Family Medicine
Medical Director
Dr. Blackledge is Board Certified in Family Medicine and completed the Dartmouth-Brown Medical program in 2001. This included graduating with Honors from Brown Medical School and finishing his preclinical sciences at Dartmouth Medical School in 1998. He is a leading innovator in the direct practice of medicine movement. He founded Care Practice in late 2008 with zero patients, one doctor, and a single staff person. He took an innovative approach in crafting a neighborhood based transparent pricing strategy in a fee for service model and launched it almost exclusively through social media platforms. With most doctors giving up the dream of private practice, most thought his concept was unlikely to succeed and would struggle to be financially viable. By July of 2011 the clinic had seen over 7,000 unique patients and had 5 doctors on staff with six staff members.
Dr. Blackledge has a very rare combination of skill sets. He is a practicing physician who actually thinks like a technologist and yet has the background and training of an artist. He graduated from art school at Sarah Lawrence College. That combination has led him to thrive by being creative and forward thinking while working in several different areas. He works with numerous technology companies in crafting innovative approaches to practice management, doctor patient communication, and patient education applications. He has crafted Care Practice into a leading incubator for new technologies and a beta testing facility to prototype new products. He is a frequent speaker and panelist at conferences around the country, as well as private events highlighting innovation in health care, use of technology, and marketing through social media.
He consults with several health care technology companies, venture capitalists, private equity, and sits on numerous advisory boards. He serves as a senior advisor and consultant on branding and design with Indicate Design in San Francisco working with their health care clients.
Dr. Blackledge completed Residency at UCSF Sutter Santa Rosa Family Medicine Program. He has had a diverse medical background and experience from working in an HIV-Hepatitis C clinic in a Rhode Island prison to a large suburban Urgent Care setting seeing up to 60 patients per day. After finishing residency he helped to open and then served as Medical Director of the Chanate Community Health Center in Santa Rosa, where he focused on caring for Sonoma County’s large underserved population. He went on to work in both large and small Emergency Rooms in the North Bay, before moving to the city to join San Francisco On Call Medical Group in 2006. (presently known as Current Health)
Dr. Blackledge originally trained as a modern dancer in New York and graduated from Sarah Lawrence College with concentrations in both Modern Dance and Spanish in 1993. He speaks Spanish and currently maintains medical privileges at California Pacific Medical Center.
