The Staff of Dr. Jeffrey N. De Wester Research and Treatment Center,LLC
Jeffrey De Wester M.D.
I met Jeff 30 years ago, at the time I called him Dr. De Wester. He was in practice with his father, also known to me as Dr. De Wester. I could immediately see the unique bond shared between them. Both were intelligent and deep thinkers. The most important ideal shared by the father-and-son was that patients are priority number one. This manifested in both men in many ways. Ensuring that patients were given ample time to interact with their doctor was always a policy shared principle by the Drs. De Wester. Despite the perpetual shortening of interaction time between doctor and patient, Jeff and the DTRC team have never abandoned ensuring that ample time is allotted to each patient so that a relationship between doctor and patient can be formed. While the son shared his father’s thinking about the sacred nature of the physician-patient relationship, there were also differences. The father was stoic and pithy in his communication. In truth, I was very intimidated by him.
However, the younger Dr. De Wester was more outgoing and maintained the gift of gab. I was drawn to Jeff’s ability to engage with audiences of vastly different backgrounds. Whether speaking to a group of healthcare professionals, patients, or industry executives he spoke with great ease and passion. He educates his audiences through storytelling and other techniques used in adult education. Thirty years have now passed, and the practice of medicine is unrecognizable, yet Jeff maintains that patients are priority number one. This isn’t just lip-service, it is a principle that every DTRC team member maintains. It would be easy to drone on about Jeff and his abilities as a physician, but the bottom line is, if, through the process of aging you’ve found that aspects of life that once brought you joy and fulfillment have diminished, you owe it to yourself to work with Jeff and his team at DTRC to determine if hormone optimization can restore what’s been lost. DTRC is committed to helping each patient live their best life.
Since leaving training, Dr. De Wester has served as an expert clinician, researcher, author, lecturer, and consultant. He has achieved unsurpassed experience in sex hormone treatment (SHT) as a result of over 30 years dedicated to researching the effects of SHT on sex hormone responsive tissues, biologic functions, and syndromes; and combining SHT with other treatments to optimize treatment results. The impressive results of this research demonstrated the utility of SHT in a wide variety of conditions and the clear superiority of a treatment approach that attacks ALL the patient’s health concerns, and targets ALL potential contributors to each health concern, and utilizes ALL available effective treatments for such. This revelation led to the creation of DTRC’s comprehensive biopsychosocial model referred to as health optimization therapy(H.O.T.). Further, this research has resulted in a number of original scientific observations, hypotheses, and experimental treatment protocols involving the influence of sex hormones on a diverse array of conditions including mood and anxiety disorders; socialization, confidence, and assertiveness; emotional expression and perception; relationship dynamics and mate selection; sexual appetite, performance, and esteem; judgment and decision-making; migraine headache; fat metabolism, obesity, and diabetes; muscle mass, strength, and function; the prevention and progression of cardiovascular disease; skin laxity and photoaging; hair and nail health; prostate cancer risk and detection.
Other examples of teaching, research, publishing, and consulting include the following:
- Lecturer at national and international conferences for over 25 years.
- Author of over a dozen publications in the scientific literature.
- Formulated and advanced the hypothesis that the negative health outcomes of allergic rhinitis were a consequence of its deleterious effect on sleep and sleep apnea.
- Formulated and advanced the hypotheses that sleep apnea was an unappreciated cause of both resistant depression and dementia.
- Cofounded American Health Education Foundation(AHEF) to facilitate the application of learning theory to medical education to improve its ability to change clinical behavior.
- Since training espoused the view that obesity should be studied and treated as a medical condition, that investment in research would quickly lead to effective treatment, and that the single greatest impediment to such progress has been bigotry within the medical profession and FDA
- Developed and tested through AHEF a large-scale model of case-based medical education (large-scale case-based learning or LS-CBL) to deliver a large number of hours of education in one setting to hundreds of learners.
- Along with a small number of psychiatric and primary care national experts advanced the concept that there is a primary care sphere within the specialty of psychiatry and was a leading advocate, medical educator, and author promoting the practice of such. When Dr. De Wester entered training this was still heresy in the profession at large, though this movement was successful over the next decade in establishing a primary care role in psychiatry. Also advocated the need and created the outline for a textbook of primary care psychiatry (De Wester’s Textbook of Primary Care Psychiatry) to support such work; unfortunately, this remains unpublished due to lack of funding.
- Advocated the need for a journal dedicated to primary care psychiatry and subsequently served as Editor-in-Chief of The International Journal of Psychiatry in the Community 2002-2003. Dr. De Wester’s Bio
- Founder of Pharma Think-tank through which was created the Franco-De Wester Drug Development Equation to provide a scale to more objectively study and predict the likelihood and expense of success in drug development.
