No Stone Left Unturned
At Meeting Point Health, patients discover an innovative, committed, and ever-curious partner devoted to helping them optimize their health and reclaim their medical autonomy.
They come from Philadelphia and throughout the surrounding suburbs, as well as from across the river in New Jersey. They also travel from distant points in Vermont, the District of Columbia, and western Pennsylvania, even as far away as Puerto Rico.
Their shared destination: Meeting Point Health, an integrative medicine clinic located in a historic building in Manayunk, led by the husband-and-wife team of Dr. Stephen Matta, D.O., M.B.A., CAQSM, and Mary Anne Matta, MS, MA, LAC. The practice’s name refers to the clinicians’ distinctive approach, a confluence of the best elements of Eastern and Western medicine.
“We take a whole-body integrative approach, and we believe the relationship with our patients is as important as the treatment itself,” says Dr. Matta, chief medical officer of Meeting Point Health. “People have been trained to think on an insurance-based model, but medicine should be based on what the patient needs, not on what’s going to be reimbursed. A lot of people don’t even know there’s another option.”
The Mattas founded Meeting Point Health in 2017, driven by a singular goal: to identify the root cause of each patient’s illness and then optimize the patient’s health through treatments designed to stimulate the human body’s innate healing response. The Mattas decided to open the clinic because they saw not only a profound need, but also a pronounced desire for the kind of care they wanted to deliver.
“The average patient drives 45 minutes to an hour to get here,” says Dr. Matta. “We have patients who are calling from Europe and Georgia to set up a consult. What we do here is much more common on the West Coast, so a lot of people call us and say, ‘We didn’t realize you were here.’”
Meeting Point Health’s patient population includes people of every age, ethnicity, educational background, and economic status. They do, however, share at least two commonalities: the willingness to invest in their health, and the desire to reclaim their medical autonomy after less than satisfactory experiences in more traditional healthcare environments.
“Our patients could come in for just about anything—knee pain, Lyme disease, a hormone imbalance, or a skin issue; we will meet them wherever they are,” says Mary Anne, the clinic’s visionary CEO and practitioner of functional medicine. “They don’t want to sit in a room and defer to us; they want to be part of that conversation. A lot of patients send us books to read and webinars to watch, and they expect us to read them and watch them. That’s what a partnership is.”
Finding Answers
Dr. Matta, who is dual-board certified in family medicine and sports medicine, specializes in nonsurgical orthopedics, anti-aging, and regenerative medicine, the last of which enlists the body’s ability to self-heal as a way to fight disease. He’s also a gifted diagnostician with a curious mind. When a new patient comes into the practice, he leads an assessment one might describe as thorough, if not exhaustive; the initial assessment may last as long as one or two hours.
Dr. Matta, who is dual-board certified in family medicine and sports medicine, specializes in nonsurgical orthopedics, anti-aging, and regenerative medicine, the last of which enlists the body’s ability to self-heal as a way to fight disease. He’s also a gifted diagnostician with a curious mind. When a new patient comes into the practice, he leads an assessment one might describe as thorough, if not exhaustive; the initial assessment may last as long as one or two hours.
“On the orthopedic side, we’ll not only do orthopedic testing, but also address stress, environment, genetics, and nutrition,” he says. Treatments will include osteopathic manipulation, medical acupuncture, or ultrasound-guided injections of PRP, ozone, and even stem cells. “What keeps us up at night is when there is a challenging case. The answer is there; we just have to dig deeper.”
The clinicians’ curiosity, paired with their commitment to continued education, ensures that they almost always put the pieces of the puzzle together. Education is among the practice’s biggest expenses, according to Dr. Matta; he says he and Mary Anne continually build on their knowledge base by attending an average of one conference a month.
Mary Anne, a world traveler who has a master’s in acupuncture and another in statistics, specializes in functional medicine. She uses evidence-based therapies to treat inflammation, autoimmune conditions, and other forms of illness often stemming from exposure to environmental pollutants and pathogens.
