The Armor Men's Health Show

Dr. Hakeem of RiverRock Medical Talks Concierge-Style Medicine and Platelet Rich Plasma

• Dr. Sandeep Mistry and Donna Lee

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Thanks for tuning in to the Armor Men’s Health Hour Podcast today, where we bring you the latest and greatest in medical and urology care and the best urology humor out there.

In this segment, Donna Lee is joined by friend of the practice, Dr. Zain Hakeem of RiverRock Medical Clinic. Dr. Hakeem offers a concierge-style primary care practice where patients pay a membership fee for exceptional, performance-based medical care. Today, Donna Lee and Dr. Hakeem discuss the benefits of concierge medicine and his development of River Rock Medical as well as his innovative use of PRP, or platelet rich plasma, technology. Dr. Hakeem uses an in-office centrifuge to spin plasma out of patients' blood and then inject that plasma into damaged tissues to help them regenerate. This minimally invasive procedure has been shown to speed recovery of injuries and even regrowth of thinning hair. The best part? This service--and many, many more state of the art therapies--are included in patients' annual membership. If you or someone you love would like to learn more about the uses of platelet rich plasma or performance-driven, concierge-style primary care, give Dr. Hakeem a call today at (512) 213-0700, email him at z@riverrockmedical.com, or visit his awesome website at riverrockmedical.com. 

If you enjoyed today’s episode, don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share us with a friend! As always, be well!

Dr. Mistry is a board-certified urologist and has been treating patients in the Austin and Greater Williamson County area since he started his private practice in 2007.

We enjoy hearing from you! Email us at armormenshealth@gmail.com and we’ll answer your question in an upcoming episode!

Phone: (512) 238-0762
Email: Armormenshealth@gmail.com
Website: Armormenshealth.com

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Speaker 1:

Welcome back to the Armor Men's Health Hour with Dr. Mistry and Donna Lee.

Donna Lee:

Welcome to the Armor Men's Health Hour. This is Donna Lee. Dr. Mistry has stepped away for just a moment or a segment. If you're listening, the Armor Men's Health Hour has podcasts out there they're only 10, 11 minutes long. So when I say"Armor Men's Health Hour," it's really like"Armor Men's Health Segment," if you're listening to the podcast, but if you're listening this weekend on the KLBJ, News Radio KLBJ, you're listening to the whole magical hour, what is known as the Armor Men's Health Hour. Our website is armormenshealth.com. Our email addresses armormenshealth@gmail.com. And our phone number during the week is(512) 238-0762. You can call and ask for me, which a lot of people do. It's very interesting. I get to answer all these male ED questions that I...

Dr. Hakeem:

That's the danger of being on air.

Donna Lee:

Exactly. I defer immediately to one of our providers, but I will get you on the schedule and answer your question as best as possible with the help of an actual MD. I do joke this is the"Dr. Donna" show, but it really is not. This is the Dr. Mistry and Donna Lee show. We have a special guest with us today. We have lots of providers that come in as our guests, but this is one of our partnering primary care physicians, Dr. Hakeem. Welcome to our show.

Dr. Hakeem:

Thank you very much.

Donna Lee:

Wonderful. Yeah. Thanks for coming in. And I want to talk about everything that is fabulous about you. What is concierge? Most of our men listeners on KLBJ are of course men. They're 35 to I guess 75ish. But they're going to want to know what you do, why it's different, your website information, and concierge. So tell us all about River Rock Medical.

Dr. Hakeem:

Concierge medicine started like in the nineties. A couple of doctors who had worked with some of the NBA teams said, Hey, why don't we skip the whole insurance thing? Just have our patients pay us a yearly retainer and we'll provide a higher level of service.

Donna Lee:

Right. And you're at their beck and call for the most part.

Dr. Hakeem:

Correct. And so that's kind of the, the, or that was the idea for them and that they started MD squared, which is probably the biggest or their original name. And they provide, you know, they'll go with you to your doctor's appointments and, you know, arrange an Uber for you. And I don't do any of that. And so...

Donna Lee:

Youre' like,"I'm good. I'll just, I'll treat medicine."

Dr. Hakeem:

Yeah. And so I sort of compare it to that's sort of the Bentley version of luxury, where it's comfortable and stylish. And I'm more of the Ferrari version of luxury where you don't get an AC and you don't get power locks and you don't get power windows.

Donna Lee:

You don't get a back seat.

