I Feel You, A Fortify Wellness Production
Bettina Mahoney the Founder/CEO of @atfortifywellness is a rape survivor who started her brand after struggling to not only find a therapist, but multiple mediums to heal through her trauma. Fortify Wellness is a 360 holistic platform offering therapy, coaching, fitness, and meditation on one subscription platform. We dive deep with our trailblazing guests about overcoming adversity.
I Feel You, A Fortify Wellness Production
Holistic Healing and Women Empowerment with HerMD
Imagine growing up in a small Ohio suburb as the daughter of first-generation immigrant from Pakistan, and transforming personal challenges into a mission that changes women's healthcare. Komel Caruso, the co-founder and Chief Growth Officer of HerMD, shares her story of resilience and innovation with us. Inspired by her father's entrepreneurial spirit and her mother's health struggles, Komel's journey highlights how adversity can drive profound change. We discuss how her upbringing and personal experiences galvanized her commitment to empowering women through healthcare.
More about Komel:
Komel Caruso is the Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer of HerMD. Physician-founded, patient-forward, and mission-driven, HerMD has been revolutionizing the future of women’s healthcare through an integrated, evidence-based model delivering comprehensive women's healthcare all under one roof. In her role, Komel is the lead executor of HerMD’s vision — overseeing marketing, brand and product. A marketing and brand enthusiast, Komel is the creator of HerMD's patient-centric brand and experience. Prior to joining HerMD, Komel spent 15+ years as a leader in operations, marketing and branding within the ed tech space at Kaplan, Story2 and Applerouth Education. Komel earned her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Michigan and her Masters of Science in Integrated Marketing from New York University. She was most recently featured as NJ Mom's MOMpreneur of the week as well as in New Jersey Family. She has been a featured speaker at the Women and Worth Summit and Luminary x HeyMama's Women Who Innovate Summit 2023. She is a proud member of the Female Founder Collective. In 2025 Komel was named one of the 50 Trailblazing Leaders in Menopause. Komel also sits on the board of Under the Sisterhood. Under the Sisterhood is a social impact company that celebrates all women's voices and perspectives.
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**This information is not to be misconstrued as medical or psychological advice. Please contact your medical team if you have questions or concerns pertaining to your medical or psychological well-being. All of the linked products are independently selected, and curated by the fab Fortify team. If you love and buy something we link to, we may earn a commission.**
Welcome to I Feel you a Fortify Wellness production season seven, where we explore the real stories and strategies that help you strengthen your mind, body and soul.
Speaker 2:I'm Bettina Mahoney, your guide on this journey to a healthier, more vibrant you. Before we get started, here's a quick reminder.
Speaker 1:This information shared today is for your inspiration and knowledge, but always consult a healthcare provider for any medical concerns. Today, I'm thrilled to introduce you to a truly inspiring guest. Camille Caruso is the co-founder and chief growth officer of HerMD, a groundbreaking organization revolutionizing women's healthcare. With HerMD's patient-forward approach and Kamel's expertise in marketing and branding, they're transforming the healthcare experience for women everywhere. Kamel's journey is one of passion and purpose, and today we'll dive into how she's leading HerMD to reshape the future of women's health. So sit back, take a deep breath, breath and get ready to be inspired. Let's get started. Hi, kamel. Thank you so much for coming onto the podcast today.
Speaker 3:How are you, I'm good, how are you? Thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 1:I'm so excited that you could finally come on and we could connect. I'm so excited to talk to you about your life experiences and you have such an amazing titles. You've done incredible things in your career. I'm curious when you take all those things away, when you strip them all away and I'm including if you're a mother, if you have a partner, you're a daughter, coo when you take all that away, who are you?
