My insurance doesn't kick in for another month at a new job I started so I was going to be paying out of pocket for a doctors visit. I had a sciatic nerve injury at my job that had healed after a month off and I just needed a doctors note to return to work. I called around to a few different places after searching for inexpensive doctors in Austin. This place was the most expensive. They were going to charge me around $190 for a 5 minute appointment. I went to Premier Family Physicians...walked out the door with a doctors note for $80 after being checked thoroughly. read more

Let me tell you why Dr. Brode is so great -- he is compassionate, knowledgeable, approachable, funny and - this is what I appreciate most -- actually researches information he does not know (e.g. what the differential diagnosis is between blankity blank and the other thing). He is also the only doctor I have ever had that does not act like he needs to be somewhere else. When you are in his office he is absolutely present with you and will answer any and all questions. I bring in a long list of questions for checkups and he has always been very thorough and very patient in answering every one of them. I had a recent health scare and he was very reassuring yet straightforward about possible results for some extended bloodwork and what we would do in a worst-case scenario. My problem with doctors in the past is that they would be very dismissive or just plain scary with no counseling skills. You know you have a good doctor when you think about getting a diagnosis for a nasty disease and you think, "Well, at least Dr. Brode would be the one to tell me..." The first review is also spot-on. I told him I was breastfeeding when my daughter was two years old and he said, "Whoa. You're a rock star." read more

I could spend a long time writing about the things I love about Dr. Brode but I will be concise. Dr. Brode is, quite simply, the best Dr. I have ever met. He is compassionate, knowledgeable and attentive. I just love him! read more

Brode is a skillful, kind, compassionate doctor for me and my wife. I have never had a doctor I am so comfortable with and trust so much.

We, too, love Dr. Brode. We moved back to Austin last year when my daughter was eight months old, and I was so stressed about finding the right kind of pediatrician - the kind who would be supportive of my somewhat non-traditional but not totally whacky approach to vaccines and parenting in general. I really feel like we found the perfect doctor with Dr. Brode. Just personally, I like him so much. He seems like "cool" guy. He's so patient (my girl has hit the age where she starts crying when she realized we're at the doctor's office). He always takes time to put my girl at ease, usually with some clever, artful manipulation of a stuffed animal. But he's also so professional, has always answered my numerous questions thoroughly, and has even given me some really great advice on how to handle hospital issues for my father. I'm so thankful for him! read more

Dr. Brode may be a fine pediatrician and family doctor, but if you are an HIV+ gay man who still has some self-esteem, you may want to choose someone else. I was not impressed with Dr. Brode, his staff, or the clinic where he works. His manner during our appointment felt rushed, rude, and careless. It took over two months for me to get an appointment with Dr. Brode after i declined his clinic's first match, their most available (read: unpopular) doctor. When switching my treatment regimen to lower my pill burden and cholesterol level, which i was grateful for, Dr. Brode gave me three drugs to pick from, telling me they were all the same, although there were slight differences in pill burden and side-effects. He seemed to want to get through the appointment as quickly as possible right at the outset. During our appointment, Dr. Brode held up his Body Mass Index machine that read "Obese". 5'7" and 185 pounds is a bit overweight, but not obese. I told him that his machine was wrong and that the BMI machine failed to account for the muscle mass in my legs. His response was to hold up the machine not once but two more times in front of my face so that i could read "Obese"! We wasted a fair amount of time going round and round on this when i had more important issues to discuss. I appealed to Dr. Brode for help healing the undiagnosed foot pain I had been experiencing off and on for a few years. Dr. Brode wrote me a referral to a podiatrist who then got paid by Medicaid to inform me that Medicaid does not pay for peripheral neuropathy tests. A total waste of time. I ended up solving the problem myself with New Balance shoes, stretching, swimming, and medical marijuana after i moved away from Texas. Dr. Brode's nurse responded to the simple question i left on her voicemail about whether or not i could get my blood drawn at a lab closer to my home in South Austin by mailing a letter to my home address (!), not answering my question, but informing me how important it was to get my blood drawn before my next appointment. Unlike private clinics, the clinic where Dr. Brode works absolutely refuses to release patients' T-cell counts and viral road results to them over the phone. The paternalistic reason they give is that their patients can't be trusted to make their appointments if they get this information ahead of time and that it is essential that patients have their complete lab results explained to them by a doctor. Unfortunately, the clinic staff can't seem to comprehend that their policy prevents patients and their partner's from immediate access to critical health information that may affect their behavior and risk; not to mention that it is not always possible for their patients to make immediate follow-up appointments... After i had had to write to their medical records department (twice, because they lost the first request) to obtain my lab results, Dr. Brode reiterated that my test results had been mailed to me as if they were doing me some kind of special favor. I would have been much more impressed if he had listened to me and then offered to discuss this with the Clinic Director in charge of this policy (who has since been replaced). As i'm sure Dr. Brode knows, patients who wish to change doctors at this clinic must make an appointment with a social worker first, which relegates their issues to "social work" issue instead of a clinic management issue, which makes more work for their patients and, of course, more money for the clinic. There is only one other major clinic for HIV+ patients in Austin. And this is how patients in Austin get trapped with mediocre doctors in bad clinics. For stable HIV+ patients in Austin, I recommend finding a good Internal Medicine Doctor who will write your prescriptions for you - or even better, leaving Texas and moving to one of the many states that has a long tradition of respect for LBGTQI people and that has expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (California, Oregon, Washington, New York, Massachusetts, Vermont...) * ADDRESSES FOR REPORTING PROBLEMS WITH DOCTOR BRODE OR ANY DOCTOR WHO WORKS FOR COMMUNITYCARE Attention: Chief Operating Officer CommUnityCare RBJ Building 15 Waller Street, 5th Floor Austin, TX 78702 Texas Health and Human Services Provider Complaints Health Plan Operations Office #320 PO box 85200 Austin, Texas 78708 Texas Medical Board Investigations Department - MC 263 PO Box 2018 Austin, Texas 78768-2018 read more

