Podcast

Millennials are acquiring chronic diseases at a younger age than any prior generation. But the way they access healthcare is fundamentally different from other demographics. Millennials prefer virtual visits with providers and prescription delivery to visiting a clinic or pharmacy—and that’s why the consumer retail health company hims & hers is on an upward trajectory.

Dr. Patrick Carroll is the Chief Medical Officer at hims & hers, a telehealth platform that offers a modern approach to health and wellness, providing customers with easy-to-access virtual primary care. In his role as CMO, Dr. Carroll oversees clinical programs, quality assurance and healthcare collaborations. Prior to joining hims & hers in 2019, Dr. Carroll served as CMO at Walgreens, and he is Board Certified in both family practice and adolescent medicine.

On this episode of HLTH Matters, Dr. Carroll joins hosts Dr. Gautam Gulati and Dr. Jordan Shlain to discuss his transition from primary care physician to consumer-facing health and explain what inspired him to join the team at hims & hers. Dr. Carroll describes how millennials access care in a fundamentally different way from their parents, offering insight into how hims & hers’ customers benefit from the company’s subscription model and commitment to virtual primary care. Listen in to understand the regulatory and medical licensing challenges they face at hims & hers and get Dr. Carroll’s take on the future of consumer retail and virtual health.

Topics Covered

• How Dr. Carroll’s work on a Navajo reservation informed the rest of his career
• Dr. Carroll’s transition from traditional primary care to retail and consumer-facing health
• What inspired Dr. Carroll to take on the role of CMO at hims & hers
• How customers benefit from the hims & hers’ subscription business model
• The trend toward virtual primary care and why hims & hers has no plans for brick-and-mortar locations
• Why Dr. Carroll sees millennials as an underserved demographic
• What constraints hims & hers faces in terms of regulatory and medical licensing challenges
• How the hims & hers team works with states to advocate for asynchronous communication
• How Dr. Carroll defines healthcare as any entity, technology or individual that helps a customer optimize their wellbeing
• How millennials access healthcare in a fundamentally different way from their parents (and how that contributes to the success of hims & hers)

Connect with Dr. Patrick Carroll

hims

hers

Dr. Carroll on LinkedIn

Connect with Dr. Gautam Gulati & Dr. Jordan Shlain

HLTH

Dr. Gulati on Twitter

Dr. Gulati on LinkedIn

Dr. Shlain on Twitter

Dr. Shlain on LinkedIn

Resources

Indian Health Service

VillageMD

Forward Health

American Telemedicine Association

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Introductory Quote

[6:05] “Really what fascinated me about what hims & hers was doing—they reach a millennial and younger demographic that none of the health systems, the medical groups or even Walgreens ever reached, so I saw the opportunity as working in a space that was actually the front door to healthcare for millennials and younger.”