Angela Tran is board-certified in internal medicine and obesity medicine. She graduated from Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences in 2004, and did her residency training at Exempla St. Joseph Hospital in Denver, Colorado.
Working as a primary care physician for five years, Angela started to realize that she was prescribing more and more medications and referring her patients for surgery for treatment of conditions where ultimately the root cause was obesity.
“This was not what I envisioned as helping people when I decided to become a doctor,” she told TimelyVisit. “I decided to redefine my relationship with my patients and pursued a specialty in weight loss so I could stop my patients' medications that were no longer needed and provide their doctors with progress reports that, due to their weight loss, they were now living a healthy lifestyle.”
Angela went on to open her own practice, Med-Fit in September 2012.
Short for Medical Fitness, Angela told TimelyVisit that Med-Fit was created to help patients achieve the four normal standards of good health: normal body mass index (BMI), normal blood sugar, normal blood pressure and normal cholesterol.
Filling a gap in the market that is a matter of life and death
Today, more than one in three adults in the US are considered to be obese, and obesity is the common cause for multiple leading causes of death such as heart disease, diabetes, and stroke.
In fact, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the medical cost of obesity in the U.S. stands at a whopping $147 billion per annum.
Furthermore, research shows that patients are more likely to be successful with weight loss under the supervision of a physician in an organized program.
However, there is an extensive gap between obesity care and physician care. This is due to several reasons that include time restraints in a busy practice, inadequate effective treatment options, and insufficient training in weight management.
So Angela created the optimal medical team to assist patients with weight loss, and they became the only clinic in Colorado with diet, exercise, and a doctor all under one roof.
How did Angela Tran start and build Med-Fit?
“The true moment when I decided I needed to make an abrupt change to my career was when I was stuck in the middle of traffic at 7pm after another long day at work,” Angela shared.
“At that time of my life, I was about to get married and always wanted to start a family, but realized that I would not last in a career that had me going home late at night on a consistent basis.”
“Work became more about filling out prescriptions, signing paperwork, and answering phone calls and emails, and less about truly helping others,” she added.
However, Angela really wasn't sure how she was going to make a change until she was randomly introduced to a doctor in Texas who specialized in weight loss.
That doctor explained to her that she too was once in a similar situation, about to leave medicine, when she discovered this weight loss specialty and was now in love with her job again. After an hour long conversation, Angela was sold and thus began her year-long journey to start her business.
However, she had no previous business experience at all, and initially thought to herself that she was crazy for trying to start something she knew nothing about. Angela decided to start searching the Internet for resources and came across the Denver Small Business Development Center (SBDC).
She attended their business start-up basics class, knowing that she would then be assigned a business counselor. She learned how to write a business plan, and then everything took off.
In between seeing patients, Angela was making phone calls to her banker, lawyer, accountant, etc. She even applied for a SBA loan and was approved.
It took about a year, but the day eventually came when Angela officially quit and left the security of a job and embarked upon the career of her life.
In their first year in business, Med-Fit managed to reel in $200,000 in gross sales, and doubled their sales to $400,000 in their second year.
However, Angela told Timely Visit that the true success is that over 80 per cent of their patients lost an average of 50 lbs in their 6 month program and they have a high maintenance success rate too.
Also in their first year in business, Angela received the OPTIFAST Inspire Award in 2013. The OPTIFAST Inspire Award recognizes healthcare professionals for their dedication and passion to helping patients lose weight and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Created by Nestle Health Sciences, OPTIFAST is the medically supervised weight management program that she runs.
Angela revealed that Med-Fit has outgrown their office space in just the two years that they have been in business and are now looking for a location with double the square footage to expand into.
They also aim to grow Med-Fit into a million dollar company and start a franchise. “With obesity increasing at such a rapid rate, it will be that much more important to create a trusted brand with medical supervision to help patients lose weight and get back to a healthy lifestyle.”
Angela attributes the success she has enjoyed with Med-Fit to the support of her husband, family and friends. “Starting a business has been the biggest risk I have ever taken, and I would not have been able to make this leap without their support.”She also points to her passion for helping patients lose weight. “When patients meet me for the first time, my passion comes across very easily,” she remarked. “I believe that I finally found my true calling, and it drives me to be successful so I can help as many people as I can.”
What challenges has Angela Tran faced with Med-Fit?
Angela told TimelyVisit that one of her biggest challenges is awareness by doctors and the general community that an obesity medicine specialty exists.
“When I was a primary care doctor, I too didn't know that there was a doctor that specialized in weight loss,” she disclosed. “With my lack of knowledge of weight loss counseling, I was not much help to my patients other than from my own personal reading.”
Although there are various commercial programs available on losing weight, the prevalence of medical diseases associated with obesity is increasing and patients are going to require medical supervision in order to lose weight safely.
So to overcome this major challenge, Angela has personally visited many doctors’ offices to give them success stories of their patients that she has helped, and provide them with education on weight management.
She has also participated in a variety of community events to help raise awareness. She and the Med-Fit staff often participate in 5K races throughout the year and also often encourage their patients to participate too.
What has Angela Tran learned from running Med-Fit?
“Passion leads to drive which leads success,” Angela advised. “So the more passion you have, the more drive you have to succeed. There are going to be many failures in the beginning before success, and if you truly love what you do, you will find a way.”
Another important lesson Angela has for those interested in entrepreneurship is to surround oneself with other successful business owners and find a mentor. “I never took a business class in college so the real world became my classroom, and I looked for other business owners as my teachers to help me learn what it took to succeed in business.”
And finally, the last lesson Angela has gained from running Med-Fit is to get out her comfort zone. “Although it can be scary to take risks and step outside of my comfort zone, I continue to be rewarded every time. The more I grow, the business grows.”