In Episode 312, Stacey Richter talks with Douglas Eby, MD, MPH, CPE, physician executive and VP of medical services at Southcentral Foundation, about the Nuka System of Care in Alaska — a relationship-based, community-centric health system that's achieved the Triple Aim at roughly half the average cost. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN ✅ What the Nuka System of Care is, and how it was rebuilt from the ground up rather than incrementally patched ✅ Why relationship-based, non-transactional care and built-in behavioral health drive its results ✅ How advanced primary care and a multidisciplinary team reduce specialist referrals by 65% ✅ Why the workforce needs to look and feel like the community it serves ✅ Why 95% of what Nuka does is directly translatable to any location in the world WHY THIS MATTERS The Nuka System of Care, which serves Alaska Native and American Indian people, gets closer to the Triple Aim than almost anywhere else in the country: superior health outcomes at about half the average cost, with happy patients (or "customer owners") and happy clinicians. It didn't get there by tweaking a failing model — it rebuilt care around relationships, community, and a multidisciplinary team working at the top of their license. Dr. Eby argues the approach is almost entirely transferable elsewhere, which makes Nuka less a regional curiosity and more a blueprint most health systems have simply never looked at. === LINKS === 🔗 Show Notes with all mentioned links: Episode Page 🔗 Healthcare Industry Acronyms and Terms ✉️ Enjoy this podcast? Subscribe to the free weekly newsletter 🫙 Support the podcast with a small donation to the Tip Jar 📺 Subscribe to our YouTube channel 🎤 Listen on Apple Podcasts 🎤 Listen on Spotify === CONNECT WITH THE RHV TEAM === ✭ LinkedIn ✭ Threads ✭ Bluesky ✭ X 00:00 Introduction 03:52 What's the what and where of the Nuka System of Care? 04:49 What does the word Nuka mean? 05:25 "It's all built around this idea that we're raising … the ability for people to take control of their own health issues, and then we are just advisors … on that journey." 06:39 "The reason why people do pay attention to us is … the proof in the pudding." 09:09 What did the Southcentral Foundation do to create an ideal health system? 11:09 "It's access, it's relationship, it's partnering, it's being known … it's getting at the whole family and the whole person." 12:02 "There's two huge problems with modern medicine all across the world. One is how money is handled … [and the other] is this blind acceptance of the medical model." 14:14 "For 20 years, we've established a base of companionship and relationship." 16:06 What does advanced primary care look like? 19:25 How does this new style of chronic management work, and why does it get better results than Centers of Excellence and other health system models? 23:25 "We refer out to specialists 65% less often than we used to." 24:17 "It's a ballet; it's continual … all day, every day." 25:33 How big are the patient panels in this system? 28:49 "I would say that 95% of what we do here is directly translatable to any location in the world." 29:20 "Your workforce needs to look and feel like the community you're trying to influence." 32:12 "This is all designed and driven by the community that I am hired to support."