Heather Linder, MD grew up in Pennsylvania and graduated Summa Cum Laude from Franklin and Marshall College with a major in biology and a minor in environmental studies. During college, she studied abroad in Kenya and Australia, and deferred medical school for a year to study herbal medicine in Kenya.  Heather then graduated from Penn State College of Medicine where she also received the Glascow-Rubin Student Academic Achievement Award and the Nurick Medical Achievement award.  In 2009, she graduated from Swedish Cherry Hill Family Medicine Residency in Seattle, WA where she did an area of concentration in both Global Health and Integrative Medicine.  Heather is board certified by the American Board of Family Medicine.  

Heather has practiced in very diverse settings, from working at an integrative wellness center to performing home visits for Microsoft employees.  Heather has also practiced medicine in New Zealand and Australia and believes everyone should have access to affordable health care. She is passionate about underserved medicine and has worked in inner-city Seattle as well as at the Northern Navajo Medical Center.  She is also passionate about global health and has enjoyed volunteering in East Africa, Nepal, and Honduras.

Local Experience

For the last seven years, Heather has been practicing medicine in San Miguel County and is aware of the health care needs or our area.  She realizes that insurance coverage does not always mean affordable care.  She initially worked for several years at Telluride Medical Center, and then served as Chief Medical Officer at the Uncompahgre Medical Center (UMC) for the last 5 years. While at UMC, she has worked hard to improve the quality of the care provided.  In 2019, UMC received the HRSA Health Center Quality Gold Award for the top 10% in clinical performance for all community health centers in the nation.

Why DPC?

Heather Linder, MD is transitioning to the direct primary care model because she wants to have more time to focus on her patients and to practice more functional medicine.  She enjoys getting to know her patients and trying to find the root cause of the problem.  Heather wants to practice more personalized medicine with a focus on nutrition, exercise, and mind-body medicine. She enjoys full-scope family medicine, from pediatrics to women’s health, to geriatrics.   She is looking forward to spending more time with patients, rather than on administrative tasks.  She is also looking forward to spending less time commuting and being more available to her kids.  In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with her family, hiking, running, skiing, and swimming.

‍