- Developed a model for understanding emotional expression to provide patients insight into the emotional terrain of themselves and others they interact with.
- Developed a model for understanding anxiety that utilizes an analogy to complex security/defense systems to provide patients insight into the causes, symptoms, and treatment of the various anxiety disorders.
- Has served as an expert consultant on a national and international levels with pharmaceutical companies such as: Auxillium, Pfizer, Smith Klein Beecham, Endo, Glaxo-Welcome, Bristol Myers Squibb, Watson, Forest, Glaxo-Smith Klein, Wyeth-Ayerst, Liposcience, Arbor, and Sprout,
- Currently a consultant with Eiger Biopharmaceuticals in regard to Lonafarnib, the first FDA-approved treatment for Progeria, and Lambda, a unique agent seeking approval for the treatment of Covid-19 – Rich Franco
Adrienne, R.N.
Since leaving training and entering clinical practice 25 years ago I have also served extensively in medical education, teaching doctors, medical students, mid-level providers, nurses, and CMA’s. It was in the capacity of preceptor that I first met Adrienne Ross in 2010, when she appeared at my office as a part of her CMA training. Her vast potential quickly became evident as she progressed through the rotation. Not only is Adrienne highly intelligent, in all my years of teaching no student has surpassed her eagerness to learn and develop new skills. Whether it be recognizing the side effects of a medication, mastering a new procedure, or developing more effective communication skills, criticism was not only welcomed but eagerly absorbed and translated into refinement of her clinical capabilities. At the end of her rotation, I informed Adrienne that her superior aptitudes indicated that only a lack of appreciation of such could keep her from achieving any degree to which she set her mind, including NP or M.D. Further, I expressed my view that I anticipated that she would not only excel as a clinician but also as a leader among her colleagues. She has since risen to this challenge and achieved academic and clinical excellence. She commenced this impressive path by obtaining her 4-year bachelor’s degree of nursing (BSN-RN) in 3 years while working outside the home and excelling as a mother. Further, upon entering the workforce as an RN she served as critical care and medical-surgical resource nurse at Eskenazi Health for five years and obtained multiple advanced nursing certifications and credit hours in Emergency Nursing and Trauma Nursing specialties (BSN-RN, TCRN, CEN, CMSRN).
She is currently employed at Community Hospital East as an Emergency Room Staff Nurse, Fill-in Charge Nurse, and Part-time Hospital House Supervisor. As predicted, these positions are indicative of how she has excelled as a leader among her colleagues. As Hospital Supervisor she manages patient movement throughout the hospital from admission until discharge, oversees hospital staffing and resources, and works directly with Indianapolis’s critical emergency response systems and teams. Observing her ongoing success with pride, I recently requested she returns to DTRC as Interim Director of Nursing to take advantage of her expertise as we relaunch the practice. In point of fact, her dedication to staying current on the latest advances and recommendations in infection prevention wound care, and related procedural techniques, combined with her leadership experience, have provided expertise that she has readily utilized in her leadership role at DTRC. As Adrienne has always had a love for both aesthetic nursing and emergency nursing, she feels returning to DTRC is allowing her to fulfill the best of both worlds.
-JND
Natalie
Perhaps the most important position in regard to DTRC’s survival and success over the last dozen years has been that of executive assistant. The decision to remain the patient’s advocate by breaking free of contracts with insurers and refusing employment with health organizations triggered a prolonged struggle for survival.
Throughout this transition, Natalie’s broad expertise, ability to assimilate large amounts of information, adaptability to constantly changing circumstances, and colossal work ethic, all while maintaining a heart of compassion, were critical to our success. Without such leadership, it would’ve been impossible to navigate effectively through this struggle and relaunch as a unique healthcare model.
Natalie’s critical leadership contribution has been observed by colleagues and fellow business owners, frequently leading to the question, “how did you come to make the decision to hire someone with a background in construction management as the administrative head of a health care institution”. In fact, I came to know Natalie over a number of years as a patient, during which time I observed her rise from a new home sales assistant to an executive assistant to the senior vice president of construction in one of the largest home construction companies in the state. Her ability to master the multiplicity of tasks and diplomacy required of an executive assistant of a large company; impressive capacity for hard work and long hours; a sense of personal ownership in regard to the company’s financial success; ability to balance femininity, professionalism, and assertiveness while working effectively with construction workers; and a keen sensitivity of the needs of others around her all contributed to my conviction that she was the right person to take on the administrative helm of DTRC. Looking back over the years as we relaunch the company, it is clear that we made the right choice!
-JND
