Welcome And Guest Introduction

Dr Andrew Greenland 0:00

So, welcome back to Voices in Health and Wellness. This is the podcast where we speak with practitioners, founders, and innovators who are reshaping the future of healthcare. Today I'm joined by Dr. Sonia Diaz, founder and medical director of Wellmvia Medical. Sonia is a psychiatrist and healthcare innovator who has taken a very different path from the traditional model of mental healthcare. Through Whelmvia, she's building what she calls a precision psychiatry practice, one that looks beyond symptom management and considers the broader metabolic, hormonal, and lifestyle factors that influence mental well-being. So with that, Sonia, I'd love to welcome you to the show and thank you so much for joining us today.

Dr Sonia Diaz 0:36

Yeah, thank you so much, Dr. Greenland. I'm uh I'm really excited just to share more and kind of talk about uh how I view healthcare and how I'm trying to do my part to address it.

Why She Left Traditional Psychiatry

Dr Andrew Greenland 0:46

Fantastic. So maybe we could start with your story. You've had experience within traditional medicine and academic environments before launching Wellvia. What ultimately led you to step away and build your own practice?

Dr Sonia Diaz 0:58

I think a big part of it was that throughout all this practice, because like you said, I had worked at a large academic medical center at starts in my training, and I did a lot of community work as well throughout that training. And I think what it was is I kept on seeing kind of the same patterns repeat themselves over and over and over again. And one of them that I saw was kind of smart, really high-functioning people. They'd been through the system, you know, they had a prescriber or multiple, they had a therapist, they had prescriptions, um, but they still just they still felt stuck and they still weren't getting well. And it wasn't because, you know, their providers didn't care, it wasn't because, you know, that there was, you know, something that somebody was missing. It just was that the traditional system that we have built doesn't really allow patients or providers the time to really get to the bottom and really look closely enough and figure out, hey, what's going on here? So it uh was quite the departure, I guess, from what I was hearing. But I think that was the main, that was the main driver. Um, just not having enough time to really get the full picture and really start treating like patients, like holistically.

Dr Andrew Greenland 2:15

Thank you. Really helpful context. Um, so we said that's something you kind of picked up over your career and realized that things weren't really aligned with where you were thinking. Was there a particular moment or patient experience that really kind of triggered you into making that leap?

Dr Sonia Diaz 2:29

I think honestly, I think it was um right when I had uh left my training program, and a couple of um my colleagues had graduated. And like I said, these people, you know, they were psychiatrists. So it's not like they were unaware of healthcare. Um, you know, they went to their appointments, they had their 15-minute med management, but a lot of them were just dealing with so much that wasn't being addressed. And it again was talking to all of them, talking to my colleagues, my peers, and saying, like, what are you dealing with? And you know, you're fine, you're functioning, but you're not really optimized. And I think that's where it came from. Just looking around at my peers. Um, the similar I had a similar experience with my partner who was in a uh MBA program and looking at his peers. And it, like I said, that same pattern emerged not only with my patients, but with my peers as well. And I think at that moment when I was making the shift, it kind of hit for me that um there really is like a need here that isn't really being addressed.

Dr Andrew Greenland 3:34

Got it. So, were there any fears or reservations that you had about leaving a more conventional path?

Dr Sonia Diaz 3:41

Um, completely. I mean, I think everybody does, you know. I didn't want people to think that like I was a quack, right? I'm a psychiatrist. So it's easy, it's easy to make the jump. I didn't want people to think that I was kind of um, you know, being arrogant and saying, well, I'm gonna take over and do this whole managed care. Because that's not what I'm doing either. I am practicing psychiatry, but with a bio-psychosocial model that incorporates the entire person. And I think like once I actually started building and started kind of talking to people and saying, hey, this is what I want to do. Does this seem what is this, you know, how does this sound? Um, I kind of gained more confidence, you know. It wasn't kind of out of the box. It wasn't something, you know, that is so, you know, out of left field that people were gonna be scared of it, but it was just innovative enough that kind of made me pause. And like I said, with talking to people, I realized, you know, this really shouldn't be innovative. This kind of should be the standard. Um, so I think that helped kind of just starting to build and really seeing that this was possible, that it wasn't something that I had to wait 10, 20 years to do and establish myself, you know, in the field as some kind of voice. Like I'm a physician, I have this training and I know how to help patients. And once I grounded it in there, I think a lot of the fear like started falling away.