Dr. Hakeem:

That's right. Because all of those are extra weight and the reason you buy a Ferrari is for performance.

Donna Lee:

There you go. Nice.

Dr. Hakeem:

And so, yeah, so that's kind of my model. And I'm all about kind of doing the, just what's the absolute best thing for the patient.

Donna Lee:

Right. And we've had other concierge type partners on, but I liked what you said before we started the show. You said, I said,"Do your patients just text you all day long? Like the other concierge guys told us." And you were like,"No, they don't need to. I give them all the information upfront. And they they're self-sufficient."

Dr. Hakeem:

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, th th that my patients are a remarkably motivated group.

Donna Lee:

Yeah, you said athletes and...

Dr. Hakeem:

Yeah, I've got several, I mean, you know, we've got people who are hoping to become athletes too. I mean, you know, they're, they're overweight right now, but they're looking in, they're ready to make a change. I have got race car drivers and CEOs and, you know, they're, they're just very high-performing guys. They usually bring their girlfriends or wives along for the, along for the ride, but it's usually the guy kind of driving the whole urge to improve.

Donna Lee:

That's where it's different with like our clinic population. I think the men are forced to come in, you know? By the time they have their erectile dysfunction or their testosterone drops, their wives are pushing them through the door with you, they're walking in and going, hello.

Dr. Hakeem:

Certainly, you know, when I was in residency or when I've done non or more insurance-based care, you know, I've had entire conversations that go through the wife, like, you know, I'll ask the guy,"Well, why are you here?""Well, she said I had to come.""Okay, well, why, what does she think is wrong?"

Donna Lee:

Yeah, exactly."What does she say is wrong with your penis?"

Dr. Hakeem:

Yeah."How long does she say that's been going on?" You know, you can't, you can't ask the question straight. Right. But no. So, you know, a lot of my guys come in for either weight loss or improve performance or longevity. Longevity is a big one, big one. Or wanting to do whatever they want to race their cars better, or, you know, whatever. And so a lot of the focus is on achieving whatever goals they've kind of set for themselves and a sort of no-holds-barred, because there's no insurance company in the room. All my visits are an hour long. And you know, I try to schedule the first three visits as a group to some degree. And after you've spent three hours with me getting tested, you know, I do an echocardiogram and EKG and Vo2 Max testing and all kinds of stuff, and there's not a whole lot more to text about unless something comes up.

Donna Lee:

Unless they're just a little lonely and they want to reach out to Dr. Hakeem.

Dr. Hakeem:

Which is totally fine, too. Actually, one of the best compliments I've ever received: I had a patient come in and she said,"You know, I just need a break. And this is my only safe space." So we just hung out for an hour and talked and she felt better.

Donna Lee:

Oh, that's so nice.

Dr. Hakeem:

Yeah. So we get that too. We, we do certainly have some comfort modalities that are available and, you know, I work with people on some of the soft stuff. But it's not like I don't, but you know, certainly my patient population is select for more driven performance oriented stuff.

Donna Lee:

Sure. Select we briefly discussed PRP. It's always fascinating to me, platelet rich plasma. And that's always a hot topic in the medical field. And I know with a lot of men. So tell me what you do with PRP and how it helps your male patients.

Dr. Hakeem:

I've got a Dual-Spin system, the Emcyte system. And got a couple of guys who are in the process of living they're fairly aggressively active, you know, sort of high sport. Surfing...

Donna Lee:

Bull riding.

Dr. Hakeem:

I don't think I have any bull riders. But, you know, race, car driving and, you know, the skateboarding and, you know, all kinds of stuff have injured as they've gotten older X, Y, or Z, right. Shoulder, ankle, elbow, whatever it is. And, you know, super[ inaudible] tear, or rotator cuff tear or whatever it is. And, PRPs got some good evidence that it can regenerate some of these damaged tissues without requiring more invasive surgeries. And so, I'm able to draw their blood, spin it in the office. And under ultrasound, with ultrasound in hand, I'm able to see the damaged tissue and inject it directly with the, their own plasma.

Donna Lee:

Really? So you can do that right in the office?

Dr. Hakeem:

Right in the office. Yep.

Donna Lee:

Oh, that's awesome. Thought you'd have to go to a surgery center or something.

