One grew up just an hour away in Mount Pleasant; the other more than 1000 miles away in Shreveport, Louisiana. But the career paths for Harrison Vogel, DO, and Charles Madden, MD, brought them both to Big Rapids as new physicians at Spectrum Health Big Rapids Family Medicine.

They both started in Big Rapids in August of 2021. Their wives are also new health care providers in the area. Vogel, from Mount Pleasant, followed in his father’s footsteps in becoming a family physician. He received his undergraduate degree from Kalamazoo College and his medical degree from Michigan State University – College of Osteopathic Medicine. He completed his residency at Troy Beaumont Hospital.

Vogel met his wife, Cassandra Vogel, MD, while at Kalamazoo College. Cassandra Vogel is an OB/GYN
women’s health provider at Big Rapids Hospital. The couple have two young children, Hinrich and Elaria.

Harrison Vogel said he promotes lifestyle intervention such as working with his patients in managing
diet and exercise versus automatically prescribing medication and running various tests.

“I tell my patients I try to be as minimally interventional as possible,” he said. I’d rather have them be
the right weight, exercise regularly and have an appropriate diet and we don’t have to see each other
more than once a year.”

He also enjoys children and seeing pediatric patients.

He shares an interest with his wife in caring for women and provides gynecologic testing, procedures
and testing.

“I think it’s important, as we’ve not always served women as well as we could in the past,” he said.
In his free time, Vogel pursues many interests including fly fishing, cooking, bicycling and Brazilian Jiu- Jitsu.

Madden and his wife, Paige Madden, PA-C, are both from Louisiana but have made Big Rapids home to spend time with Paige’s grandparents who reside in Michigan. Paige Madden is a new provider at the Spectrum Health Reed City Hospital Walk-In Clinic.

Charles Madden earned his medical degree from Louisiana State University Health Center in Shreveport. He completed his family and community medicine residency at Penn State University in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

In addition to treating many patients with chronic conditions such as COPD, asthma or heart disease, he also sees patients for mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression.

He said he tries to look at each patient from a well-rounded perspective.

“I try to focus on looking at them as a whole, and to make sure they have good social support—that they have a good network of people supporting them or whatever we can provide them for that,” he said.

 

Madden can often be seen wearing a bow tie, a habit he picked up saying it’s cleaner and not in the way as a conventional tie.

 

“The staff gets mad at me now if I don’t wear a bow tie,” he said laughing.

The Maddens are expecting their first child this summer. They enjoy theatre, exploring the area and
trying new restaurants.

Spectrum Health recognizes and thanks all its doctors and advance practice providers this Doctor’s Day.