Speaker 3:That's such a good question and I've been actually thinking about this a lot, you know, through this founder journey as well and through our founder story and I was talking with someone recently and at the end of the day and it's because I never thought I would be where I am today professionally because at the end of the day, I'm a first generation immigrant like this child of immigrants from Pakistan, who background and look like me, who come from like a small suburb in the Midwest in Ohio I don't many people probably haven't heard of Bedford Ohio so fairly, fairly humble beginnings and at the root, that is that is who I am. I identify with my culture and East Coast and so I often think about it and I hope through my work and what I do and what I've been able to achieve, I'm able to inspire not only those that look like me and have a background like me, but you don't see it that often it's beautiful.
Speaker 1:We just had someone on that was also a first generation immigrant to the United States. It she has such a fierceness to her, and women in general, I think, have a tenacity and grit very different. It comes from a different place. I'm curious if we can jump around just a little bit. I'm curious what that taught you being a first generation as far as the values that you have from your parents, from a completely different culture, and what, how that's made you who you are today. I'm really fascinated with that.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, so I don't want to say failure was not an option, because that sounds like my parents were like you must, you know, do this or that. I have incredible parents and you know my mother and my father both and being immigrant parents from Pakistan, you know they encouraged us, you know, and the culture is very beautiful, but we were encouraged I think more so than my friends and my peers to get an education to be able to provide for ourselves, and my dad always said the sky is the limit for you two daughters and he. You know that was very different in like the early eighties and nineties, when I grew up. He always was so supportive of us being who we wanted to be achieving. You know, what we thought we could in our careers, getting us the education that we wanted, that was always such a big highlight for us from both my mother and my father, was that we want you to be educated, we want you to go to whatever level of education that you want. And so there's that piece that was very, very strong.
Speaker 3:And we call our father the original entrepreneur. He's a veterinarian, he opened his own practice and he came here with very, very little $50, $70 in his pocket. He didn't have a family here to rely on. We tell him we had you and we had our mom as our backbone and our safety net in case anything happened. We knew we could fail and we'd have that safety net. He didn't have that. He came here to start his family. He then got married and had children and he had to do it all on his own, and so we learned that entrepreneurship and that value of hard work from our father.
Speaker 1:I mean, I think entrepreneurship in a sense is a privilege because it is a choice, and it's very different type of choice where you're like, okay, usually people will have a backup, or they do have a support system of some time, whereas your father didn't have that, so it's incredibly brave.
Speaker 3:It was very brave and you know like how did you end up in a suburb of, like a small suburb of Cleveland, ohio? You know it wasn't as diverse as New York or California or Chicago or one of the major cities, and so that being first generation, also in a small suburb in Ohio, also taught us some grit and resilience because we were some of the only people who looked like we did, and so you know understanding that you were, you know, a little bit different, but then finding your commonalities and navigating you know cultural requirements or cultural things at home that were different than the culture you were experiencing in school and with your friends, just teaches you a lot about the world and teaches you some really wonderful things about different cultures and people and how you can, how you have a lot more in common than you think you do on the surface. So it was really interesting growing up in that community.
Speaker 1:I agree and I think adversity can spark change in a very positive way, and I talk a lot about this within my brand how I business, I survived a rape and there was so much frag. You know fragmented care and healthcare as you probably can better than most people.
Speaker 3:And.
Speaker 1:I didn't know where to go to, and so I created Fortify. Now I have a compliant which I know you know how hard that is to get 360 approach to wellness, therapy, coaching, fitness, meditation and one subscription platform because I understood after surviving a near-death experience that you need multiple facets and multiple hands to make light work.
Speaker 1:It's not one thing or the other. You need many different types of things. So I was like why doesn't that exist on one platform? So I started Fortify and, as we've been going through the entrepreneurial journey and having different discussions, with different women, specifically executives.
Speaker 1:they've found a lot of similar types of stories that I've had, but really what I found is that what feels like rock bottom is oftentimes just to propel you to the next level, that you know you have a choice. You know your father had a choice. He could have stayed where he was or he could have chosen what she did, to move to the United States and be brave and make a life for himself and then his family. That's a choice, and so we all have choices. And I'm curious for you, like with your, have you had an adversity? I hope that it wasn't similar to mine, but did you have an adversity in your life that kind of propelled you to that next chapter in your life?
