Muncie Primary Care’s newest addition, Dr. Nick Berlon, comes to Muncie from over 3,000 miles away in the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska—but no culture shock for him, he says.
The Atlanta native brings with him a girlfriend who grew up in Evansville and graduated from Ball State. The two have bought a house in town.
Still, he’s looking forward to the many changes his move will bring to his work and comes equipped with some frontier resourcefulness and ingenuity.
In Alaska, where he practiced for five years (and his girlfriend taught in a one-room schoolhouse!), he wasn’t able to make easy referrals to specialists, who were mostly an expensive plane ride away. Care for serious problems needed serious planning.
“I thought it would be a good learning opportunity,” he said, and he wasn’t wrong, having to learn at least a little in a whole lot of areas in order to help his patients achieve the best possible life quality with the least amount of life upheaval.
Dr. Berlon earned his undergraduate degree in neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University and his MD from Duke University Medical School. He completed his residency at the University of Washington, where students served one-month rotations at the Alaska clinic where he would later go to stay.
Coming from a place where wellness visits are few and most patients are in crisis, Dr. Berlon is excited to work with people more proactively on their health—a passion of his.
“I see primary care as the glue that holds all the other specialties together. How can I show you or explain in a different way?” he says. “I try to make an effort to listen.”
Also interested in healthcare management and policy, he’s anxious to learn more about how a private practice is run and says he was impressed with Dr. Megan Zelasko’s business savvy and office manager Brooklyn Morris’ organization.
“I knew I’d be in good hands,” he says.
And he’s putting down roots. He and his girlfriend are already discussing building their own home someday.