Dr. Richard Larew Honored as Top Physician Leader in Concierge Medicine

Dr. Richard Larew, founder of Iowa City-based Larew Internal Medicine, has been named by Concierge Medicine Today (CMT) as a 2025-26 Top Physician Leader in Concierge Medicine. CMT, the industry’s oldest trade publication, biennially recognizes a select group of doctors nationwide for their significant contribution to concierge medicine. Physicians named to the list have demonstrated a commitment to risk-taking, delegation, and self-leadership, fostering a culture of leadership and innovation within their practice, and leveraging their gifts, skills, and strengths for the benefit of their patients and communities.

Says CMT editor Michael Tetreault, “These top doctors have remarkable stories, have built thriving practices, and have generous and charitable spirits. Concierge doctors are truly the salt of the earth—some of the brightest minds and kindest people you can find. We are fortunate to have them on the other side of the exam room!” Importantly, doctors cannot pay, nor is any fee or purchase required, to be named as a CMT physician leader in concierge medicine.

Dr. Larew’s journey to concierge medicine was described by CMT: “For more than 30 years, Dr. Rick Larew built an enviable reputation in Iowa City as a knowledgeable, compassionate and clinically outstanding physician, fueled by a compellingly patient-focused practice philosophy –‘My aim is to provide the best care to every single person who walks in the door and treat every patient with the utmost respect.’

CMT continued: “However, that became almost impossible to achieve by the 2010s in his traditional, fee-for-service practice with more than 3,000 patients. Bombarded by time pressures, he became increasingly concerned about his ability to provide in-depth, preventive care, especially for his many elderly patients with multiple chronic medical conditions. Searching for a better way, he found it in concierge medicine, and launched eastern Iowa’s first personalized medicine practice in 2019. Fully cognizant of the inherent risk in introducing an unknown, and at the time, somewhat controversial model, he rolled up his sleeves, determined to make it work. He had made great strides educating his former patients and the community about the concept when the pandemic changed all in March 2020.”

According to CMT, “Dr. Larew drew on a lifelong love of learning and remarkable resilience in the face of unprecedented challenges, and pivoted with great ingenuity throughout the pandemic to continually prove the value of concierge medicine. Among his many initiatives: a patient-friendly telemedicine platform, frequent email Covid updates for his patients, FaceTime Live events attended by people all over the country, continual outreach to the county health department to fairly obtain a supply of Covid vaccines for his office, and regular phone check-ins with vulnerable and elderly patients.” Dr. Larew is proud to note that he kept the office open throughout the pandemic, offering a great deal of ‘parking lot medicine’ when warranted.

Five years in, his practice continues to grow thoughtfully and steadily, featuring extended visits, lengthy annual exams and same-day appointments: "When a patient calls the office and needs to be seen, we’re able to say ‘come right in, does this afternoon work for you?’”

Most gratifyingly he has switched his focus from treating acute issues as rapidly as possible to preventing or mitigating chronic conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure. As he shared in 2019: “This is not a model patients are accustomed to using. They just come in when they're sick. The idea that we would spend a good part of time during the visit talking about how they can improve things is a different way of thinking about it.”

His vision was prescient as prevention has increasingly become a focal point for mainstream primary care. “Our goal is to optimize well-being in the years and decades ahead, extending healthspan not just lifespan,” says Dr. Larew. Case in point: his team recently celebrated a patient’s 100th birthday, “a very rewarding situation for all.”

“We congratulate Dr. Larew on achieving this meaningful distinction,” says Andrew Bonner, Vice President of Business Development for Specialdocs, concierge medicine consultants who have worked with Dr. Larew since 2019. “He has helped define this space with an extraordinary commitment to his patients, community and the concierge medicine model of care. It’s a privilege to call Dr. Larew a Special Doc.”

Larew Internal Medicine is located at 2557 N. Dodge St. in Iowa City; phone (319) 338-1535; please visit the website for more information.