Meet Courtney Wham | Masters of Integrated Science & Paramedic

We had the good fortune of connecting with Courtney Wham and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Courtney, what do you attribute your success to?
At the IV Den, we take patient care very personally. Because of this, the IV Den has been inspired to push the boundaries of IV therapy to benefit the patient. We pride ourselves on having evidence-based protocols founded in primary literature, the most advanced pharmaceutical options available in the IV therapy realm, and a philosophy of patient-centered wellness and education to optimize life’s journey. In other words, we are challenging the status quo of reactive medicine, urgent care and emergency room inundation, and a healthcare system focused on treating, rather than preventing. One recent example of this is that, amongst the COVID pandemic and development of the monoclonal antibody treatment, we rapidly expanded into administering this medication at home. We performed a rigorous training for our staff to bring everyone up to speed and have started administering the therapy in the comfort of patient’s’ homes. Because of the need for this treatment, the government is providing the medication itself at no cost. As a result, we are only charging an administration fee, which is well-under the reimbursement value for Medicare/Medicaid, and we provide in-depth reimbursement paperwork/receipts to our patients to apply for reimbursement through their insurance.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
During my senior year of high school, I went to EMT school at most nights after soccer practice. Along with my high school diploma, I earned my EMT certification and began working as an EMT at Elitch Gardens. Throughout college at the University of Colorado, I worked weekends and nights as a trauma technician in the emergency room. After graduating college, I went back to school for my paramedic certification and started working at the Denver Health Paramedic Division as an EMT and then paramedic. During this time, I earned my master’s degree in integrated sciences with a focus in biochemistry. As you can probably gather, I am either a total gluten for punishment via academia or a complete nerd. The jury is still out. However, the dichotomy between my academic background and my experience with the 911 system, running high acuity trauma calls in inner-city Denver, has created a spectacular opportunity for me to create change. After so much reactive medicine on the ambulance and in the emergency department, I craved an opportunity to provide preventative medicine and help the healthcare system. Thus, the IV Den was born. Many, many nights of scouring the primary literature and consulting with physicians and pharmacists, we developed almost seventy pages of protocols for delivering medications and vitamins (and now monoclonal antibodies) intravenously to patients in the comfort of their home. IV therapy is not a new concept; we didn’t invent this. We simply took an idea that already existed and studied the science behind it. During this process. we changed a lot of standard doses, removed products that weren’t very scientifically-supported, and optimized the approach for the patient’s benefit. I think that companies often monopolize on the societal idea that “more is better” when it comes to vitamins. This simply isn’t true. We aren’t in the business of making expensive urine. We are after legitimate therapies that show results. You may notice, if you take the time to compare, some of our doses are lower than our competitors. The reason for this is that our doses are literature-based for therapeutic benefit, not simply the dose that does no harm.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Well first and foremost, when visiting the state of Colorado, I would provide them with an altitude sickness package to ensure optimal functioning for our activities 😉

Just kidding!

This is such a great question. I am an avid fly-fisher and love to hike to alpine lakes and fish the little brookies out of the ponds while not catching trees, (above tree-line – best trick ever to avoid getting tangled). I would start the day with breakfast at Cafe Zuri for coffee and a quick breakfast burrito. Then, we would head up to the alpine and hike up to a pristine lake above tree line. After a great day of fishing, we would head down to Rock Rest Lodge in Golden, Colorado for some epic buffalo wings and beer. To end the night, we would head to Forest Room 5 for a night cap in urban Denver’s best National Park that is their backyard.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I would like to give a shoutout to our medical director, Dr. Eric Wu, MD. Dr. Wu has been an invaluable resource in helping to appraise the primary literature and develop the protocols. He is active in training with our staff and is so much more than a medical director. He is a mentor in patient-centered healthcare and a steward in doing what is right for the patient and community. He is an advocate for all and an approachable leader for our staff. He is always receptive to pushing the company forward and offering new services. We are very grateful for his mentorship and support.

Website: mobileivden.com

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