Every VIM physician practices Health Management Medicine.
Whoever you work with, the core is the same: a comprehensive baseline, a living plan, your capacity tracked as a vital sign, and a physician who knows your priorities as well as your physiology.
You choose one physician, but you get the thinking of all of them. VIM’s doctors practice as a consortium, comparing notes and sharpening each other’s judgment, so your plan carries the expertise of the whole group.
What differs is the individual. So choosing care at VIM is two steps: first the model, then the physician who fits you. Here’s Rich’s way:
Stanford. Harvard. Brigham and Women’s.
- MD, Stanford School of Medicine; MBA, Stanford Graduate School of Business
- B.S. with honors, Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology, Yale University
- Internal medicine residency, Brigham and Women's Hospital (Harvard Medical School)
- Faculty, Harvard Medical School; Research Faculty, Division of Preventive Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital
- Diplomate, American Board of Internal Medicine
- Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS), NSCA
A letter from Rich.
I became a doctor to help people get better. What I learned is that our system isn’t built to make anyone better, it’s built to step in once you’re already sick. I trained at Stanford and Harvard, practiced at Brigham and Women’s, published the research. And the people who needed me most were never the ones in crisis. They were high-performing and ambitious, quietly watching their health erode under stress and time, with nothing proactive on offer. So I built something different.
I don’t believe health is about chasing a longer life or a perfect number. I believe it’s the foundation for showing up, with energy and attention, iin the moments and for the people that matter. Most of that comes not from more information, which is everywhere now, but from experience: doing the hard thing, together, and building the capacity to do it again.
So my job isn’t to hand you a plan and reassure you. It’s to be a real partner — to know how you’re wired, to push when pushing serves you, and to help you keep growing instead of quietly coasting. That’s the work I love, and the work I’m building VIM to do at its best.
— Rich Joseph.
Performance Medicine: capacity as the goal.
Not optimizing a number. Building the capacity to live on purpose.
Capacity as a vital sign
Rich measures your ability to meet the demands of your life today—and to expand that ability over time—by assessing your physical, mental, and physiological capacity, not just your disease risk.
Experience over information
The plan is the start; the change comes from doing. Rich is known for creating real, sometimes humbling experiences that move people further than any printout can.
Health as a platform for impact
Co-founder and board chair of Vital CxNs, a Boston nonprofit for equitable health outcomes, Rich sees your health as the foundation for the impact you want to have.
Rich might be your health manager if…
- You're high-performing and ambitious, and you can feel your health quietly eroding under the load.
- You want to be pushed to grow, not just reassured — you're open to a little productive discomfort.
- You want a true partner with high expectations of you — not a doctor on speed dial.