We took our newborn, now age 3, to Dr. Brode. We now have Dr. Brode as our primary care physician in our family. His nurse, Lauren, is amazing and they make such a wonderful team. I have never once felt rushed at a visit. We are always met with compassion, understanding, knowledge, and an overall sense that they are both caring for our "whole" person. We feel so lucky to have found Dr. Brode and Lauren. They are up on the latest research and are open to any questions, ideas, or beliefs. I can honestly say that I have never been more please with any other doctor and nurse. If only we could have more health care providers like him, our world would be in a much healthier place with less skepticism about doctors. read more

I agree with what everyone else has said. He's the only doctor I've ever been to that I feel completely comfortable with. He doesn't rush me out and will listen to any questions and take time to answer them and explain anything I don't understand. It's obvious he's not in the field just to make a buck, but because he truly is a kind soul who cares about the well being of others. That's not always easy to find anymore. I very highly recommend him! read more

Dr. Brode is awesome! He is very accepting of parental decisions regarding vaccines (delayed, selective, etc). He will provide information, but will ultimately accept a parent's final call. He is supportive of breastfeeding and really knows how to put my kids at ease. They are always smiling and happy when they see him. GREAT doctor! I also see him, as he is a family doctor, and I adore him as well! read more

I went to see Dr. Brode complaining of low testosterone symptoms and I felt like he didn't listen to me at all. He had it in his head that it was definitely not low T from the very beginning of my visit. Turns out he was wrong and it I do have very low T. He tested me at 5 pm which I have since learned is a useless test since the peek levels of testosterone are around 8-9 am. I had to go retest my blood at another location. A complete waste of my time and money thanks to his stubbornness. Doctors are not always right 100% of the time and need to realize that. read more

Dr. Brode saw my mom through several serious health issues, and always gave her the time, attention, and care she needed. He is frequently late for appointments, but that's because he gives each patient all the time they need to tell him what's happening. He has an extremely caring and approachable manner, and I look forward to checking in with him when she visits. Highly recommend Dr. Brode. read more

Took my daughter to see Dr. Brode because of all the stellar reviews. We must have seen a different doctor than everyone else is reviewing. First off he was in a heck of a hurry, she was a new patient to him, he spent 10 minutes with her only to say he couldn't help her with ANYTHING because the appointment wasn't long enough (?!?! then tell your appt setters to allocate more time!!). We told him she needed to see an endocrinologist but they wouldn't see her until she had a diagnosis from a PCP. He replied "I've never heard of such a thing! That's not been MY experience" -- well, maybe not, but that's what WE were told when we tried to make her an appointment. So basically he inferred we were liars, and on top of it all rushed us out because it was lunch time and was RUDE as could be. So I dunno what the deal is, but I would NEVER go back to this guy. Too bad you can't file a license complaint on the basis of plain old RUDENESS and INSENSITIVITY!!! read more

I've been a patient of Dr. Brode's for almost 18 years. As I've traveled across the US and moved from city to city, as long as I came back to Austin, I would schedule an appointment with him regardless of whether my insurance covered it or not. He is one of the best doctors I've seen because he is knowledgeable, capable, compassionate, and as I read in another review- if he doesn't know something, he will actually do the research. I've been prescribed various prescriptions over the years, and what I value is that there's never been a time where he just phoned it in without requesting to see me to ensure this was appropriate, and conversely, there were times where I was able to get messages to him regarding prescriptions I needed immediately, that were not dangerous, nor classified drugs, where a 2 month wait wouldn't have worked in even a non-emergency. Even with my VA care, I see him as my PCP and will continue to do so as long as he is practicing. read more

it was difficult making an appointment, the person on the phone was difficult to get along with, did not give me the information I needed to be ready for the appointment, and made me wait 7 weeks for the appointment. when I got there, he was a little upset I was not prepared, pretty much told me that is the way service always is, and so sad too bad, and referred me to someone else with strong encouragement to go somewhere else. read more