Black Business Spotlight: Arise Medical and Wellness

‘A more personal touch’ to health care

Dr. Nana Wilmot-DeSouza is the owner of Arise Medical and Wellness, now thriving in its second year. Specializing in primary care and immigration health services, Arise Medical and Wellness is committed to providing comprehensive, compassionate care to the community. Dr. Wilmot-DeSouza (W-D) now employs a full-time team of three. 

MSR: What inspired you to launch/start your business?

W-D: Well, as a physician I knew there was a better way to do health care and not make it so large, but make it personal and make it more accessible for people who look like me, and people who felt like they were just looking for something extra—a more personal touch to medicine.

MSR: Tell me a little bit about your practice?

W-D: Our practice is centered around primary care and lifestyle medicine. I’m a board-certified family and lifestyle medicine physician, so lifestyle medicine is a form of medicine that incorporates nutrition, exercise and relationships. You know, all of those things that we don’t pay attention to, but are actually an important part of medicine.

We do medical weight loss, nutrition, health coaching, and refugee health.

MSR: I read on your website that you do missions trips. Tell me about that.

W-D: I started doing medical missions in college. I do one every year in Honduras. There’s a hospital there called the Jungle Hospital. The most incredible moment is seeing the gratitude that the people have for you.

And it’s simple medicine that we do out there. But it’s the most gratifying because you actually see tangible changes in them and it’s often just the little  moments. That’s what makes it the most impactful for me.

They have a lot of back and knee pain. Also it’s just as simple as Tylenol. I’ll give it to them and they’re overjoyed that somebody gave them Tylenol. Or, you know, they were out in the sun a lot, so just giving them sunglasses to protect their eye health or teaching them how to eat better.

So it’s training them to use the resources they have to live better and healthier.

MSR: How does your business impact the community?

W-D: Our business model is to have people know that we are here for them, because oftentimes people go to these places and it’s like they’re not heard. And so we want them to know we are here. We can listen to you and we can identify with what you’re going through.

In terms of culture, I feel like cultural competence is the biggest thing that’s missing in health care, and we’re able to provide that in a unique way because of our personal experiences.

MSR: What would you consider your business’ hero service or product?

W-D: Immigration health is big because Minnesota has a huge immigrant population and often they are looking for a place where they can do their exams to be able to move on to get a green card. And so we do quite a bit of that along with primary care. So those are the two biggest things we do.

MSR: What has been your biggest challenge in owning a business?

W-D: Resources are the hardest—knowing who to contact, where to go, what to do. I feel like those are the biggest hurdles as a small business that you don’t have compared to the larger health systems. They have all the resources at hand. But for us, every little bit matters.

MSR: What has been the most rewarding part of owning your business?

W-D: Changing people’s lives. Seeing that some people come to me mostly because I’m African American or, you know, I have Ghanaian lineage. And so they come to me. I can speak their cultural language.

I am conversant in Spanish. And so people appreciate that. And so seeing a diabetic, you know, who did not have much success, but now we can say, listen, if you want to eat a taco, we’ll make it this way, do it this way, do it that way. So that’s the most rewarding because we can siphon the big things and make it applicable to their life stories so that it matters to them and it changes the trajectory of their health.

MSR: What’s your vision/goals for your business? What does success look like for you?

W-D: Our vision is to grow it into multiple cities, so not just the Savage Lake area, but go to South Minneapolis and different areas. But most of all, to provide culturally competent care no matter where we find ourselves. To do it with excellence and to be sure we are leaving a blueprint for people to follow.

Arise Medical and Wellness is located at 7747 Eagan Drive, Suite 207, Savage, MN 55378. To reach Dr. Wilmot-DeSouza, or to learn more about the services, call 952-522-6344, or visit their website at www.arisewellnessmed.com.