After more than four decades in the medical field in Canada, longtime Vineyard summer resident Dr. Howie Rudner joined the Martha’s Vineyard Medical team this June as their newest primary care provider.
The Vineyard community, which has a documented shortage of primary care physicians and long waitlists of patients, is federally recognized as a health professional shortage area, according to two 2025 “Community Health Needs Assessments” created by Martha’s Vineyard Hospital and Island Health Care, and year-rounders are considered a medically underserved population by similar metrics. There is one primary care physician for every 1,740 people in Dukes County, compared to the state average of one provider to 970 people.
Rudner’s appointment as a new primary care physician is one of a few ways the medical center has sought to mitigate that gap in care. “We have a lack of medical providers on the Island, and that’s really why so many people on the Island don’t have primary care,” CEO and owner of Martha’s Vineyard Medical Jeff Levy said. “It means people are forced to go to the emergency rooms for non-emergency visits,” he added.
Beyond his extensive experience in primary care, Rudner’s specialty is in the field of geriatrics, a branch of medicine focused on elder healthcare. With over 33 percent of the Vineyard population over 65 years old, Rudner said that background will come in handy. “I enjoy managing diabetes, heart disease, and working with older people. I’m happy to be available,” he said.
Rudner first came to the Vineyard over 40 years ago, with his soon-to-be wife, Annie.
“I met my American wife on vacation about 40 years ago, and she was a Vineyard lover. And one of the conditions before she accepted my proposal was that she said, ‘You have to come up to one place with me and see how you feel about it.’ So I came to the Vineyard in 1985, and then we got married.” Once they started to come with kids, the Rudners bought a home — in 1999 — and have visited ever since.
During the COVID pandemic, Annie decided to move to the Vineyard full-time. This year, Rudner joined her. “I got off the ferry, and my wife picked me up, and she said, ‘I’m not going home.’” Rudner then decided to leave Toronto, and he gave up his practice and got his green card and a license to practice medicine in the state of Massachusetts.
Rudner said one of the hardest parts about moving to the Island was leaving his lifelong patients in Canada. “It wasn’t easy for me to leave, because imagine, my 30-year-olds then are now 70. I was their family [doctor], so it was hard; but I decided that the Vineyard was gonna be my home.”
It is an adjustment for Rudner, who worked in the Canadian healthcare system, which is mostly free, to work in the U.S., where patients often consider the cost of treatment. “I’m learning a little bit. I’m still not used to having to think of a cost when I see a patient. It’s not on my radar,” he said.
But it is on the mind of many locals, especially as health insurance premiums rise across the country.
Federal subsidies that previously helped lower the cost of health insurance for qualifying residents expired at the end of last year, and weren’t extended by Congress. What followed was the longest government shutdown in history, and some Islanders have opted to go without insurance at all. Canada, on the other hand, has universal healthcare for its residents, although costs of prescription drugs, dental, and vision often fall on the individual, family, or employer.
Since June of last year, Martha’s Vineyard Medical has added 600 new primary care patients to their roster of 1,500. There is room for another 1,000 patients based on existing providers. “Having more providers means more primary care patients,” Levy said.