About Us
our story
A Friendship - And an Idea
True North didn't begin in a hospital, clinic, or boardroom. It began at the gym.
It started with two healthcare professionals who believed there had to be a better way.
Before True North Direct Primary Care existed, Dr. Robert Hart and Wendy Hansen, RN were working in very different corners of the healthcare system—and becoming frustrated by many of the same things.
Dr. Hart was practicing primary care within a large healthcare organization. He loved caring for patients, but increasingly found himself navigating the demands of corporate healthcare, insurance requirements, and administrative red tape that too often competed with what he believed was best for the person sitting in front of him.
Wendy was working as a House Supervisor at a local critical access hospital after years in critical care and healthcare informatics. From the ICU to hospital operations to the intersection of healthcare and technology, she had seen the growing demands placed on frontline healthcare professionals—and a revolving door of patients returning to the hospital with chronic illnesses that never seemed to truly get better.
Both had come to the same conclusion from different directions:
The system had become very good at managing sickness, but not always very good at creating health.
A friendship—and an idea.
Interestingly enough, True North didn’t begin in a hospital, clinic, or boardroom.
It began at the gym.
Dr. Hart and Wendy became friends through their local gym community. As healthcare professionals tend to do, they started talking about work—and eventually about everything they believed could be different.
What would healthcare look like if providers had enough time with their patients?
What if we focused more on preventing and reversing disease instead of waiting until people became sicker?
What if physicians, nurses, physical therapists, fitness professionals, nutrition experts, and behavioral health professionals actually worked together?
And what if healthcare professionals were given the freedom to care for people the way they knew they should?
Those conversations eventually turned into something more than ideas.
True North began to take shape.
The first step wasn’t actually Direct Primary Care.
Dr. Hart and Wendy joined forces with a local gym and Physical Therapy practice to develop True North Transformative Health—a multidisciplinary program designed to address chronic disease differently by bringing medical care together with nutrition, movement, physical therapy, behavioral health, and lifestyle change.
It was built around a simple realization:
If we wanted different outcomes, we had to start doing healthcare differently.
But several months into building Transformative Health, Wendy began thinking even bigger.
What if they created a primary care practice built around those same principles?
She suggested that they open a Direct Primary Care practice to complement Transformative Health—a place where patients could have meaningful access to their healthcare team, providers could have the time to actually listen, and insurance companies would no longer dictate the primary-care relationship.
It was a big idea.
It also meant walking away from two secure healthcare careers.
“I will if you will.”
What happened next has become part of the True North story.
On something between a leap of faith and a dare, one of them essentially said:
“I will if you will.”
And they did.
Dr. Hart and Wendy left their secure jobs and committed to building the kind of healthcare practice they had spent so much time talking about.
In 2022, True North Direct Primary Care opened its doors in Hamilton, Montana.
They didn’t know exactly what would happen.
They simply believed strongly enough in what healthcare could be to take the risk.
Building healthcare around people again.
From the beginning, True North was never intended to simply be another doctor’s office with a different payment model.
Direct Primary Care gave us the freedom to build something different.
More time with patients. Better access to care. Transparent costs. Fewer barriers between patients and their healthcare team. More opportunity for prevention, education, and thoughtful decision-making.
Most importantly, it gave us the opportunity to restore something we believed healthcare was losing:
relationships.
Patients could be known rather than processed.
Healthcare professionals could spend their time caring for people instead of satisfying the demands of a system.
And decisions could once again be centered around a simple question:
What is right for this patient?
From one idea to something much bigger.
What started with conversations between two friends has grown far beyond what we imagined in those early days.
True North has become a community of patients, providers, nurses, staff, and healthcare partners who share a belief that healthcare can—and should—work differently.
And along the way, we realized something important:
The need for this kind of healthcare doesn’t stop at the edge of the Bitterroot Valley.
As True North begins expanding into new communities, our goal isn’t simply to open more clinics.
Our goal is to bring a better model of healthcare to more people without losing the things that made True North different in the first place.