Building Direct Access To A Doctor

Dr Andrew Greenland 5:04

Thank you. So, what was it that you wanted to create that simply wasn't possible within the traditional model?

Dr Sonia Diaz 5:09

And you really need to dive into the weeds here and kind of pick out what was Yeah, I think what it comes down to, like what I really wanted to create was I wanted to actually give people patients access, direct access to their physician. I wanted people to have direct access to an expert that they trusted to ask questions. And I think like we see it all the time with like, I mean, there's two new studies coming out all the time about the amount of misinformation on social media, especially surrounding, you know, medicine and healthcare, and particularly surrounding mental health care as well. And I think a lot of that is driven by people really not having that trusted resource, you know, and even their doctors that they have, you know, they trust them to a certain degree, but again, 15-minute med management appointments, you really can't cultivate that relationship where you really can understand each other as people and kind of move forward with their treatment in a holistic way. So I think that's really one I want to provide people. You know, it's very confusing, it's very scary when you have something going on and you don't really know. I wanted to be able to be, hey, listen, I am a resource that will be able to give you my undivided attention and all of the skills that I have at my disposal to try to figure out what's going on.

Dr Andrew Greenland 6:21

Amazing.

What Precision Psychiatry Really Means

Dr Andrew Greenland 6:22

So you describe your approach as precision psychiatry. So for people that hadn't heard that term before, what does it actually mean? Give us a kind of a snapshot.

Dr Sonia Diaz 6:31

So I think um it's not, I don't, it's it's not as uh fancy as some people like to think, but um it really is instead of kind of narrowing in on, you know, one diagnosis, one set of symptoms, and treating them and or masking them with medication. It's that the treat, it's the idea that treatment should be built around the individual, never the diagnosis. So two people can walk in, same depressive symptoms, same pHQ score, and still have completely different interventions that actually help them based on their genetics, their metabolism, their lifestyle. So it really is the idea that treatment is not diagnosis-focused, symptom focused, it is person-focused.

Dr Andrew Greenland 7:20

Thank you, really clear. And I know you have a very holistic approach to what you do. So, what role do metabolic or hormonal health as examples play in mental well-being?

Dr Sonia Diaz 7:30

So a huge role. Um, one of the things that I found is that I mean, like just pulling it back, just basically, if somebody isn't optimized metabolically, if they're really struggling, they're having issues, um medication management might not be like the best like first course action because they might not even their bodies might not even be processing these medical interventions like optimally. Also, like there is a huge level of um metabolism that is influenced by our genetics. So, another thing that I like to incorporate is pharmacogenetics in that. So that we're making sure that the medications that we do use to treat are actually ones that are the most likely to be effective, um, based off, like I said, a hormonal profile, metabolic profile, genetic profile. And they're not, I mean, they're not really separate systems when you think about it. Um, blood sugar dysregulation, for example, that can happen to any of us at any given time directly affects mood stability, thyroid dysfunction, um, testosterone deficiency, especially in men. So there's all these different things that have neuropsychiatric symptoms that we're kind of just treating separately in boxes. And I'm saying, let's get to the root cause of why you're so anxious, the root cause of why you're having such trouble sleeping, your mind is racing. Let's treat that and then maybe avoid some unnecessary medications or some unnecessary interventions and go after the root cause.

Metabolic And Hormonal Roots Of Mood

Dr Andrew Greenland 9:04

So it's obvious to you and me, because we work in this field that this is our world, but why are these areas so overlooked? Why is nobody else getting onto this stuff?

Dr Sonia Diaz 9:13

So I think I think it's kind of multifaceted. I think um with the specialization of medicine and specialty training uh being so so in-depth and so hyper-specific, people kind of really like kind of stay in their boxes, stay in like a very defined set of like this is what I treat, this is what I manage, these are interventions I do. And I think a lot of that is driven too by our kind of institutions that we're working under and the insurances that we're billing to. Um, it's a very narrow, very specific described set of treatment. And um, like I said, I think that causes some of the narrowing, you know. Oh, I don't know how I can bill for this. I'm not sure if my patient will actually have coverage for this. So it becomes kind of the game of what can I can I do, not really based off of training, not really based off of your credentials, but based off of you know, billing infrastructure. So I think that's one of the reasons that people kind of don't really branch out as much. Um, I think another might just be kind of like what I said at the beginning about being scared uh to be viewed as a quack or kind of as unserious as a physician. You know, you see so much about there about you know, hormones and TRT, peptides, GLP ones, and a lot of it is from this cosmetic framework, this idea that like people are seeking these out from shady channels, possibly, and you know, they're not really being open, they're probably doing damage to themselves, and the idea that it's never necessary. And I think that's a little bit of an outdated look on how really, like I said, this biopsychosocial model of medicine really works, that all of these things do have an interplay, and it's you know, we've learned a lot in the last like few decades that you know, you don't always wait until you're having severe symptoms to treat. That might not always be the best intervention, and sometimes making sure that you're completely optimized where you're supposed to be in all of these areas can lead to years down the line of better health, it can lead to thousands of dollars from previously like missed work opportunities because you're feeling better, you're able to perform better. So I think the idea those two things. I think it's a lot of provider fear, and I think it's a lot of being comfortable with the status quo that has kind of kept people just staying very narrow in their scope.

Dr Andrew Greenland 11:41

So you've very clearly set out your stool and your approach. But when patients come to you, what are they looking for that they haven't found elsewhere?

Dr Sonia Diaz 11:49

Um, I think it is the relationship. I think it is having somebody that they feel really has the time to hear the entire picture, to hear the whole story. Um, I think a big part of it is having somebody they do feel comfortable with a professional to say, hey, listen, I saw this thing about peptides on Instagram and I'm really interested and I want to go through with it, and having a sounding board right there to like be able to talk about. Because I I think that was one of the big things that I kind of noticed when I was um practicing in a group. I had patients willing to kind of divulge certain things that they would normally not divulge to other providers, and you know, they weren't necessarily necessarily harmful all the time, but they did make things more complicated when you know me as a provider didn't have the whole picture. So I think that is something that patients kind of really um are looking for more as funny as it seems, more kind of a traditional healthcare system, not oh well, I don't see this type of visit, this type of visit. I'm a physician, I'm your physician, you are now hiring me to help you get well. You have all my tools now to do that. So I think it's just a lot more of like the traditional like provider-patient relationship that people are seeking.

What Wellmivia Looks Like For Patients

Dr Andrew Greenland 13:09

Thank you. So tell us a little bit about Wellmia, a practice, what it looks like from a patient point of view, from a typical patient journey through your approach and what you've actually built in terms of your practice.

Dr Sonia Diaz 13:22

Yeah, of course. So as of right now, Wellmivia is exclusively telehealth. We operate um out of Virginia and Florida, as of right now. So if you were a Virginia or a Florida patient, you could go to the website and um kind of see our services, anything like that. Everyone comes through the practice, establishes with the practice with a persistent psychiatry evaluation. It's a 90-minute evaluation, which seems like a long time to a lot of people, but I mean, I could probably go for a little bit longer, even, and I have. But really, it gives us the time to really get, you know, let me understand who you are, get to know your medical history, your psychiatric history, really understand what's going on, why you're coming in, and what your goals are. Um, so I think that's a big part of when patients start with mamibia, spend a decent amount of time kind of establishing what are your goals, what are your expectations for care, what do you expect, you know, me to provide you, and what do you kind of expect as our relationships moves forward? And I think people having that type of certainty instead of confusion helps a lot with the process. Um, after that, patients can kind of choose like how much uh how much involvement they want. So we have three tiers, uh, one being a la carte, kind of just paying for your follow-ups as needed or based on the schedule in 15-minute or 30-minute follow-up blocks. Um, and then our other options is a Womenfium member. So there's a core and a signature option. Each one comes with dedicated access uh to messaging, it comes with a kind of monthly membership check-in calls, um, multiple visits throughout the month that you have access to, um, along with other things, you know, help with prioritization if you want to bill for like medications. Uh, it comes with pharma consetic um test ordering as well. So, like just extra benefits for people who want more of like a high touch and a more concierge like direct patient experience. And um, yeah, so that is how it runs. Like I said, like I said, my big my big goal was that patients would have actual access to me, right? If they needed a question answered, if they were confused about their plan, I really wanted them to be able to have that access. So that's built-in for the patients. And then um, each patient leaves their initial appointment with a Wamivia blueprint. So basically, it's a comprehensive plan that includes their diagnosis, the plans we discussed, um, neurooptimization techniques, and uh dietary recommendations to help with medication supplement recommendations and kind of just a full picture of their treatment plan and where we are planning to go so that patients have something to refer to and they have, like I said, less confusion around the whole process.