“I was drawn to functional medicine because it tries to answer the question, ‘What’s the root cause?’” Mary Anne says. “The standard medical model doesn’t look at environment. If you have a migraine, the standard model never asks you why; they’re just going to stunt the pain with one medication, and if that doesn’t work then they’ll try a different one.
“Functional medicine requires much deeper testing than you would ever imagine,” she continues. “We will do whatever it takes to get to the root cause. The patients who come in the door teach us what we need to know. What I can commit to the patient is that curiosity to find out what.”
Meeting Point Health moved into a new location in September 2021. Vibrant and welcoming, the space features high ceilings, an abundance of natural light, and an open floor plan. Dr. Matta describes it as “a place of healing.” Signature touches such as 200-year-old oak beams, lots of plants, beautiful glass walls, and huge windows found in the space remind him of being outside in nature. He credits Mary Anne for the design and décor, suggesting she “had another life as an interior designer.”
The building itself, an old sugar mill dating back to the 1800s, was reportedly used as a pop-up hospital during the Civil War. The Mattas like the idea of “extending the history” by bringing a medical clinic back into the building.
“When you walked in, you felt like you were part of something,” Mary Anne recalls. “We redesigned the whole space so it would not feel like a doctor’s office. There is no waiting room. We opened up the entire center space to feel like a communal area so our patients can get to know each other. It also has a lot of natural elements, like plants and stone. We are trying to ground people back into an experience of real things—community, sunshine, relationships, oxygen.”
‘Medicine With Excellence’
Meeting Point Health has evolved considerably in recent years, apart from its change of address. The practice has expanded its staff, broadened its expertise, and increased its treatment modalities. An infusion suite provides healing therapies such as intravenous ozone, an oxygen treatment with antimicrobial and immune-modulating benefits, and antioxidants such as alpha-lipoic acid and glutathione, which can address chronic infection and chronic toxicity.
Meeting Point Health has evolved considerably in recent years, apart from its change of address. The practice has expanded its staff, broadened its expertise, and increased its treatment modalities. An infusion suite provides healing therapies such as intravenous ozone, an oxygen treatment with antimicrobial and immune-modulating benefits, and antioxidants such as alpha-lipoic acid and glutathione, which can address chronic infection and chronic toxicity.
The practice has also become a destination for sexual wellness, treating issues such as pelvic floor dysfunction and diastasis recti, a common condition caused by the separation of the abdominal muscles typically seen in women during and after pregnancy. Likewise, as part of its holistic approach, the practice recently launched a division devoted to anti-aging and medical aesthetics, to focus on regenerative solutions like PRP, stem cells, and peptides for conditions such as hair loss, acne, melasma, and skin rejuvenation.
The Mattas are particularly proud to say that people of all skin types have a place where they can “feel safe” seeking medical aesthetics.
“There are a ton of medical lasers on the market, and some of them can’t treat dark skin; they can actually burn the skin,” Dr. Matta adds. “We have a medical laser called Aerolase that treats all skin tones. It can treat a lot of different conditions, from hair removal to acne to toenail fungus, with no downtime. It can even correct burns and hyperpigmentation from other machines.”
Meeting Point Health aims to help each patient achieve his or her full potential—physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually; the team even prays for its patients, in the belief that a higher power is at work in humanity’s struggles. The approach seems to have struck a chord, as many members of the 12-person staff, including four registered nurses, began as patients. One staff member credits the Mattas for saving her life by treating her for a lifelong illness that had become debilitating.
“Our future vision is that this will be a medical destination,” Mary Anne says. “When people come here, we want there to be the smell of peppermint in the air, and to hand them a glass of water and greet them by name. Those things matter. If you’re doing medicine with excellence, you should do everything with excellence.”
Based on the glowing testimonials from the list of satisfied patients, it already is.
Meeting Point Health
161 Leverington Ave., Suite 101
Philadelphia, PA 19127
(215) 298-9928
www.meetingpointhealth.com
161 Leverington Ave., Suite 101
Philadelphia, PA 19127
(215) 298-9928
www.meetingpointhealth.com
Photo by Alison Dunlap
Published (and copyrighted) in Suburban Life magazine, August 2022.
