Dr. Tiffany Mullen, Vytal Health
With the COVID-19 pandemic, the traditional patient-doctor-hospital relationships have been seriously disrupted. If your medical condition or problem is not “an emergency” you might not be able to see your doctor or get admitted into a hospital. So, what are you supposed to do? Email or text your doc or wait and hope that your body’s immune system takes over and essentially “heal thy self”?
Another, more recent option and is telemedicine. Like many innovations, telemedicine is a great idea but has had a rather slow start. However, COVID-19 is changing everything including how we deliver quality health care. If you have an internet connection or a cell phone, you can access licensed medical doctor from your living room.
Vytal Health is a unique national telemedicine company headquartered in Milwaukee. Off the Cuff interviewed its CEO, Dr. Tiffany Mullen, formerly head of integrative medicine at Aurora Health Care (now Advocate Aurora Health). Vytal Health is both an exciting and a unique new approach to delivering quality health care.
What is Vytal Health?
Vytal Health is a telemedicine company located right here in Milwaukee. We focus on helping people whose health needs have not been adequately addressed by the traditional health system. Many people want more time and attention from their doctor. They are sick of being rushed through an appointment, and they don’t want a handful of prescriptions or one-size-fits-all health advice. They want to understand why they feel unhealthy. That’s where our personalized whole person approach shines.
We’ve always been focused on helping people and offering them our time, our expertise, and our collaboration. Now, with the COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve added services to give people what they need during these very challenging times.
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What have you at Vytal Health done differently with the current pandemic?
Our physicians are experts in functional medicine, which is an approach that looks beyond symptoms or problems uncovering why they exist and solving them. Our patients receive more time and attention from their doctor and a personalized plan that in part covers nutrition and lifestyle specifically for them—essentially what we would call whole person care. Our doctors are primary care physicians with many additional years of training in nutrition, lifestyle, supplements, and personalized medications, all on top of their regular medical training.
We want to help our community. Because we are a telemedicine company, we can help address two really big issues that people face right now: getting their health care needs unrelated to COVID-19 met and keeping them at home to meet these needs.
We also wanted to address the financial devastation and uncertainty that so many of us are experiencing right now. So we began to offer our services on a “Pay What You Can” basis.
So you’re saying that you are offering patients visits on your telemedicine platform for whatever they can pay?
That’s right. We are a telemedicine company. We can offer patients our care without them having to leave their homes and risk their health, whenever possible. But we know that people are not only stressed about becoming sick, they’re also stressed about their finances. Many people have lost their jobs and their health insurance. In the last century, there has never been a time that access to health care has been needed more. So we wanted to make our services accessible to anyone who needs us. In that way, we not only help people get care, but also help off-load the overburdened health care system.
What kinds of health issues can you help with?
Our company has always treated patients with any issue that wasn’t well-addressed by rushed traditional medicine such as hormone imbalance, thyroid problems, gut issues, fertility, autoimmune disease, sleep, and fatigue. But due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are now also adding an emphasis on treating issues that people need help with now. These are problems like anxiety, depression, insomnia, and urgent care needs that can be managed by telemedicine, like sinus infections or urinary tract infections. We also offer a personalized immune support program, focused on helping people stay healthy with lifestyle, supplements, and nutrition during this challenging time and beyond.
For more information visit www.vytalhealth.com, call 855-998-4900 or email hello@vytalhealth.com today.