Locations may change. Teams will grow. Services will evolve.
But our True North will remain the same:
To put patients and the people who care for them back at the center of healthcare.
To give healthcare professionals the freedom and support to provide exceptional care.
To focus not only on treating sickness, but on helping people build health.
And to keep challenging the idea that rushed, complicated, impersonal healthcare is simply something we have to accept.
True North began with two healthcare professionals willing to ask:
“What if we did this differently?”
Then willing to bet their careers on the answer.
We’re still building that answer today.
Why True North?
A name chosen with purpose.
True north is a fixed point. No matter where you are, which direction you’re facing, or what the terrain around you looks like, true north remains constant.
When we chose the name True North, we wanted it to represent more than direction. We wanted it to represent the principles that would guide us—especially when the path forward wasn’t always clear.
Healthcare is constantly changing. Treatments evolve. Technology advances. Organizations grow. The needs of patients and communities change.
But the principles that guide us shouldn’t.
At the center of our True North is one simple principle:
Do what’s right for the patient.
That principle guides how we care for people, how we support our teams, how we make decisions, and how we grow.
It doesn’t mean there will always be one simple answer. Good healthcare rarely works that way. It means having a reliable point of reference when the answer isn’t obvious—a standard we can return to and ask, Are we still heading in the right direction?
True North also represents the relationship between principles and practices.
Practices change. We learn. Medicine advances. Better tools become available. Communities have different needs, and sometimes the way we’ve always done something is no longer the best way to do it.
We believe healthcare organizations should be willing to evolve.
But evolution doesn’t require abandoning the principles that guide you.
Practices can evolve. Our principles remain.
As True North grows, that distinction matters more than ever. Locations may change. Teams will grow. Services will evolve. The communities we serve will each be unique.
But the principles behind True North remain constant:
Integrity. Honesty. Responsibility. Authenticity. Commitment. And an unwavering belief that patients and the people caring for them belong at the center of healthcare.
Those principles are our compass.
They remind us where we came from, help us navigate where we’re going, and give us a standard against which we can measure the decisions we make along the way.
That’s our True North.
The Story Behind the Artwork
The artwork featured here was created for True North by local Hamilton artist Leisa Lewis, who took the time to explore the meaning and principles behind our name.
Through her research, writing, sketches, and ultimately this original piece of art, Leisa captured something that resonated deeply with us: true north remains constant even when everything around it changes.
Her work explores the idea that principles provide direction—that while circumstances, practices, and surroundings may change, deeply held principles give us a fixed point from which to navigate.
We couldn’t think of a more meaningful representation of what the name True North has come to mean to us.
Original artwork created for True North by Hamilton artist Leisa Lewis and shared with permission.
Our Mission
To redefine the primary care experience by delivering high-quality, accessible, personalized, and affordable care.
We are committed to helping our patients and our team find their True North—
fostering a supportive environment where well-being and purpose are prioritized for all.
Our Vision
To transform healthcare by proving there is a better way.
We envision a future where exceptional healthcare is personal, accessible, and centered on relationships—and where the people providing that care can find purpose, fulfillment, and sustainability in their work.
As True North grows, our goal is not simply to build more clinics. It is to create a model of healthcare worth following.
Our Core Values
The principles that keep us heading in the right direction.
Ownership & Accountabililty
We take responsibility. We own our actions, decisions, and mistakes. We don't wait for someone else to solve a problem we can help solve. When something goes wrong, we focus on making it right rather than assigning blame.
Commitment& Loyalty
We protect what we're building. We are committed to our patients, our teammates, and the mission of True North. We support one another, protect the trust placed in us, and provide the level of care we would expect for our own families.
Honesty& Integrity
We do the right thing—even when no one is watching. We communicate honestly, act ethically, protect confidentiality, and follow through on our commitments. When something doesn't feel right, we speak up. Trust is earned through what we do consistently.
