Episode 16: Healing the Healers with Erik Goldman - 25 Years Covering the Business of Integrative Medicine

In this episode, Doctors and Brothers Erik and Davin Lundquist sit down with Erik Goldman, the co-founder and editor of Holistic Primary Care, a publication that has spent 25 years bridging conventional and integrative medicine for over 60,000 physicians. Goldman shares his journey from covering dermatology news to becoming New York bureau chief at International Medical News Group, where he realized mainstream medicine was almost entirely focused on end-stage disease with little attention to prevention or whole-person health. That realization led him and Publisher Meg Sinclair to launch HPC in 2000.The conversation dives deep into the structural forces shaping healthcare — the rise of managed care and HMOs in the 90s, how the "gatekeeper" model distracted primary care from its healing mission, and why insurance-based reimbursement remains the biggest barrier to integrative medicine adoption. Goldman draws on his experience  producing the Heal Thy Practice conferences (2009-2016) to share what made practitioners successful: confronting their psychology around money, breaking out of professional silos, and being willing to take risks even when the path isn't clear.Looking forward, Goldman argues the tipping point won't come from government but from Fortune 500 employers demanding better care models from insurers. He calls for the field's "different tribes" — naturopaths, MDs, nurses, chiropractors — to present a unified front and position integrative medicine as the core of healthcare, not a side dish. Essential listening for any clinician navigating the business side of integrative practice.