Telehealth Best Practices: Garick Hismatullin of Kyla On How To Best Care For Your Patients When They Are Not Physically In Front Of You

One of the consequences of the pandemic is the dramatic growth of Telehealth and Telemedicine. But how can doctors and providers best care for their patients when they are not physically in front of them? What do doctors wish patients knew in order to make sure they are getting the best results even though they are not actually in the office? How can Telehealth approximate and even improve upon the healthcare that traditional doctors’ visits can provide?

In this interview series, called “Telehealth Best Practices; How To Best Care For Your Patients When They Are Not Physically In Front Of You” we are talking to successful Doctors, Dentists, Psychotherapists, Counselors, and other medical and wellness professionals who share lessons and stories from their experience about the best practices in Telehealth. As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Garick Hismatullin.

Garick founded Action Health in 2013, a network of primary care and urgent care clinics in California. The company has been providing telemedicine and in-person medical care for seven years before COVID-19 hit. Providing medical care to the workforce and having employers as customers, Garick saw a demand for bulk testing in the workplaces as the pandemic took over the US. His new company, Kyla, was launched in 2018 as a primary care company. In March 2020, the business was re-shaped to provide COVID covered solutions for employers.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?

Born in Tallinn, Estonia; my family relocated to Tver, Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. By the age of 12, I had soared into the life of Silicon Valley. I graduated from Gonzaga University and spent 1.5 years studying abroad in Tokyo, Japan where I was inspired to launch my first start up. Back in 2013 we were operating an urgent care center. Initially, telemedicine was evaluated as a way to leverage our existing resources. By 2014 we had over 100,000 virtual visits and treated over 10,000 patients.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

Validating assumptions has always been the most exciting and fascinating part of launching a new venture. For example, initially it was assumed that our target market for telemedicine would be college students. The assumption was on how these students could be more tech savvy and would be more open to using technology to get medical care.

Within weeks of going live, we figured out that people most likely to use the service were over the age of 45. The reason was even more fascinating: older people are more familiar with their bodies. They knew exactly what they needed and were looking for the most efficient way to get their treatment regimen.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“There is never a lack of resources, only a lack of resourcefulness.”

Read the full article: https://medium.com/authority-magazine/telehealth-best-practices-garick-hismatullin-of-kyla-on-how-to-best-care-for-your-patients-when-1984028471d4