Future home of "Mobile Health Strategies: Guatemala" and the "Isabel Sagastume Training Institute for Clinical Outreach (ISTICO)"

In the early 1980s, I left university in my second year to "go see the world." While attending an international study program in Mexico, I was exposed to conditions that were very unfamiliar to me as a kid growing up in Northern New Jersey. My single mom always seemed to find a way for me to see a doctor when I needed it; I soon learned this wasn't the case for everyone. Deciding not to return immediately to my university studies after that experience, I chose to stay on for another two years with the organization. During that time, a seed was planted, and a dream in my heart began to grow. I returned home in 1986 and began my professional career in the commercial insurance business and started a family.

I returned to Mexico in 1990 with my small family to attend yet another program with the same organization for a year. During that time, I had a taste of what mobile clinic outreach might be like as we traveled with a doctor and saw patients where the need was. I was hooked. While in Mexico, I decided it was time to return to university and applied for admission to Florida Atlantic University's Health Administration program. During those years, my vision to start some sort of outreach—using a bus, van, or anything with wheels—began to take shape, and I wrote a charter for the concept in 1992. In February 1994, with a freshly minted healthcare degree, I walked into my first clinic to manage it in Pompano Beach, FL, for a troubled managed care company, but I learned a lot about outpatient ambulatory care. I rose through the ranks, very much disliking the for-profit model I was working in, and in 1997, I was blessed to join Nemours Children's Clinic in Orlando, where I learned much about how to run medical practices. I had wonderful mentors who taught me so much, and with significant financial support from the organization, I earned an MBA. My vision for mobile outreach grew even stronger, and it became clearer to me that I should focus on Central America.

In 2002, I joined the City of Austin, Texas, as Chief Operating Officer of their community health center system and was appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO). I served there for ten years before moving to California to run Tiburcio Vasquez Health Center in Hayward, CA, in 2012. I met my beautiful wife, Isabel Dominguez-Vliet, who is from Guatemala, in 2016. I then served as CEO for LifeLong Medical Care, Berkeley, CA, in 2020, right before the pandemic, and after an exciting tenure there, decided to retire in August 2024 to begin actualizing my long-held dream. I now spend my time consulting (VlietHealth), traveling with my wife to Latin America, and have founded "Mobile Health Strategies: Guatemala," a nonprofit organization (currently in process). Among my clients as a consultant, I serve as Executive in Residence for Mission Mobile Medical, to whom I am very grateful, as they have been instrumental in supporting the development of my vision.

My dream is to provide access to care where we can make the greatest impact. Access to care matters. I invite you to join Isabel and me on this journey. A key part of our long-term strategy is to develop a training institute for clinicians near Guatemala. Named after her remarkable grandmother, who recently passed away, the "Isabel Sagastume Institute for Clinical Outreach (ISTICO)" will be a place where clinicians can learn the principles of healthcare delivery abroad.

My full CV can be found here.

We look forward to the future and the growth of this vision. Please visit this website regularly for updates and progress.

Yours in grace and healing, David