Internal Medicine Physician
in Jefferson City, MO
Meet Dr. Lenora Epple
Internal Medicine physician, educator, healthcare leader, and founder of Focused Health & Wellness
Dr. Lenora Epple, DO, MBA, is an Internal Medicine physician with more than 20 years of experience across primary care, hospital medicine, emergency care, complex home-based care, medical education, and healthcare leadership.
Today, she brings the full breadth of that experience to Focused Health & Wellness, the independent practice she founded in Jefferson City, Missouri. Here, she provides thoughtful, relationship-based care for adults who want more time with their physician, a deeper understanding of their health, and a trusted partner for the years ahead.
More than your doctor, Dr. Lenora is your partner—offering guidance, education, and encouragement every step of the way.
Dr. Lenora Epple
A Physician Shaped by Every Side of Healthcare
Dr. Lenora’s career has given her the opportunity to understand healthcare from many perspectives: at the bedside, in the examination room, in patients’ homes, in the classroom, and at the leadership table.
She began her career caring for adults in primary care while also working in hospital and emergency settings. As Medical Director of a home-based primary care program, she led an interdisciplinary team caring for medically complex patients who might otherwise have required institutional care. That experience deepened her appreciation for the importance of seeing the whole person—not simply a diagnosis—and understanding how family, environment, function, and access to support influence health.
As a Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Missouri, she taught medical students and Internal Medicine residents while continuing to emphasize preventive care, patient education, and collaborative goal-setting.
Dr. Lenora later moved into increasingly broad healthcare leadership roles. She served as a Regional Physician Advisor, Regional Vice President of Medical Affairs and chief physician executive, and Regional President of a medical group encompassing 16 primary and specialty-care clinics across Mid-Missouri.
As System Vice President of Patient Care Optimization for SSM Health, she created and led a team of physician advisors serving 22 hospitals across four states. Her work brought together physicians, hospital leaders, clinical teams, health plans, and operational partners to improve communication, care coordination, quality, safety, compliance, and the patient experience.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, she helped lead both a hospital and community through rapidly changing circumstances. She collaborated with healthcare and community leaders and provided regular educational updates to help people understand evolving medical information during a time of extraordinary uncertainty.
Bringing the Big Picture Back to Personal Care
Dr. Lenora’s years in leadership never took her away from the purpose that first drew her to medicine. They broadened her understanding of what patients need—and what healthcare can be when people have enough time to listen, think, communicate, and work together.
After years of helping improve care across clinics, hospitals, and health systems, she founded Focused Health & Wellness to bring those lessons back to one-on-one patient care.
Her experience allows her to look at a person’s health from both a detailed clinical perspective and a broader systems perspective. She understands how different conditions interact, how medications and recommendations accumulate, how easily concerns can become fragmented, and how important it is for one physician to step back, connect the pieces, and help create a coherent plan.
That is the foundation of her approach today: listen closely, look deeper, explain clearly, and build a plan that reflects the whole person.
“Every part of my career has shaped the physician I am today. I created Focused Health & Wellness to bring all of that experience back to what matters most—the individual person sitting in front of me.”
Thoughtful Medicine for the Years Ahead
At Focused Health & Wellness, Dr. Lenora provides comprehensive Internal Medicine and primary care for adults, with particular interests in:
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Preventive care and healthy aging
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Perimenopause, menopause, and women’s hormone health
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Low testosterone and men’s hormone health
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Medical weight management and metabolic health
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Cardiovascular and cancer-risk reduction
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Prediabetes, diabetes, and insulin resistance
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Thyroid health
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Brain health, mood, sleep, and cognitive well-being
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Nutrition and sustainable lifestyle change
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Medication review and complex health concerns
Her approach blends evidence-based medicine with careful listening, thoughtful diagnostic evaluation, and realistic recommendations. Rather than treating each concern in isolation, she helps patients understand how the pieces of their health fit together.
Patients are active participants in this process. Dr. Lenora believes that people make better decisions when they understand what is happening in their bodies, why a recommendation matters, and how the plan can work within the realities of their lives.
Educator, Writer, and Speaker
Education has been a consistent thread throughout Dr. Lenora’s career. She has taught patients, medical students, resident physicians, clinical teams, healthcare leaders, business professionals, and community audiences.
As a writer and speaker, she makes complex subjects understandable and relevant. Her presentations and educational work span preventive health, women’s health, healthy aging, confidence, leadership, self-advocacy, entrepreneurship, and community well-being.
Education and Professional Involvement
Dr. Lenora earned her Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree from Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences and her Master of Business Administration from Rockhurst University. She completed her Internal Medicine residency at the University of Missouri.
Her professional affiliations include the American College of Physicians, The Menopause Society, the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, the International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health, and the International Society for Sexual Medicine.
Beyond
the
Office
Dr. Lenora’s roots trace back to a small farming community in Iowa, where she developed a lasting appreciation for hard work, growing food, and time spent outdoors.
Outside of medicine, she enjoys cooking, gardening, traveling, exploring new places, and gathering people around the table. Her greatest joy is spending time with her husband and their four children.