Teamwork
One team. One mission. Every role matters. We help one another, communicate directly, share responsibility, and recognize that the patient experience depends on all of us. Total team. Total victory.
Who We Are
Our Leadership
Guided by the same principles we started with.
True North continues to be led by its founders, Robert Hart, DO, and Wendy Hansen, RN, whose shared vision remains at the center of how the organization grows.
Their backgrounds are different, but their leadership is grounded in the same belief: take care of your people, give them the tools and authority to do their jobs well, lead by example, and never lose sight of who you are here to serve.
As True North expands, their goal is not simply to build more clinics. It is to develop exceptional teams capable of bringing the True North standard of care to communities throughout the Mountain West—without losing the culture, relationships, and principles that started it all.
Robert Hart, DO
Co-Founder | Chief Executive Officer & Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Robert Hart is a board-certified family medicine physician, military veteran, and co-founder of True North Direct Primary Care.
His career has taken him from conventional primary care to some of the most demanding environments in military medicine. His leadership experience includes serving as Chief Resident at Womack Army Medical Center, Brigade Surgeon with the 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Battalion Surgeon with the 1st Ranger Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, and Officer in Charge of Warrior Family Medicine Clinic. His training and clinical experience span family medicine, emergency medicine, operational and wilderness medicine, and integrative and functional approaches to health.
Those experiences helped shape a leadership philosophy rooted in selfless leadership, personal accountability, and leading by example.
Dr. Hart believes leaders should give the people in their charge the resources, trust, and authority they need to accomplish the mission—and then stand beside them in doing it.
Total team. Total victory.
That philosophy now guides his role as CEO and Chief Medical Officer of True North. His focus is on redefining the standard of primary care while ensuring True North remains accessible, high-quality, personal, and accountable to the communities it serves.
At the center of his medical philosophy is a simple belief: patients deserve healthcare professionals who work directly on their behalf—not in service of insurance companies, corporate healthcare interests, or unnecessary bureaucracy.
He also believes the human body has a remarkable capacity to heal when given the right foundation: movement, nutrition, sleep, prevention, evidence-based medical care, and a healthcare team willing to look beyond the status quo.
His vision for True North is ambitious but clear: raise the standard of healthcare in the communities we serve and prove that this model can successfully grow throughout the Mountain West without compromising what made it work in the first place.
Wendy Hansen, MS, RN
Co-Founder | Chief Operating Officer
Wendy Hansen has been a Registered Nurse since 2001, with a career spanning emergency medicine, critical care, healthcare informatics, hospital and clinic operations, leadership, and health coaching. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Healthcare Informatics and a master’s degree in Health Leadership.
Her career gave her a unique view of healthcare from both the bedside and the systems designed to support it.
As an ICU nurse and later a hospital House Supervisor, Wendy saw the extraordinary work being done by frontline healthcare professionals—and the increasing demands being placed upon them. Her experience in healthcare informatics gave her another perspective: how processes, technology, and organizational decisions can either help healthcare professionals care for people or create additional barriers between them.
She also saw patients return to the healthcare system again and again with chronic conditions that were being managed without necessarily helping them build better health.
Those experiences became central to her vision for True North.
As co-founder and Chief Operating Officer, Wendy’s focus is on building the systems, teams, culture, and patient experience that allow the True North model to work—and ensuring those things remain intact as the organization grows.
Her leadership philosophy is grounded in accountability, continuous improvement, and taking care of the people who take care of patients.
She believes exceptional patient care requires exceptional teams—and that healthcare professionals shouldn’t have to sacrifice their own well-being in order to provide it.
Her goal is to create an organization where people are expected to take ownership, empowered to solve problems, supported in doing meaningful work, and united around one mission: providing healthcare we would want for our own families.
Where We're Going
Hamilton was only the beginning.
True North was built to prove that healthcare can be more personal, accessible, and centered on the people it serves.
Now, we’re bringing that model to more communities across the Mountain West—growing thoughtfully while staying true to the principles that brought us here.
Better healthcare. More communities. Same True North.