Dear Dr. Ripps

I was so impressed with the Bendcare Summit at the US Grant in San Diego last weekend, particularly with the M.C. and CEO Andrew Ripps, D. Pharm., I wrote him this letter.

January 20, 2020

Andrew Ripps, D.Pharm

CEO, Bendcare

2255 Glades Road, Suite 228W

Boca Raton, Florida  33451

Dear Dr. Ripps:

I was privileged to be among the participants in your Bentcare Summit in San Diego last weekend.   I was the very tall greybeard in a brown leather jacket who saw in your face traces of my old boss Bill Kelley and my late uncle Jim Stewart (not that Jim Stewart).  And all of you share traits of the bulldog, both in appearance and personality. I could blather on about the excellence I experienced in travel arrangements, housing, food and drink, talks, pharma displays and their amiable representatives, and tchotchkes, but you know all that since you and your very capable people made it happen.  My utmost joy was in the exhilarating realization that what you do might actually make it possible to practice medicine much less encumbered by the shackles thrown upon it over the 4 decades that have marked my own career.    I recommend that you add to the growing list of successes your company can claim an easing of the rheumatologist shortage, as knowledge of the options you provide coax back into the game those retirees who left, in part, out of frustration for what their once beloved practice of medicine has become.  I have not yet decided to go back through that door, but am definitely considering it, and before your Summit it was most assuredly slammed shut.

Thank you for your efforts and keep up the good work.

Robert W. Ike, M.D.

P.S.   I’ve signed up for the July Summit in Colorado Springs.  Hope to see you there.   

not included in the letter: