The Making of the Tia Clinic
A peek behind the curtain into how we’re co-creating a new model of women’s healthcare. By Carolyn Witte and Felicity Yost, Tia Co-Founders.
What would healthcare be like, look like, and feel like if it were designed for women and by women?
This is the question we’ve been asking ourselves since starting Tia and embarking on a mission to build a new, distinctly female care model from the ground up.
As female founders ourselves, we’ve dealt with our fair share of subpar encounters with the healthcare system — misdiagnosis, judgement, and barriers to quality care. These experiences said to us loud and clear, there has to be a better way. But, it was ultimately the realization that our experiences were not the exception, but the norm that propelled us to create the Tia Clinic — a new and improved, modern medical home for women of all genders; the concept store for a new care paradigm designed end-to-end and inside and out through the distinctly female experience.
Rather than redesign women’s healthcare in a vacuum, we set out to co-create this new model with our users — inviting people across the country to submit ideas and cast their votes. Here’s what we learned.
You want…
… the (first) Tia Clinic in NYC — where a waitlist for a gynecologist is the norm and it’s all too-difficult to find a doctor who accepts your insurance.
(Don’t worry, we have big plans to bring Tia Clinics to cities across the country, too! Be sure to sign up here to cast your vote!)
… a “one-stop-shop” with gynecology, primary care and wellness all under one roof.
… early AM and evening appointments you can book on your phone when it’s convenient for you (and not the other way around).
… robes that keep you warm and covered — not to make a fashion statement, but to make you comfortable advocating for the care you deserve.
… a health record that YOU control — and can access anytime, anywhere.
… and finally… a cycle, health and wellness tracker that actually connects to care, and paints a picture of the WHOLE you!
You also told us that you didn’t (just) want…
… pretty, for the sake of being pretty
You said:
“Another millennial pink couch isn’t going to fix healthcare… what I actually want is comfort in service of meaningfully better healthcare. ”
… digital-only healthcare
You said:
“But I can’t get a Pap smear on the Internet… what I actually want is online and IRL care that connect.”
… a Tia Clinic on wheels
You said:
“I don’t want to get a Pap smear in a parking lot… what I actually want is a quality relationship with my doctor.”
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As we countdown to “doors open,” we’re excited to give you a peek behind the curtain into “the making of” the very first Tia Clinic — to illustrate both why and how we’re reinventing a new distinctly female model of healthcare:
… the real women stories that drove the redesign of our patient robe
… the clinical reasoning that underlies our integrative health record
… how we’re using technology to cultivate a more meaningful, and more personalized patient <> provider relationship
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To all of our co-creators — thank you for being our eyes and ears on the ground. For helping us bring our ideas from the white board to the real world.
