2026 March Newsletter
What’s in this month’s newsletter?
⭐️ Program Spotlight: A Look at Your Care in 2025 💙
⭐️ Staff Spotlight: Shannon Burton the Amazing Medical Assistant!
⭐️ Trending: Colorectal Cancer Screening Awareness Month
⭐️ Next FB Live: “What we have learned after 3 years of our Healthy Living Program and prescribing GLP1s” with Cat and Dr Brie March 30th @ 12:30
A Look at Your Care in 2025 💙
Behind every visit, message, and program is time, attention, and real people caring for you.
In 2025, our team worked hard to make sure you had access to the care, support, and communication you needed — whether that was in person, through a program, or a quick message in the portal.Our practice is crafted intentionally - with around 600 members we are about 1/2 the size of most DPC clinics. We aim to remain small so we can deliver personalized, holistic care that takes time.Here’s what that looked like this year:3,009 provider visits caring for members and families at both our Denver and Parker offices293 Osteopathic Manipulative Treatments (OMT) to support pain, mobility, and healing58 HeartMath & Reiki sessions for nervous system and stress support969 clinical support visits with our medical assistants for labs, vitals, follow-ups, and hands-on help15,200 portal messages — real conversations between you and our teamThat’s a lot of communication, coordination, and care happening behind the scenes every single day.What these numbers really mean is this: you had access when you needed us.Thank you for trusting our team with your health over the years. We’re grateful to care for you.
Get To Know Shannon Burton, MA
Shannon is a Colorado Native, originally from Pueblo, CO. She has been with DOPC for 7 years. She is the BEST phlebotomist ever! She is also an efficient and kind medical assistant who keeps our practice running in front of and behind the scenes, accomplishing nearly 1,000 visits herself in 2025!She has 3 kitties and they sometimes come to work with her, their names are Taz, Jackie and Tommy. Shannon gives great hugs. Originally trained as a medical transcriptionist before becoming a medical assistant, she is fast at typing!! Went to school as a court reporter back in the day when the building the DOPC is in now, was Mile High School of Court Reporting. Make sure to say HI when you are in the office. You will probably meet her in the lab where she does her magic!
TRENDING:
Colorectal Cancer Screening Awareness Month
You might have heard about the death of James Van Der Beek from Dawson’s Creek. He was 48. Or perhaps you remember when Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman died on August 28, 2020, at age 43.I will never forget the message I received from my beloved friend, coach, mentor and business Lawyer Appalenia (Apple) Udell - “Goodbye Brie! I am so glad we got to know each other in this life. Hug emoji…”The text caught me off guard as I had no idea what was going on with Apple at the time. I text her back “I have been thinking of you! Where are you going??” She was in hospice. She died a week later. 45 years old.What sews together all of these cases? Stage 4 Colon Cancer.I met Apple in 2016 and at our first meeting I knew she saw what I dreamed of creating in Direct Osteopathic Primary Care, something different than what was currently out there in healthcare. She was a leader in the DPC movement and she knew that our clinic would be different: holistic and uniquely Osteopathic. She knew I also wanted to follow my values to find a way to continue to accept Medicaid insurance for those who had been following me from practice to practice for years since residency.She saw my dream, she helped me bring it to life. We had walking meetings & laughing meetings. We advocated together for DPC to become legal in the state of Colorado. We were paving new paths in healthcare, together. I miss her so much.I turned 45 and got my Cologuard cancer screening promptly, in her honor and in honor of her wonderful husband and two young daughters.What is the best way to get screened? The one you will DO! Cologuard is easy - detecting cancer DNA and microscopic blood (a sign of cancer). If it is positive you need a colonoscopy to investigate further. If it is negative you should rescreen in 3 years. It is SO EASY! If you want the gold standard, Colonoscopies can not only detect cancer, they can remove polyps and let you know if your future cancer risk is high - as some polyps can become deadly, while others not as likely. I know that you don’t want the colonoscopy prep, no one does! Think of it as a cleanse. :)Get screened for colon cancer. It isn’t hard to do. It could save your life.With Love, Dr Brie
Practice Update:
Good Bye to in office Spotfire, PCR testing
When rapid PCR testing became more readily available after COVID, we were thrilled. Being able to detect a full panel of viruses and bacteria in just 15 minutes felt like a game changer.
Unfortunately, tools like this are often built for big systems, not small clinics like ours. The company we have been using for Spotfire in office rapid PCR testing wants us to run ~300 tests per year — and we simply don’t see that volume (<100 annually).
So we’ll be saying goodbye to in-office Spotfire testing.
Like most clinics (and grocery stores!), we’ll continue offering rapid strep, COVID, flu, and RSV testing in the office.
The good news? You know we’re resourceful. We’ve partnered with Centennial Diagnostics to offer a send-out respiratory PCR panel with 24-hour turn around time for results. This allows us to continue identifying those persistent, sneaky infections — like whooping cough, which we’ve seen this year.
Centennial can bill some insurance plans. For self-pay patients, the cost will be around $169–$235. While that may sound high, these panels often run around $1,200+ elsewhere.
We’re committed to finding smart, affordable ways to bring you the care you need.
Upcoming Events
Next Facebook LIVE:“What we have learned after 3 years of our Healthy Living Program and prescribing GLP1s”with Cat and Dr Brie📅 March 30th | 🕒 12:30 PM👉 Follow Our Page 👈
Last Month’s FB Live - Why I changed my mind on Testosterone Pellets with Dr Brie