Speaker 3:I did Um, which is interesting. You know I thought a lot about a lot about this before coming coming onto the podcast Um, but you know I thought a lot about this before coming onto the podcast. But you know there's multiple different adversities that you can face and you can either choose to, you know, not choose, but, like you know, that can get you down or you can learn and grow from that. And so I was married the first time at a very young age, by choice, but I was 20 and that didn't work out.
Speaker 3:I have a beautiful daughter from that marriage, but I got separated and divorced very young and on my own at about 25 years old, as a single mom and living in New Jersey, which is expensive, more expensive than Ohio and I had a choice to really focus on my daughter and my career and provide for her the way that my parents had always said like don't know, if I have a husband now, it's very lovely, but you do not ever get yourself in a place where you have to depend on a man.
Speaker 3:Like you want to be able to provide for yourself and provide for your family when and if you need to, and so that was really a pivotal moment for me I was still fairly young, 25, where I said, you know, my parents were like you can move home with us, you know, until you get back on your feet. And I said, no, I'm going to do this, I'm going to provide for my daughter, I'm going to find a place to live, I'm going to apply to grad school, get my master's degree and I'm going to be a good role model for herself, for her, for myself, and really put her and my career at the focus. And so that was a really big shift for me, because I was really on my own wow, I mean, what a again such bravery to go like no, I'm gonna.
Speaker 1:I'm actually gonna do this myself and I think a lot of times we don't realize that we do have the choice and to choose maybe the harder route. It oftentimes can pivot us into the direction that was meant for us. And what a different feeling and emotion as a woman to have a daughter go. No, I want to be an example to her. It's like powerful, you know. You know and I'm interested in the work that you do with her MD. I see so many like synergies here with the work that the way you grew up into different adversities that you had in your early 20s, into building HerMD you know revolutionary and women's health care, which is something I'm obviously very, very empowered by and something I'm very passionate about. I'm curious, like your personal experiences, the way you grew up, how does this now align now with the work you do today?
Speaker 3:You know it's pretty incredible. You know the founding stories, you know we grew up in Cleveland Ohio which is an important part of the story and I co-founded HerMD with my sister, dr Somi Javay, who's a board certified OBGYN, and so I never did think I would work with her because I sit on the business side of things marketing and branding and business. But we nearly lost our mother when she was just about my age, so I'll be 44 in February. We grew up in Cleveland Ohio, the Mecca of cardiology, with the Cleveland Clinic, and we have a very, very strong family history of cardiovascular disease. She lost both of her parents to cardiovascular disease and multiple siblings in their 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s to cardiac events. And so she was 44, and she was complaining of left arm pain, chest pain, shortness of breath, jaw pain, and she was sent home repeatedly in Cleveland Ohio and they told her it wasn't her heart, that it was stress, it was anxiety, that her kids were stressing her out. We were pretty good kids, I don't think we were stressing her out that much and they just told her to lay off the caffeine. And this went on for months and it's because, you know, she was a minority woman who was like 110 pounds, non-smoker, non-drinker, and so they couldn't explain why she would ever present with cardiovascular disease despite the strong family history.
Speaker 3:So I still remember I was a sophomore in high school and I got called down to the office and I didn't really get called down to the office and my mother was there as well then and they told us that our mom had been rushed emergently to the hospital, rushed emergently to the hospital and you know.
Speaker 3:So we got to the hospital and we found out that she called 911. She had become so unstable in the ambulance and once she got there on the cath table that she had to go into emergent surgery and she ended up having quadruple bypass when she was 45 years old, which I thought at that time that was old, that's so young, that's so young. And I'm a mom now and I can't imagine what she went through. She didn't see her kids, we didn't get to see our mom before she went in, and had she had a heart attack she would have died, because it was that the extent of the blockages were so bad, and so my sister was pre-med at the time, and so that was a very impactful moment in our lives, like to see that she was just dismissed and she could have lost her life because of not just not being believed, which so many women in the healthcare system do that right now, still to this day.
Speaker 3:And you know that was 1995, 96, 96, 97.
