Building Trust and Redesigning Primary Care: A Conversation with Town Square Health CEO Dr. David Buchanan

10/30/25

In a recent episode of the Healthcare Rap podcast, host Jared Johnson sat down with Dr. David Buchanan, CEO and co-founder of Town Square Health, to discuss how our team is building a new kind of value-based, multi-specialty practice. Their conversation explored what it means to rebuild patient trust, rethink care delivery, and design a healthcare experience that truly centers around the individual.

A New Approach to Value-Based Care

Town Square Health may be new—having just incorporated in June—but our mission is bold and grounded in experience.

“I’ve been a primary care physician for 25 years,” Dr. Buchanan explained. “One of the things I love to do is keep learning about how to deliver primary care better, and how to use primary care to generate value through value-based care.”

We plan to open our first centers in 2026, with a focus on delivering high-quality, coordinated care that is built on long-term relationships rather than one-off transactions. For Dr. Buchanan, that bridge starts with relationships.

“The heart of primary care is building trust with patients,” he said. “It might sound old school, but it’s as true today as it was 50 years ago. The exciting part is that new tools can finally remove the bureaucratic friction that frustrates people and refocus care on those relationships.” He sees this as the central opportunity for Town Square Health: to make trust—not technology—the foundation of every encounter. Technology, he believes, should enable relationships, not replace them.

Simplifying Care with Technology and Teamwork

To bring that relational model to life, Town Square Health plans to rethink the structure of care delivery.

Rather than an “assembly line” approach—where patients interact with a long list of providers, specialists, and staff—each patient will have a consistent, two-person care team that handles both in-person and virtual communication.

“When someone comes in, they’ll interact with the same two people- their PCP and a Care Concierge- every single time,” Dr. Buchanan explained. “They’ll know their names, they’ll know who to reach out to, and they’ll get a timely response. Behind the scenes, AI and human experts will handle the complex coordination so those relationships can stay front and center. The front end of care should feel completely different than it does today.”

Integrating Specialty Care Into Primary Care

Another innovation at Town Square Health is how we will integrate multi-specialty and primary care into a single, unified experience.

Today, patients—especially older adults with multiple conditions—often see different specialists who don’t coordinate with one another. “They’re expected to knit together their own care plans,” Dr. Buchanan said. “That’s confusing and frustrating.”

To fix this, Town Square Health will bring specialists directly into the primary care visit through telehealth consultations. The patient, primary care provider, and specialist will all meet together.

“If the cardiologist and PCP disagree on which medication to use, they can work it out on the spot,” he said. “More importantly, the patient sees that everyone is on the same page. It helps rebuild confidence that their care team is truly coordinated.”

Looking Ahead

As Town Square Health prepares for our 2026 launch, Dr. Buchanan is optimistic about what’s ahead.

“Our goal is simple,” he said. “We want to build a health system where patients feel known, where relationships come first, and where technology clears the path for human connection.”

Host Jared Johnson summed it up well: “Healthcare as it should be.”