Coffee for a good cause? One Inova Fairfax Hospital physician combined his love for caffeine and medicine into a profitable side business to help patients in other countries obtain medical care.
Larry Istrail, MD, is an internist at the Falls Church, Va.-based hospital. However, in his free time, Dr. Istrail is the founder of Pheo Coffee, which uses part of its profits to fund healthcare for people in lower-income nations.
He said the company name came to him while he was accompanying an endocrinologist on rounds as a resident. He said he saw a patient experiencing symptoms associated with a condition called pheochromocytoma, including high blood pressure and a racing heartbeat.
"The patient looked like she was running from a bad guy and had too much coffee. That started me on my silly idea," he said in an interview with SentinelSource.com.
That brand creativity has trickled down into his coffee packaging as well, with each type of coffee named after a prominent medical figure. Each coffee delivery also includes a story of the patient who received financial support from the purchase and the date the money was donated.
While he only sold $25,000 worth of coffee last year, Dr. Istrail said the funds were enough to sponsor a dozen surgeries for patients around the world, including a $1,500 treatment for a patient with a congenital heart defect in Myanmar, the report states.
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