Here’s the big winner of the Great Dames Remarkable Ideas Competition

After months of crafting great ideas, perfecting pitches and honing business models, a winner of the Great Dames Remarkable Ideas Competition II has been crowned: The grand winner is Kimberly Nalda, a family physician whose big idea, Rekindle Family Medicine, won her more than $25,000 in cash and prizes.
“I’m very, very excited to get started,” she said Monday night after the announcement at Pizza by Elizabeths.

Technically, she’s already started: Nalda opened her own office in January at Orchard Commons Office Park off of Kirkwood Highway.
Here’s the idea:

• It’s direct primary care, and Nalda said she’s one of 4,000 in the country who are practicing as direct doctors. That means she uses a membership model, and membership per month costs a flat fee of $20, $60, $80 or $100 (based on age). Membership includes any and all visits, as well as things like video chats and phone calls.

Nalda said she felt compelled to open a direct primary office because she didn’t like the craze of seeing 40 patients a day for only a few minutes each, which is the norm at a typical family office.
Instead, she wants to get to know her patients to better serve them. “I like to be approachable,” Nalda said. “I want to go back to the old days of what the patient/doctor relationship used to be.”

As the competition’s winner, Nalda will receive a seed grant of $5,000, a business mentor, brand and social media strategy consultation, a space at 1313 Innovation, coaching sessions from Vocal Impact Productions and a year’s membership to The National Association of Women Business Owners Delaware.
The other four finalists also received business mentors from Great Dames, and all who participated in the competition, along with any who are simply interested in getting involved, can join a new network called the Great Dames Remarkable Ideas Community.
As this year’s competition theme was health and wellness, it was apropos that the event’s keynote was Rita Landgraf, the Secretary of the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services.
She spoke of a new initiative, called “Healthy Neighborhoods,” that might pique the interest of the competition’s many participants.
The idea is for Delaware neighborhoods — more like local regions — to be drawn up across the state based on populations of 50,000 to 100,000 and medical center locations. Local leaders will be appointed, and they’ll be be asked to come up with solutions specific to their area that address healthy lifestyles, maternal and child health, addiction and mental health and chronic disease prevention and management. Proposed ideas could result in funding and resources from the state. Three Healthy Neighborhoods, Landgraf said, will be announced sometime this year.