Speaker 1:You know, not all doctors are, but some are. They're complacent.
Speaker 3:Right and they look at, they rely on data and they rely on research. And you know women are underrepresented in research trials. They weren't even mandated to be included in research trials until the 90s, and so data couldn't explain why my mother at that age, being a woman and a non-smoker, non-drinker, would ever have cardiovascular disease. And so that was a moment for us, and especially my sister being pre-med at the time, where she was like this isn't right, like women should not be dismissed, they should not be ignored, we should be believed, we should be taken seriously. And she wanted to create a place where, you know, women would be heard.
Speaker 3:And so she went into women's healthcare and realized, you know, the current medical system, even as it is today, doesn't allow for that. So we partnered together to create a space and a place for women to get the care they deserve and to get time with providers. And you know it's not provider's fault, like my sister's, a doctor and you know they're limited by, you know, the healthcare system that exists today, with low insurance reimbursement rates, and you know having to see 40 or 50 patients a day to make it work and it's just not feasible. It's not, it's not good for the patient, it's not good for the provider, and so that was like the impetus for us to start HerMD.
Speaker 1:I agree and I think you know I I met with a doctor actually today, a holistic doctor, and I almost cried because it was the first time in a long time he spent about two hours with me.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 1:Two hours, okay, and he looked at me from a 360 perspective. Most of the time you walk into a doctor, they go through the list, they go do you have this, this or this? And then they give you a medication and you leave. You can't really tell if they care or not, and that's so important. I mean, he asked me about medical history yes, and also psychological history, the things that you went through in your life and that's needed. I mean there is no like physical versus mental. It's mind, body soul.
Speaker 3:It is 100%. It's the biopsychosocial approach and you have to address all of it together. But we're so compartmentalized with like we're going to fix this one little piece of you or this one little problem where that can impact everything right, your overall wellness.
Speaker 1:Yes, and so I think, when you miss, when they doesn't again, not to everyone, but the doctors that are complacent and they don't dig in and they're not curious versus the ones that are, that's where you see the difference, you know. And so the story about your mother there's countless others, unfortunately, like that, and I'm curious with her MD. How do you like utilize this holistic approach within your practice to really revolutionize that idea?
Speaker 3:Yes, a hundred percent. So the first thing we did was we developed care protocols. And so, just after decades of you know my sister being in patient rooms and listening to them and understanding also the problems in our healthcare system and how she says herself how she was failing patients, she was failing patients, she was failing herself because she couldn't give them the time, she didn't have the time to listen. And so we developed care protocols that incorporate the questions, the things to ask about. So it's, you're talking about the whole picture and the first appointment. I mean, all of our appointments are 20 to 40 minutes, but that first appointment you get 40 minutes with your provider. It does not have to include a physical exam.
Speaker 3:And so when you're in there for a health consult, a menopause consult, a sexual health consult, that is your time to talk about everything Like how are you being impacted, what is going on with your overall health and wellness.
Speaker 3:And then together there's a treatment plan that incorporates it could incorporate, you know mental health services, it could incorporate couples counseling, it could incorporate pelvic floor, it could incorporate a nutritionist, and so we have a robust referral network and system that we can go to for those partners when we craft the plan together and then our providers are trained in, you know, gynecology, menopause, sexual wellness and so they have additional training that other providers don't, because it's not part of the traditional medical system, unfortunately, to get a lot of menopause education or to get a lot of sexual health education. Sexual health education is around STIs and contraception and fertility. It's not around trauma. It's not around arousal disorder or sexual pain or orgasm dysfunction or low libido that you have to get additional training for. Even though issues with sexual health and wellness impact 43% of women, it's still not really a part of traditional medical training.
Speaker 1:Yes, and I've noticed as I've been developing the app.
