SERVING RURAL
Your heart care, step by step
Medication is half the plan. The other half is how you live.
Every care plan pairs cardiology with nutrition and exercise — built around your life, your kitchen, and your terrain.
One trip. Every test.
When testing is needed, our care coordinator batches everything into a single Imaging Day at the hub nearest you — echo, coronary CT, calcium scoring, and labs in one visit, with results routed straight back to Dr. Badger.
If testing is needed, you drive in once.
Your care coordinator schedules echo, coronary CT angiography, calcium scoring, stress testing, and labs into a single consolidated visit at Salt Lake City, Boise, or Reno — whichever is closest. Results flow back to High West electronically, and Dr. Badger reviews them with you by video.
Home monitoring built for rural broadband.
Devices ship to your door and connect over cellular — no Wi-Fi or smartphone required. Readings flow to one platform that you and Dr. Badger both see, with proactive outreach when numbers drift.
A warm hand-off to a major center — then back home under our care.
High West is the bridge between your local primary care provider and big-city specialists — the link that keeps your care connected from home. We send a complete referral packet, track your appointment, and resume your care immediately after the procedure — so you never fall into the post-procedure void.
One team around your heart.
Most workups never require a long drive.
Labs route to the draw site or critical access hospital nearest you. Heart-rhythm monitors ship straight to your mailbox. Blood pressure cuffs report over cellular. Only advanced imaging needs a hub visit — once.
Rodney Badger, MD
Dr. Rodney Badger is a board-certified cardiologist with more than 30 years of clinical experience in cardiovascular medicine and cardiac care.
A former Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Utah, Dr. Badger brings broad expertise across the spectrum of cardiovascular disease, delivering expert cardiology care throughout the rural communities of the Intermountain West.
A ski-patrol physician, horseback rider, and motorcyclist, Dr. Badger lives the outdoor life of the West he serves. He believes cardiometabolic health and cardiorespiratory fitness are the foundation for staying strong, independent, and out on the land — whatever your age.
He doesn't just treat the rural West. He lives it.
Between horses, ski patrol, and life in the Intermountain West, Dr. Badger knows the distances, the winters, and the realities of getting care in mountain and frontier communities firsthand.
That's why High West is built around phone-first enrollment, cellular monitoring devices that work without broadband, and a care team that handles the paperwork, records, and logistics for you.
A manifesto for rural heart care.
I have spent my career delivering advanced cardiology care to isolated rural communities across the American West.
As Director of Interventional Cardiology and Director of Rural Outreach at the University of Utah, I staffed clinics in mountain communities throughout Idaho, Wyoming, eastern and central Utah, and western Nevada. That experience taught me the realities of rural medicine — the fine art of knowing what is necessary, what is possible, how to maximize local care, and when a patient truly needs a tertiary medical center that may be hundreds of miles away.
I came to understand the financial, emotional, and logistical burden that travel places on patients and their families, and the satisfaction — for both physician and patient — when exceptional care can be delivered close to home.
Nowhere is this more important than in heart disease, the leading cause of death in America. At the university, we received patients from rural communities during heart attacks or after cardiac arrest — often after irreversible damage had already occurred. We treated them, sent them home, and too often never saw them again.
That model is broken.
My goal is to reach you before the emergency happens — to keep you healthy through expert preventive cardiology so that you never need emergency heart care. And if you do, we'll already know you and be there to guide your care every step of the way.
Few cardiologists have practiced on both sides of rural medicine. I have. I've been the specialist at a major academic medical center receiving transfers and advising rural physicians, and I've been the doctor at a critical access hospital making difficult decisions with limited resources. That perspective allows me to understand the challenges faced by both patients and providers.
No one should receive a lower standard of care simply because of where they live.
My mission is to bring expert cardiovascular care, advanced prevention, and thoughtful medical decision-making directly to rural communities. Every patient deserves outstanding heart care, regardless of geography, because the best medicine is the care you never have to travel for.
Join High West Cardiology.
Tell us a little about yourself and our care team will call you within one business day to complete enrollment, gather your records, and schedule your first visit with Dr. Badger.
Welcome to High West.
Thank you — our care team will call you within one business day to complete your enrollment.
