, just tell me about the last couple of folks that you helped. And I think it was maybe a couple of months back. One of our community health workers talked about a patient, a community member that they were serving. And he had recently been incarcerated. He was released from prison and was struggling because he couldn't get like it been for whatever reason. there's a program where you can get some of these things expunged, depending on why you were frustrated. And it turns out our CHW kind of knew about those programming and like, and it started on a path of like helping this gentleman, like figure it out.

53:51At the time he was homeless and had some healthcare needs that we were helping him address. And then, so she helped him figure it out and eventually got this thing. He got a job, he got a place to live. And I mean, you know, we always start these things, particularly when we're talking like Like from a business perspective, funders and all kinds of how many, how big the market share is and how many people you served and how many thousands of folks and what is the scalability of this? At the end of the day, if I built this and we helped that one guy get his life together, get a place to live, get himself on track, be able to help and support his family, that's everything.

54:31And so I think that it still comes back to like what my dad was doing. It's just like helping one person at a time as a primary care doc. I mean, like we're just trying to build opportunities for us to do the same thing for others. That makes me the most proud because I wasn't going out planning to build that. It wasn't even part of calculus. It was like I wanted to help figure out how to address access to care. It turns out that some of those things are related to the social dynamics that people have. and then you know we figured out CalAIM enhanced care management program arose we said we're gonna we're gonna do it we're gonna build a team we're gonna make it work we're gonna make the numbers work we're gonna figure out how to do it well we took a risk and did it and now we serve like 200 members similarly like that with a small team of like five people you know with goals of partnering with others to expand that but like that wasn't even part of the vision right but it's just I I feel like when I talk to students, I feel like if you follow your passions, if you continue to like index on doing the right thing, take some risks to do that and not see barriers or problems with the solutions that you're coming up with, but rather try to figure out like just how to get done.

55:39I think that's an example of everything coming together. So, like we wouldn't have been in a position to do that had we not partnered with the health plan and the empire. We wouldn't have been able to position to do that had we not successfully built, you know, the access to specialty care side of things. And had Alvin Kwong, who at the time was our CTO, not brought the idea to me to be like, hey, Stan, I think we can do this. I think we do ECM. And I just said, well, I don't know how, but sounds like the right thing to do. Let's just do it. And doing it, we wouldn't have an opportunity to help that individual.

56:13And I mean, there are hundreds of other stories that are probably similar or even more dramatic. But that one stands out to me because I really have been passionate about our work with correctional health. For Black men, one in three are going to have some encounter with the criminal justice system in their lifetime. It's the same reason, kind of like that disparity is the same reason why I went into urology. You know, one in two are, you know, suffer like, you know, Black men are twice as likely to suffer from prostate cancer, you know, often have poor outcomes. And so it's kind of like these opportunities to kind of like build something that's helping lots of folks, but also discreetly be able to address something that for me is like, you know, hits home and is I'm extremely passionate about.

57:03So, yeah, I think that probably encapsulates kind of like how this kind of all works for me, zooming in and out all the time, just trying to be like, how can I make sure that like I'm thinking about and affecting the lives of individuals, not forgetting about their individual needs, but also trying to build systems that can help, you know, more than that person.

57:24Dr. Jesse Mills:Well, that embodies and encapsulates your character as a human being, Stan, because of all the national awards you've received and the Aspen Institute Fellowship. And there's so many things for you to be individually proud of that you actually called out one of your community health workers as changing the lives of so many people around you. And that's why you are who you are. And we do this every episode where we have a segment called You're Probably Going to Be OK. And usually it's like, you know, if we do something on prostate cancer, we do something on low testosterone, a health issue. And then I asked the guy if he's going to probably okay.

58:01Dr. Jesse Mills:But in your case, since we really talked policy and access to care, the community health system, is it probably going to be okay, Stan? Are we, I mean, with your work, it sounds like it is. But yeah, let us know because there is a lot of bad stuff in the news. But guys like you are trying to change that dialogue. Yeah, honestly, I think there's a lot of resources in the system. Like, I think there's lots of people, well-meaning folks and well-meaning programs trying to address the needs of members of our community, be it to help them with housing, be it to help them gain access to food, be it to help them with, like, getting access to better public schools.

58:40There's lots of people who are focused in the space. I think the biggest challenge is that most of those efforts, similar to the healthcare system, aren't coordinated. I think the other challenge is there's lots of competition in that space for limited resources that can be better done collectively. And so coming full circle back to kind of a hubs and spokes conversation, I think it really is about bringing together like-minded folks, like-minded programs, like-minded individuals and groups of individuals to serve a similar purpose. And I think that the better we can do that, I think the better, to your point, that community health infrastructure will be.

59:17we continue to try to splinter and try to do our own thing or pretenders crop up into that space because we're throwing tons of money at rural health, I think it'll become more fragmented. But my hope is, is that the people who really care about this are going to be persistently doing it, whether the resources are there or not. And those are the people that we have to identify, support and continue to like bring to fixing these problems.