Speaker 1:I've talked to a lot of medical doctors and it's interesting for me from my perspective. I am not a medical doctor. I do have, you know, you know, a degree in psychology, but I'm not a medical doctor. And I but I do come from a place where I understand the experience of having doctors be complacent, have doctors not necessarily understand the trauma response after surviving a rape Right and the sexual. You know all the things that go on physically, all the things that you were talking about. What goes on physically does affect your mind, body, soul, and I was talking to a medical doctor about this and she's like you know, when I was at a treatment center doing research. We wanted people like you that had this experience to help inform practices and the research methods. There's such a gap there of having people that had lived experience going yes to this, you know, or no to that, or I, you know, because that's what they're missing right now in healthcare is feeling seen, feeling cared for, feeling like it's accessible.
Speaker 3:Yes, accessible and seen and heard. I mean, that's core. You know we've had all of our patients there, you know, especially the new ones. They say how life-changing it is just to be able to be heard and, like the first time in years, decades, were told that they were given time, that they weren't just, you know, poo-pooed away for lack of a better term and said it's all in your head, oh, it's just something normal, you'll go through it.
Speaker 3:No, there's quality of life and there's, you know, physical issues and emotional issues and they have to be addressed. We shouldn't just be getting through it. And there's so many treatment options and you know therapies and over-the-counter solutions, there's so much available. So to just like say yeah, there's nothing we can do for you, is not okay. And so for us to give time back to the patients and give time back to providers, who then are not burnt out at the end of the day from seeing 40 patients when they're seeing 15, 16 patients a day. That's markedly different. And they feel and know that they're making an impact on these patients' lives and they don't feel like they're failing, like my sister felt she was failing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what a nice self-awareness, though, of going like. This was a gap for me and I want to change it. And I'm always talking about filling up the cup, you know, and the oxygen mask on first. So I'm curious for you what do you do for yourself, what you're giving to so many people? What do you do for yourself to manage your 360, your mind, body, soul on a daily basis?
Speaker 3:I know, right, I'm like, be honest, I'm not like the best at it, although I am getting. I am getting markedly better. And, um, you know, the first thing I did professionally was get myself a coach. And you know, I don't, I think initially I felt like, oh, I don't, I don't know if I want people to know I have a coach. Like that means there's something deficient in me professionally or something I'm so proud that I have a coach.
Speaker 3:Um's like my oxygen sometimes because you have to take care of yourself professionally. And when you're an entrepreneur, you know you're raising capital, you're building a company, you don't have all the answers and you know you have to take care of yourself professionally and personally. And so she has been like a lifesaver the last four years for me. And then you know it takes a while or it took me a while to get to a place where it's like you have to take time away. It always because you can always work, you can keep. There will always be the list, there will always be the projects, there will always be the people in your company that have joined you on this crazy ride and mission, who believe in you and you want to do everything right by them. But if you're running on empty, you can't do that, and so it took me a while to get there and not, you know, be that workaholic, working almost what felt like 24 seven.
Speaker 3:And so, for me, I read, or I listened actually to, a TED talk, and it was a short TED talk, but it was really simple and it stuck with me.
Speaker 3:It was find the joy and find moments where you're laughing, because when you're laughing, everything feels better and you don't think about the things that are stressing you out.
Speaker 3:So, when you need to fill your cup, do the things where you find yourself laughing and having fun. And so, for me, spending time with my kids and my family, but doing the activities that bring me that joy, whether it's watching Michigan football or NFL football or cooking fresh pasta with them, finding at least one moment a day where I can be laughing, because that releases the endorphins and you kind of forget about all that stress from work or the deadlines that are approaching or the fundraising that you're going to have to go into, because, at the end of the day, you're a person and, first and foremost, I'll go back to your original question, like, outside of all the titles of everything, even mother, you know partner, sister. You know CEO, coo, whatever it is. You're a person at the end of the day, with your own needs, and to not forget your identity as just a simple human is really important. It took me a while to get there, but I feel good now that I'm there.