Direct Pay Care Barriers And Trade-Offs

Dr Andrew Greenland 16:16

Thank you. So you're obviously talking about the concierge model, and you've talked about many of the advantages of doing that kind of model. What are the challenges that come with that decision, though? You know, versus you know, the um direct pay sort of versus the insurance route.

Dr Sonia Diaz 16:31

Yeah, I think I think one of the challenges is um kind of just the the lack of awareness. I think a lot of people don't really understand that like you can access healthcare this way, uh, that it doesn't have to be through an insured model. You can go out of network, you can kind of just go down on your own, find a physician and pay them directly. I don't really think people or everyone under has the awareness that that's available to them. Um obviously, I think access is of course one issue. Not everybody also has like the funds to be able to, you know, afford direct pay physicians all the time, or they believe that it would be like a huge hardship. Uh, I would say that kind of like doing the math myself and switching the to that care model for myself. Um, you know, in in the US, we have kind of different models. One of the things that I experienced switching from training was COBA insurance just for coverage in between. And that was thousands of dollars a month. And, you know, under like a direct care concierge model, you have a whole year of mental health care already covered that I know is gonna happen for the price of about a month and a half or two months of insurance coverage at that time. So, you know, then when like the need is immediate, it was kind of a no-brainer. Um, so I think that's one of the big challenges, just the awareness of like how this works and how accessible it is to patients. Um, another another factor just being um kind of yeah, the the the difficulty that it takes just to navigate healthcare for a lot of people, um, I think causes some of that, like uh some of those difficulties with direct pay, kind of understanding and like educating and figuring out, oh, wait a minute, this is actually like this is what goes on, this is how I can, you know, get medications or see a doctor or things like that. So I think the big thing is just education and awareness. Um uh I another big one just from the provider side is uh I think guidance. You know, when you're when you're first going out there and kind of building what you want to build and building the model, there's some there's a lot of other physicians that are really helpful that kind of post online, but I there really is no one kind of like you know, Bible. There is no no gold standard. And so I think when you're crafting things out yourself, um, you kind of have to put on multiple hats, you have to be founder and physician rather than just a physician and do and focus on your clinical duties.

Dr Andrew Greenland 19:06

Thank you. And on that point, um, we obviously are in a market where many people have become accustomed to insurance-based care. What is working in terms of the communication that you put out to really communicate the value of the model that you have?

Dr Sonia Diaz 19:21

Um, I think as far as uh communication, a lot a lot of the communication I I have um has been in person. Uh so and I think the minute I say, you know, I do precision psychiatry or metabolic psychiatry, people become very interested that they're, oh wait, there's other forms, there's other ways to look at this. Um, so I I'm very I'm very passionate about it. I do like to post you know on LinkedIn and I started posting on Instagram a little bit. Um, and I think that's kind of what's hitting people, people realizing that there is not one way to to handle your mental health care. Um, there is not one way to to handle like the effects that you're having from your chronic illnesses. Like there are there are alternatives and there are ways to do it that um feel I think more human. And I think that's kind of what people really respond to.

Dr Andrew Greenland 20:20

Thank

When Premium Telehealth Does Not Deliver

Dr Andrew Greenland 20:21

you. Um, you mentioned previously when we chatted that many premium healthcare offerings don't necessarily produce better outcomes. Can you expand a bit on that for us?

