Vicky Borgia, MD is a family physician who opened her DPC clinic, Radiance Medical Group in Philadelphia, PA in the fall of 2019. She discusses her experience in medicine, and access to care for the LGTBQ+ community as well as her DPC journey with Maryal Concepcion, MD host of My DPC Story. As a socially anxious introvert, Dr. Borgia was timid about putting herself out there and marketing her practice. However, she aligned with the right people and got comfortable with the idea by focusing on the service that she is providing.
“I’m here to serve a community and advocate for a community and I’ve had decades of activism experience. My activism in med school was queer and reproductive justice focused.” - Vicky Borgia, MD
Dr. Vicky Borgia’s direct primary care practice works on providing access for the LGTBQ+ community who are often double or triple marginalized. Her practice offers gender affirming care and reproductive health care for women in addition to other primary care services. For Vicky, showing up at her practice means coming in as her authentic, whole self, providing care and advocating for her patients of diverse backgrounds. Her experience in the community having worked at a major LGBTQ+ health center in Philadelphia and being a part of groups such as Queer Exchange Philly has gotten her and her practice noticed as friendly and welcoming to the LGBTQ+ community.
Dr. Borgia suggests that other DPC clinics can attract patients who identify as LGBTQ+ by having an office that is inviting and posting signage that confirms this such as pride symbols and explicitly stating on your website that you are gender-affirming and welcome people of all races, sexual orientations, gender identities, national origins, gender expressions, etc.
My DPC Story host, Maryal Concepion, MD asks Vicky Borgia, MD about the challenges the transgendered community faced during the pandemic. Dr. Borgia acknowledges that gender-affirming hormone therapy was not as accessible during the pandemic with the major health systems. However, this was not an issue for her patients since her clinic, Radiance Medical Group was already set up with telemedicine while many larger care providers were not as equipped or prepared to make this adjustment.
In closing, Maryal encourages Vicky to share some more details of her DPC journey and how she would advise other clinicians and individuals on the path to become a doctor or clinician to navigate starting their own direct primary care practice. “Be brave, find your people and know that there are people out there [to support you].”
Learn more about Dr. Vicky Borgia by listening to the full podcast via My DPC Story.