Speaker 1:And I think it can be hard to separate yourself from your business when you're so passionate about the business. But you almost have to to be able to show up for yourself. You know I go to a soul coach. To me, like my soul coach is better than any therapist I've ever had. To be honest, to show up for yourself, you know I go to a soul coach. To me, like my soul coach is better than any therapist I've ever had. To be honest with you, um, it's, it's the ROI for that is that you get to show up differently, you get to execute so different and you get to also show up for your team in such an authentic way and your family and I'm just so much more self-aware, I have so much more patience. I mean, being in the mental health space period has given me so much more patience because I understand that people come from different lived experiences and it shows up and I do think it's a superhero power of mine that I can go. Okay, I know where that's coming from there.
Speaker 3:It is a huge. It's such a huge superpower and you know realizing where everyone's coming from as a leader, because people are looking to you, but just being that person for your team is huge.
Speaker 1:Thank you. Yes, I think as women especially in tech and most likely in the medical space as well women are few and far between and they're looked upon in a different way. And I've done a lot of work on myself because, again, I promised myself that if I'm going to put out a product like this, I need to work on myself too. I can't just be like I'm going to run the talk, you know, run the talk with you. I'm going to do it the way, and you know, I think that there's a lot of second guessing that we do, maybe even imposter syndrome that comes in the way, whether it's like your inner child saying that you can't do it, and the work and saying, yes, I can do it, gives you just such an empowered place to come from and you perform better.
Speaker 1:I've noticed it and the way that I show up and the energy that comes from me and from other people, and that's why I love having people like you on, because you know you show that light to other people, other people that might be listening and going like I can't do this because or I came from this scenario I can't do this because, like you can and you can overcome most anything, and I've overcome a lot.
Speaker 1:You've overcome a lot and I think that I'm really excited about companies like yourself, because you are building something that's going to help a lot of women feel seen, and women and when women don't feel seen, and especially when it comes to medical I mean, it can lead to so much distress, understatement of the year, right, and so you're. You're starting a very healthy approach to medicine, which is so needed and lacking, and that was actually part of the reason I started Fortify Wellness, because it felt like the medical industry was failing me and I wasn't feeling seen and I wanted to help make other people feel seen, so I. That's our kind of common alignment there, which is very cool.
Speaker 3:It totally is and I love that and and you're right, like, as a medical community, we were and are failing people.
Speaker 3:We are, and so it's going to take people like you, other founders in the healthcare space, and I think we're getting people to set up and pay attention and understand and really see that you know, the status quo is not working.
Speaker 3:It's been failing, it's been failing a lot of people, millions and millions of people, and this generation of founders, this generation of patients, consumers, they're not going to be like our parents and the generations before who just like, suffer in silence and think like, well, I can't impact change If I can do it and think like, well, I can't impact change If I can do it, anyone can do it. Like that. That's the takeaway that I want to give to people. It's like if you put your mind to it, you can be part of the change. You can impact change, and I think that I've seen more movement in the last couple of years than I've seen in many of the years prior in terms of we still have a market way to go, don't get me wrong, but at least there are more people paying attention, there's more people listening and there's more people who, I think, are understanding that this can't go on any longer and we have to change.
Speaker 1:And I think it also takes. I mean within yourself, going into a session with your doctor and asking questions. They are complacent and they go. It's this Ask more questions, come beforehand and write out questions. I write out my medical history beforehand and I come in with questions and then I go in more confident because sometimes when you're in a session it can feel overwhelming. But digging, digging, digging can change. I've seen it with myself, I've seen it with family and other people and I think also it stems from self-love, like I deserve the right care. I love myself enough to know I want to ask questions and hold people accountable 100%.
Speaker 3:I mean we teach our patients. You know it's education, advocacy and empowerment, like educate yourself, right, those are our three core pillars, right, and that's why we put out education at HerMD, at events, on the site, you know, with your provider, et cetera. But you know and advocate for yourself, just like you're saying, reprepped A lot of times, I think, traditional medicine we go in and you know the provider, the doctor, the nurse practitioner, whoever it is. Well, they're the expert, they know, and if they tell me it's in my head or it's not that well, they know more than I do. And we just kind of used to walk away, absolutely that Well, they know more than I do and we just kind of used to walk away, absolutely not.
