For Leaders Who Don’t Have Time to Get Sick

Top performers guard their calendars, delegate relentlessly and optimize every hour of the day. Health, ironically, is often the first thing pushed to “someday.” Dr. Alexa Raymond, a board-certified family medicine physician practicing in Rhode Island, has built her career around a different idea: for the people carrying the most responsibility — at work, at home and in their communities — health isn’t something to set aside because you’re busy. It’s something to invest in because you’re busy.

Dr. Raymond describes her role plainly: she is the captain of her patients’ care team. Off the clock, she stays active through cycling, hiking and kayaking, with the occasional 5K along the way — the same everyday commitment she brings to her patients’ health.

Ask Dr. Raymond why she went into medicine, and the answer is simple: she loves helping people. In practice, that shows up as a genuine interest in each patient’s story — not just their chart. Some of her favorite moments happen when she sits down with a patient to understand what they actually want out of their health, then builds a plan, grounded in prevention, to help them get there.

Through her MDVIP-affiliated practice, Dr. Raymond maintains a smaller member base so she can spend real time with each patient — a comprehensive annual wellness evaluation, advanced screenings and diagnostic tests, and a personalized plan built around each person’s actual goals and risk factors, not a generic checklist. As a convenience to members, the practice also offers same- or next-day appointments that are unhurried and start on time. For an executive whose calendar is booked in fifteen-minute increments, a physician who actually has time to listen is its own kind of relief.

Dr. Raymond also teaches in the Doctoring Program at Brown University, mentoring a small class of students each year in the human side of medicine — empathy, listening and genuine connection with patients from every walk of life. It’s the same philosophy that shapes her own practice: know the person, not just the patient.

For the business leaders who’ve spent years optimizing everything except their own health, Dr. Raymond offers a simple case: the same discipline that built your career deserves to be applied to your health, too — before a crisis forces the issue. That’s the practice she’s built, and she’s currently accepting new patients who are ready to make that investment.