Michelle Davey, Wheel, on building the new virtual care stack
Jun 16, 2021
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Michelle Davey, Co-Founder and CEO of Wheel, discusses the importance of access to healthcare, challenges in building a telemedicine provider network, scaling virtual care, and the ongoing rise of online mental health services. She also shares her excitement for building for clinicians and the industry, focusing on new care models and treatment areas.
Virtual care platform, Wheel, simplifies the creation of virtual care services for companies and provides clinicians with a supportive work environment.
Wheel aims to be at the forefront of the shift towards digitally enabled healthcare by expanding its specialties and focusing on a comprehensive clinical infrastructure.
Deep dives
The Importance of Access to Healthcare
Michelle, the co-founder and CEO of Wiehl, shares her personal journey of growing up in a rural community in Texas with limited healthcare access. Her experience of being undiagnosed with an autoimmune condition for over 15 years due to lack of care drives the foundation of Wiehl's vision for improving access to healthcare. Wiehl aims to provide access not only based on geography and socioeconomic factors, but also by connecting patients with the right clinicians for their specific care needs. Michelle believes that if a platform like Wiehl existed when she was younger, it would have significantly shortened her healthcare journey.
Combining Tech and Healthcare Recruitment
Michelle's unique background in both tech and healthcare recruitment operations led her to explore the intersection of these fields. After initially being disillusioned with the slow and broken nature of the healthcare industry, she found herself working in tech and realizing the value of building great teams. Michelle's journey in telemedicine allowed her to combine her professional and personal experiences, leading her to co-found Wiehl. By leveraging technology and a strong clinician network, Wiehl aims to simplify virtual care practices and enable clinicians to provide quality care to patients.
Challenges in Building a Nationwide Provider Network
One of the main hurdles in launching a telemedicine company is recruiting and credentialing providers for a nationwide network. Michelle highlights the existing clinician shortage in the country, compounded by burnout and the additional strain caused by the pandemic, with one in five clinicians expecting to leave healthcare after COVID-19. Building a scalable network requires extensive staffing, load balancing, and adherence to strict regulations. Michelle emphasizes the importance of vetting partners, ensuring regulatory compliance, and providing malpractice coverage to protect both clinicians and patients. Wheel's platform alleviates these challenges, enabling clinicians to practice virtually and deliver quality care.
The Future of Virtual Care and Wheel's Role
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of virtual care and changed the notion of a successful outcome. Telemedicine now involves more than just prescriptions; it encompasses care navigation, education, and remote monitoring. Michelle believes that all healthcare will eventually be digitally enabled, erasing the need for the distinction between virtual and in-person care. Wheel aims to be at the forefront of this shift by continuously expanding its range of specialties, such as behavioral health and lab work. By focusing on the clinician experience and supporting hybrid work styles, Wheel offers a comprehensive clinical infrastructure that empowers clinicians and improves patient outcomes.
In this episode, we interviewed Michelle Davey, the Co-Founder and CEO of Wheel. Wheel is working behind the scenes to build many of the telemedicine services you’re familiar with. Its online platform matches doctors with patients and also enables any company to stand up a virtual care practice. Wheel makes it simple for companies to build virtual care services under their brand by pairing technology with a nationwide clinician network. Wheel also provides clinicians with the best place to work in virtual care. By helping more companies and clinicians get started in virtual care, Wheel is helping patients get connected to the best care for their health needs. Today, Wheel works with companies of all sizes including publicly-traded digital health innovators, big tech companies, laboratories, retailers, and pharmaceutical and medical device companies. Wheel has raised $66 million from Lightspeed Ventures, CRV, Silverton Partners, Tusk Venture Partners, J.P. Morgan, and Future Shape.
Growing up in a rural area with limited medical resources, Michelle became focused on improving patient access to care. Her career took on a journey through healthcare, tech, marketplaces and virtual care. After recognizing the need for a new workforce configuration in healthcare, she co-founded Wheel with Griffin Mulcahey in January of 2018, after working together in the telehealth industry and realizing no one was looking out for those at the center of the healthcare engine: the clinicians on the front lines. Wheel became the industry’s first model for delivering high-quality virtual care at scale by empowering clinicians and providing new efficiencies for healthcare companies. Michelle is a thought leader focused on the urgent need for reinventing healthcare delivery models, clinician empowerment, and the future of work in healthcare.
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