59:40Dr. Jesse Mills:Amen. I love it. Well, then the last thing we always do, especially looking at, you know, nobody can see Stan, but remember I did say powerlifting is one of the things he does. So you're gonna have to just get an image of this guy. I'm sure you could probably Google him. But anyhow, we always ask when I talk with the men's health specialist and healthcare specialist, what do you do every day that makes you you? What is your non-negotiable when you get up to be Stan French or to take on the world and make it a better place? Truly, you have ownership in making this world a better place. How does Stan be Stan every day, my friend?

1:00:15Yeah, I think first, I think it's having an amazing life. So for those out here who want to choose correctly, choose a great partner to enable you to do the things that you do. And so I think that's first and foremost. And so I hope that each day I wake up and appreciate the heck out of her. I think that for me personally, I steal a phrase from a good mentor and colleague of mine, Bill Rollaford, who I did a lot of the Black Barbershop Help Outreach program work with he used to always tell me when i was i was coming up through and like and and we initially met i was in i was a fellow at the time i was walking around in t-shirts and shorts always and even to his like doctor's office to meet him and he was a fit guy and he was and i was like and so he was like stan no matter how busy you get no matter how many titles people throw at you like which frankly don't really matter because the work is the work whether you have a title or not he's like pay yourself first like and what he meant by that was like every morning you get up you do the thing that you need to do.

1:01:11And that thing for me is working out. So like every morning, without fail, I'm hitting the gym, we had one in our my dad had one in the basement when we were growing up, he ran marathons. He was an amazing example of like, physical fitness, like and the value of it, like he would say that I solve so many problems on those 20 mile runs on Sunday. and uh and so that's me like i i get up in the morning i head to either our like garage gym or i go work out with my wife at one of our local group fitness places here and for me that gets my day started right that's a non-negotiable it's like and and you know the kids know it like they know where to find me they'd be like they hear the weights banging in the in the garage unfortunately for my neighbors when I was doing powerlifting that kind of day.

1:02:02And, and, and yeah, I mean, I, I, that's a non-negotiable for me. I love it. Good partner.

1:02:09Dr. Jesse Mills:Pay yourself. Jim, never skip leg day. That works. Well, Stan, I am so grateful for everything, your friendship, your collegiality, the programs we're building, the work we're doing, the work you're doing, and just giving an hour of your time out here to the audience in such an important field that you're working in and the optimism and passion and enthusiasm you bring to medicine and to any community, rural, urban, or otherwise. So Stan Frencher, thanks so much. Where can people find you? Anything you're out promoting other than HubMD as kind of the thing that you're working on most outside of your day job, being a urologist at MLK Hospital?

1:02:51Oh, no. If folks want to find me, still practicing there at MLK Community Hospital. And certainly, like, if they want to learn anything about our work, yeah, they can go to our website, hubmd.org, and learn a little bit about our work and the things that we built at AFIA, which is our technology, means Swahili for health. I love it. And so, yeah. But always looking to partner with good people. Thank you for the opportunity to come and chat. It's always fun to hang out with you, Jess.

1:03:20Dr. Jesse Mills:That's what I say. I keep coming up with excuses to hang out with you because we're both so busy. So I'll take any chance I get, my friend. Stan French, everybody, thanks so much. Long Transit, take us out with that guitar. Jordan, thanks again for hanging in there with us and being the voice of every man. Always an honor being here with you. Thank you both.

1:03:46Dr. Jesse Mills:Let's talk about it. Let's talk about it in the mailroom Let's talk about it Let's talk about it in the mailroom Let's talk about it Let's talk about it in the mailroom The Mailroom with Dr. Jesse Mills was a production of iHeartRadio. It was executive produced by Jordan Runtag. It was edited, mixed, and mastered by Bahid Frazier, and the theme was provided by Long Transit. If you liked what you heard, please subscribe and leave a review. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, check out the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. This program is intended for educational and informational purposes only.

1:04:38It is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Consult your healthcare provider for any medical or other related questions or concerns. The views and discussions aired on this podcast are those of Dr. Mills and do not represent the official positions of UCLA or UCLA Health.

1:05:13Dr. Jesse Mills:to deliver nonstop moisture for up to five days. Five whole days. The shampoo gently cleanses without stripping, and the leave-in and stylers keep curls soft, defined, and nourished long after wash day. Plus, it's free of sulfates, parabens, silicones, and mineral oils. If your curls have been craving real moisture, this is it. So if your hair's curls have been thirsty, go ahead and try the new Cantu Ultra Moisture Collection. Your curls will thank you. Available now at Walmart. at CVS it matters that we're not just in your community but that we're part of it it matters that we're here for you when you need us day or night and we want everyone to feel welcomed and rewarded it matters that CVS is here to fill your prescriptions and here to fill your craving for a tasty and yeah healthy snack at CVS we're proud to serve your community because we believe where you get your medicine matters.

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From the publisher

Dr. Mills sits down with longtime collaborator Dr. Stanley Frencher Jr. for a wide-ranging conversation on healthcare disparities, entrepreneurship, and building systems that actually reach underserved communities. From his upbringing in a family of physicians to leading innovative care models in South Los Angeles, Frencher shares how his work with HubMD is bridging gaps through technology, partnerships, and patient-centered design. The discussion explores how fragmented systems fail vulnerable populations—and what it takes to rebuild them with access, equity, and sustainability in mind. At its core, it’s a powerful look at how one doctor is scaling compassion from individual patients to entire communities.

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