Speaker 3:We tell our patients and people we talk to, even if they're not our patients. No one knows your body better than you. If something isn't right, document it, write down your questions, take your history in and if they're still not listening, find someone who will listen, because you deserve it, like you deserve to be heard and taken seriously. And so they're not. With you and your body every day, you, you are, you're living that experience and so kudos to you for, like, taking your history, writing down your questions and going in prepared, because for now, given the system that we're in, we have to advocate for ourselves.
Speaker 1:Yes, and absolutely. I mean I. Complacency is not where I. I don't know that. I don't know that word, I don't, I can't relate. I don't think you can relate either. So the complacency you know I'm forever curious, curiosity has gotten me into, really, you know, into this place. Now we're launching this product. You know being curious about the world around me and I'm sure you can relate to that as well and it's, it's disheartening that it, that is the case. But I am excited with the work that you're doing with her MD to start to change that. And people can change it within themselves by just asking the questions, holding their team accountable and also that self-love journey of like okay, I'm going to get a second opinion, I'm going to get a third opinion, right, you know.
Speaker 1:And creative problem solving you know, so and sometimes, if this you know, if you don't have an advocate, it can be heartening disheartening too If you don't have an advocate. It can be disheartening too If you don't have an advocate or a family member that can go. Okay, let's try to go this avenue, so it can feel lonely. But I'm a huge component in advocating and speaking up for yourself and taking a beat and seeing what is the productive next step to go to with your health. It's the most important thing. Without your health, you have nothing. I learned that the hard way.
Speaker 1:Exactly no it's true, yeah, so what do you have coming up with HerMD that you would like to share? We'd love to hear more.
Speaker 3:We have a couple of exciting things that we're working on. One is expanding. One is expanding I can't be super specific, but expanding our offerings and going into well, we've always done skin health, but taking a deeper dive into skin health and it's what you had said about, you know that compartmentalization. We want to alleviate that and provide comprehensive care under one roof. We also understand our patients. You know it's hard enough to go to that one appointment and then, when you go to that one appointment, you have a follow-up lab, you have a follow-up ultrasound, oh, but you might have a skincare concern or you might have, you know, some other concern. So we want to be able to address as much as we can with our team, and so we already have onsite lab for blood work, we have onsite ultrasound, we have onsite minimally invasive procedures.
Speaker 3:But we're expanding the scope and breadth of skin health and thinking about, you know, our skin being the largest organ of our body, really taking care of it, and so there'll be more more to come there, certainly.
Speaker 3:And then, in terms of also patient access, we will be launching some initiatives around prescriptions and Rx and just being able to allow our patients to access some of the medications that they need, that maybe aren't covered by insurance, but they should be. That's a whole other topic to not get into, and so having that in our locations and then we're also going to invest in a few devices that will allow for a better patient experience, in particular, with annual exams and IUDs, because there is, we know, a lot of pain around IUD placement and also taking out IUDs, and so we already have a markedly better patient experience. We've pulled our data, but we're investing in some more technology to make it even better of an experience and less painful, and there's a lot of anxiety around annual exams, and so we're investing there as well to make it a more comfortable experience to alleviate anxiety. So a lot that's focused around patient care, patient access and patient experience.
Speaker 1:And again easing the anxiety. It doesn't you know your health shouldn't, it shouldn't have to cause stress no, it really shouldn't, and that's you know.
Speaker 3:that I would say for 2025 is our core focus is focusing on the patient, their experience within her MD and how can we make it better. How can we just give them access to better solutions and make it easier for them to access those?
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for joining me today.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 2:This was great. Thank you for listening to. I Feel you a Fortify Wellness production where we empower mind, body and soul to reach new heights. Your wellbeing is your greatest strength. Nurture it, honor it and watch yourself thrive. If today's episode inspired you, subscribe, share your thoughts in the comments and come back next week for more insights to elevate your journey. Stay empowered, stay true and remember you're not alone. I Feel you is a Fortify Wellness production. All rights reserved.