Local doctor opens direct primary care practice 

Laura Petrescu

Physician Laura Petrescu recently opened what she says it is the first and only direct primary care practice Upstate New York. The practice is located in Pittsford.

Direct primary care (DPC) is a healthcare model where physicians partner with their patients to provide primary care services under a flat, periodic membership fee. 

All services are included at no extra cost.  

According to a practice’s news release, by moving outside of the administrative burdens of the traditional insurance-based billing system, DPC practices are able to provide a wide spectrum of care in a transparent, affordable manner. 

As the founder and owner of Athena Direct Primary Care & Lifestyle Medicine, Petrescu saw her first patient in January.

Petrescu graduated from Grigore T. Popa Medical School in Iasi, Romania, in 2001. After completing four years of general surgery training at St. Spiridon University Hospital in Iasi, she moved to the United States with her family. She pursued internship and internal medicine residency training through the Rochester General Hospital internal medicine residency program. She was selected by her peers to serve as chief medical resident at Rochester General Hospital. 

Petrescu said she decided to open a direct primary care practice with a mission and vision in mind to offer highly personalized primary care services to the community. Her passion, she said, is to provide personalized whole person care, which includes the bio-psycho-social determinants of health and evidence-based lifestyle interventions to optimize health.