Dr. Pittman is a physician board certified in Family Medicine.  She served the people of the Leech Lake Band of Chippewa through Indian Health Service for almost 30 years before retiring to start her own practice in 2014. 

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She began her study of acupuncture with the Helms Institute in 2008, pursuing an interest in Chinese medicine piqued as a teenager when Nixon’s trip to China opened a western window to eastern medicine.  Growing dissatisfaction with conventional medicine’s symptom based pharmaceutical approach and a fascination with holistic, systems based understandings of health and disease led her to in depth study of integrative medicine.  She became a Diplomate of the American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine and the American Board of Medical Acupuncture in 2011.  She completed the University of Arizona Fellowship in Integrative Medicine in 2014 and became an Institute for Functional Medicine Certified Practitioner in 2016.  She is currently a student in Dr. Tierona Low-Dogs Herbal Medicine program. 

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Lyme disease was the root cause of a break in her own health in 2012.  The long path to diagnosis, treatment, and healing has been a profound teacher deepening her understanding of what it means to live with an invisible chronic disorder. 

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She is a lifelong cycling enthusiast and advocate, sharing this passion with her community by supporting Bike Bemidji’s Loop the Lake Festival, the Multiple Sclerosis Ride Across Minnesota, and Shifting Gears, a non profit dedicated to getting bikes to low income people.  She lives in rural Bemidji with her husband and varying numbers of geese, chickens, and wild critters. 

I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and was inspired to become a doctor by my pediatrician father. I attended Medical School at the University of Chicago graduating in 1990. I moved to Minnesota to attend a residency in Internal Medicine, which I completed in 1994. I was drawn to Minnesota after spending summers as a child visiting relatives in southwestern Minnesota where my mom grew up on a farm. I moved to the Bemidji area in 1994 to work for the Indian Health Service in Cass Lake, only intending to stay a few years. However, I loved both caring for my patients there and living in this area and have stayed ever since. My partner Candy and I have two boys age 13 and 14. I enjoy being outdoors in the north woods, canoeing, hiking and cross country skiing.

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In 2015, I left my practice with the Indian Health Service after 21 years to begin my own practice at True North Health. As an Internal Medicine specialist, I care for adult patients especially those with complex health problems. I enjoy caring for the elderly and making nursing home visits. I love using my father's "Doctor's Bag" to make house calls just as he did 50 years ago.

 

As a General Internist I provide comprehensive care to adult patients throughout their lives. I believe in caring for the whole person and enjoy having longstanding relationships with my patients and their families. I care for both acute problems as well as severe chronic illness. I make referrals to specialists when necessary and help my patients interpret the specialist’s recommendations in the context of their health issues and personal wishes. I work collaboratively with my patients to help them improve their health and prevent disease. I also help them with the sometimes difficult process of making plans for the end of life.

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