Dr. Hakeem:

Nope. Yeah. It's, it's a, that's kind of the nice thing is that, you know, I can do it for you. And, you know, I spent the early part of my career as a hospital physician. So I'm familiar with invasive procedures and ultrasound. And I do a lot, even through the pandemic, I've done a lot of ICU care and so I'm pretty comfortable doing procedures and I'm able to kind of get these things done right there in the office. It's included in their membership with me. There's no additional, and that's the--you know, I try to do their memberships so that it's all included. We don't, you know, if I do labs in the office or I do PRP, or I do whatever it is I'm doing, I'm not charging you every time.

Donna Lee:

OK. I didn't realize that.

Dr. Hakeem:

It's just a lump sum. Yeah. It's just a lump sum for everything.

Donna Lee:

Well, that's good to know. I thought it would be an initial, initial annual fee, but then every little thing would be another cost, but you're saying that's included in the membership?

Dr. Hakeem:

Right. Right.

Donna Lee:

Tell me about PRP and men with hair loss.

Dr. Hakeem:

So, yeah. So that's the other thing. So I, that was kind of fun, with a funny thing is both, or three of the cases, you know, I injected the shoulder or the ankle and I said,"Look, we've got a little, we've got a couple of MLs left. Right? We've we've injected the, the damaged tissue. But..."

Donna Lee:

That sounds like me when I go get Botox. They're like,"We got some left. Where you want it?"

Dr. Hakeem:

And so, you know, I said,"This also works for a male pattern baldness and a receding hairline." So, it doesn't work if the, if on the scalp there is no hair. Like once it's, the follicles are dead, completely, they're dead. But, you know, there's that early thinning phase where there is hair, but it's thinner. Right? And there's fewer follicles per sort of square centimeter. And PRP is great at, again, it's kind of a regenerative technology. So the idea is that it sort of turns the clock back a couple of years--two, five, depends on the person. And depending, you know, you, you might need multiple treatments.

Donna Lee:

So it'll help thinning hair, but if you're totally bald is not going to give you a head full of hair.

Dr. Hakeem:

Correct. But if it's thinning, you catch it relatively early, you can kind of turn the clock back. Right? And so we had a couple of areas where,"Okay. It's starting to thin on the crown or starting to, you know, the widow's peak or whatever." And so injected those with the spare. And, I haven't had, I have had people come in just for the PRP for the, for the hair loss--less, I think I've only had one or two that came just specifically for that. And we were obviously able to cover a wider area because I had the full sample, I hadn't wasted. I hadn't spent some on their torn rotator cuff. But yeah, it, we've had great results. In fact, I got home, I got myself. I had a friend, you can't see the back of my head, but I had a friend...

Donna Lee:

He saw the back of your head.

Dr. Hakeem:

Yes, he did. And yeah, I had great results. I had, I was thinning pretty significantly, just one treatment. And it does take three months, because the hair growth cycle takes that long, so you don't really see the result. And I've been talking about doing another one, but actually I had a good enough result the first time that, and I also shaved my head for the pandemic, so. I had long hair down to my shoulders actually, and it was starting to thin. But, so I injected it.

Donna Lee:

But you have a nice full beard, so that's a good thing.

Dr. Hakeem:

It fell off my head and landed on my face.

Donna Lee:

Happens to the best of them.

Dr. Hakeem:

At some point you have to go full Bruce Willis, right?

Donna Lee:

Exactly. A little Die Hard here and there doesn't hurt. So tell patients, people, how they can get ahold of you, your website and your phone number.

Dr. Hakeem:

Sure. The best place is the website riverrockmedical.com. And all my information is there hopefully laid out in an attractive format. The, my phone number is(512) 213-0700. My email is Z, the letter Z, z@riverrockmedical.com. The website has the most information and you can fact book your first appointment even through the website. I do, again, part of being at the forefront is being digitally advanced. And so, I have my own app for patients after they sign up and the website certainly reflects that it hopefully allows things to be pretty smooth.

Donna Lee:

Perfect. Wonderful. Well, thank you for all of that information. If you have questions for Dr. Hakeem, you can email us at armormenshealth@gmail.com. You can also call me at(512) 238-0762. This is the Armor Men's Health Hour, and you can listen to our podcasts for free wherever you listen to podcasts. Thank you so much, Dr. Hakeem.

Dr. Hakeem:

Thank you.

Speaker 1:

The Armor Men's Health hour. We'll be right back. If you have questions for Dr. Mystery, email him at armor men's health ed gmail.com.