Julie K Gunther

Julie K. Gunther, MD, FAAFP, FAAHPM

Dr. Julie Gunther is a dual-Board Certified Family Physician who loves being a doctor. She believes the administrative demands of modern medicine have marginalized the physician’s role and are eroding the physician-patient relationship. She founded sparkMD, an independent direct primary care practice, in 2013 to take back her relationship with her patients and to empower herself to be the doctor she set out to be.

Since going out on her own, Dr. Julie has found the challenges of entrepreneurship to be a newfound love. Independence allows her to be flexible, creative and to take care of patients, staff and physician colleagues in a way that is most consistent with her calling as a teacher and physician.

Dr. Julie loves to write, speak and share. She has served as a Board Member on the Direct Primary Care Coalition, was on the AAFP DPC Summit planning committee for 2016, 2017 and 2020, was the AAFP DPC MIG President and in 2017. Additionally, she is a founding member and now past- VP and past-President of the DPCA (Direct Primary Care Alliance). She composed and led a 3 hour "DPC 101" at the 2017 AAFP DPC summit in Washington DC. This presentation was the impetus for a Google document entitled "You are Smart Enough" that she ultimately turned into her first book "Sparks Start Fires: A Guide for Dreamers Who are Also Doctors".

Dr. Julie has been interviewed by Hint health, NPR, Forbes, Medical Economics, Business Insider, Physicians Practice and many other publications. She has published commentary about doctoring on KevinMD. She is a mother to two girls and is grateful for an amazing husband who holds all the madness together. She's inspired to transform healthcare delivery models in the hope that physicians will reclaim their place in the forefront of primary care.