WEBVTT

00:00.000 --> 00:05.000
I'm Danielle Gregory, and I'm a podiatrist at Optum.

00:05.000 --> 00:27.000
I knew the majority of my life that I wanted to go into medicine. When I was in college, my aunt was diagnosed with diabetes. She had a diabetic ulcer, she was a smoker, she had horrible vascular disease, and she ended up losing her leg.

00:27.000 --> 00:43.000
Coincidentally, I started running, and I became very intrigued with the biomechanics of the foot. I became really interested in all the pathologies related to sports injuries, and I just followed my interest to podiatry school.

00:43.000 --> 00:57.000
I went to the New York College of Podiatric Medicine, and that really inspired me to go into a profession where you can salvage limbs and help people elongate their lives through preventative care.

00:57.000 --> 01:17.000
I actually have a lot of patients around October when they're training for the New York City Marathon. They come in and they have tendonitis from changing their shoes or from not following the right training schedule. I know very well how to treat those patients and get them back on track so they can complete the marathon.

01:17.000 --> 01:35.000
The benefits of working at a multi-specialty group are that you have easy access to specialists who are experts in their fields. I work very closely with the vascular specialists and infectious disease for many of my wound care patients.

01:35.000 --> 01:48.000
It's great—you pick up a phone and ask them for their expertise on a certain case. Working at Optum allows us to provide a holistic approach to collaborative medicine.

01:48.000 --> 02:06.000
Outside of work, I'm very active. I'm a swimmer and a runner. I ran the New York City Half Marathon in 2018, the Berlin Marathon in 2019, and the Chicago Marathon in 2021.

02:06.000 --> 02:18.000
So not only am I well educated in the foot and ankle, especially with sports injuries—I am also very knowledgeable due to my own history.

02:18.000 --> 02:23.000
I'm Danielle Gregory, and I'm a podiatrist at Optum.