Dr Sonia Diaz 20:30

Yeah, so um I think we've all kind of seen the the era of telehealth platforms explode um in the last few years. And there has been a million different models, and some some good ones, some not so good ones. And I think with these this expansion, um, especially with like a lot of these like VC backed or private equity-backed platforms, you're seeing like a lot of really great like uh you know, business uh models, really great kind of like profit margin plans and things like that, but not really good clinical care. Um, that things start being kind of streamlined and cut down so that you know the most profit comes in, which almost inevitably means that the care is affected. Um, and even if you want to make it as simple as you know, reimbursement rates are pretty low and in cases like this. I think you know, when a provider is seeing multiple people and they also might be thinking in the back of their head, oh wait, is this gonna be enough to cover all of my expenses? It's very likely that that cognitive load is going to affect the care that their patients are getting. Um, so I think within these systems, like I said, they're they're very good at marketing luxury. They're very good at providing uh what people think is like really well managed care. Um, but at the end of the day, You know, you sometimes have no idea who the person you're seeing is, where they're located, what their credentials are. Um, and people aren't really getting the I think the health education that comes with great care. You know, they're moved through a model, they're made happy with the very, very fancy, you know, offerings, but they're not really improving their care. They're stabilized, but they're not optimized. So I think that's really like what we're seeing there. And that's why I think that luxury care doesn't necessarily mean better care.

Using AI Without Losing Humanity

Dr Andrew Greenland 22:35

Thank you. So one of the things that really stood out from our previous conversation was your use of AI. And there's a lot of fear and hype around AI right now, particularly in healthcare. How are you actually using AI within your practice today?

Dr Sonia Diaz 22:48

So I think uh one of the big ways I use AI, obviously, is for a lot of my like um backend things, a lot of my business management. Um, so like I said, a big part of this and knowing that like I wanted to work under my model, a model that I created, was having to put on like the founder hat in addition to the clinician hat. So figuring out how to do things like RCMs, um, you know, pipelines to reach out to people, things like that. So I have been able to utilize AI for a lot of the build work. Um, I was able to build my website, I was able to build everything completely on my own. I haven't had to hire any contractors, engineers, anything like that. So that's been a huge help just as somebody who is a founder trying to build and you know be as self-reliant as possible. Secondly, um throughout kind of learning and building just the framework of the practice, I was able to get a really good understanding of how do these tools work, right? Like what can be done with them. Uh and I have been able to create my own like proprietary system and based off my frameworks to aid in documentation. So it's not just a random Chat GPT bot or anything like that telling me what to do, but it is uh my own frameworks that have been trained on my tone of voice, on my previous notes, things like that. Um and that documentation pathway allows me to formulate patient plans in like very um concise, consistent ways so it's not confusing for patients. And it also allows for um the well Nibia blueprint, like I said, to be created based off of their own clinical data. So it's not a copy and paste, you know, drink eight glasses of water a day, get eight hours of sleep. They are personalized recommendations based off of my frameworks and how I treat patients for your exact symptoms that you're coming in with. So that's been really helpful. Um, another thing that I've been working on too is um uh just a similar model uh to help other psychiatrists, other builders that would also incorporate a cognitive assessment, uh, some cognitive assessment questions and some practice style questions for physicians when they initially uh start their profiles, so that the recommendation would not only be geared towards the patient, but also towards what would like recommendations and kind of uh wording that makes the physician feel comfortable, that sounds you know, like them, that kind of would make decisions like them. So if you're more of a conservative, you know, prescriber, or if you're more aggressive, or if you like, you know, using one medication for this presentation, one for the other, kind of learning those um little intrinsicities of each provider and uh hopefully being able to be consistent so that they can use it as well, like down the line. That is the idea. Fingers crossed.

Dr Andrew Greenland 25:57

Amazing. So I know many practitioners worry that AI could replace the human connection. What do you what's your take on that?

Dr Sonia Diaz 26:05

Um, I so I think as a psychiatrist as well, um, it's for me, I think it it kind of has given back a little bit of the human connection. Um, I would like to be able to have a conversation without documenting. And I would like, you know, to be able not to be like, hey, listen, I I am listening, but you see me over here, I'm typing. Like, I think a lot of those take people out of the like rapport building that you do and of the connection, you know, especially in psychiatry, we're discussing kind of really delicate personal things at times. And having somebody, you know, typing as you're talking to them about potentially one of the worst things that's ever happened to you doesn't always feel very human. So I think with these tools and um especially, you know, with the scribes and the documentation aid, it's kind of helping bring back that human connection. Uh, everything else is so far is kind of done still, you know, by me. Like I will schedule appointments and do all I respond messages. So I don't think um I don't think it it will have a huge impact on replacing humans, um, kind of unless we let them, right? So uh like I said, it's given, I think it's given a lot of the human element uh back, especially in psychiatric care, when implemented appropriately. And I think that's the big deal. Like that's the big, the big focus on where AI should be, less so on the existence, because existence is a net positive for a lot of us. But the implementation, I think, is where we can kind of get into trouble.

Dr Andrew Greenland 27:45

Completely. So you're obviously super advanced with AI and you're using it to build your business and you're thinking about the clinical applications of AI. Where do you think other clinicians are perhaps underestimating AI's potential in your experience?

Dr Sonia Diaz 27:59

Um, I think I think one of the things that I I saw a lot, like when I was talking to other clinicians and like kind of exploring at the beginning of building, was that kind of underutilizing like how helpful it can be to manage um, like I said, like kind of small tasks like an RCM or building a spreadsheet of clinical, you know, to help you build a spreadsheet to input clinical data to help build intake forms. I I think it's it's been, I think it's widely accepted that it's it could it's a good place to go kind of for answers, you know, if you want to kind of like throw things back, chat chat things out, but there's a lot of like skills that I think uh a lot of physicians aren't utilizing. Um, I've been able, you know, to like build my own apps uh and and things like that. Um and it's and I plan to explore even more as time goes on, but I think people are just underutilizing how much of a benefit it can be kind of just to organize your own thought process and kind of get the the ball rolling on projects you've probably been, you know, eyeballing for years, but really have never been able to get started.

Dr Andrew Greenland 29:15

Thank you. Now I know you've had an opportunity to work as a physician expert in AI, and I just wanted to ask what did that experience teach you about where the technology is heading?

Dr Sonia Diaz 29:24

Um, I think it's it's really kind of showing us that we are moving forward towards uh more understanding. I think the technology is it's not perfect, right? Like people are concerned about place humans because they're not humans, right? But I think we're getting towards a better understanding of what the capabilities are and aren't in clinical medicine. Um, you know, it's great for aiding a physician in documentation. It's amazing for, you know, aiding a physician with their thought process and like narrowing down a differential. Um, it's not great for diagnosing or creating medication plans. We know that that still requires, you know, a clinical expert looking at the patient and understanding the real world implications of those things. So I think I think that's where we're headed. I think we're headed towards a more defined role for AI in clinic clinical medicine, rather than, you know, just speculation and innovation kind of every other week. I think we'll we'll get to a place where we really understand where where will this benefit us and where should we probably leave it out for the benefit of patients.

Scaling The Practice And The Future

Dr Andrew Greenland 30:39

Thank you. So you're building a very different kind of healthcare business, and you've talked about the success of the model and what you're doing to build it. But what are the um the biggest challenges or bottlenecks that you face in doing what you do and the transition that you've made in the business that you're building?

Dr Sonia Diaz 30:55

Um, I mean, I think one of the big things was kind of just uh turning my focus completely onto this, right? Kind of shutting everything off. Um one of the bottlenecks I think too uh is just patient acquisition, the natural kind of flow and building up of a panel. Um I I will I will say I'm being very selective right now as I get things started. I want to make sure that like the initial like founding panel um is really receiving kind of the best care and I'm getting the feedback uh necessary from my patients to make sure that like this is actually like what they want and what's needed. Um so I think that's that's one of the big bottlenecks, you know, really like patient acquisition and getting a good initial panel and feedback from that panel to understand how kind of to move forward. That's one of the big things, I think.

Dr Andrew Greenland 31:44

And once you've kind of nailed that, and if you had a sudden influx of sudden influx of patients next week, what would happen? Would you have the capacity? How is how is your kind of system built for scale and dealing with sort of surges?

Dr Sonia Diaz 31:58

So I think uh I would probably be okay at first, very excited, and then a little bit overwhelmed. Um because of like we discussed, because I've automated a lot of kind of like office tasks through AI, um, I'd be able to kind of like schedule and like and actually see the patient and document very quickly. So much quicker than than I have in the past. Um so I think that like that, uh having those infrastructures in place now have been uh very helpful for the scalability because you know, right now I do have lots of time to sit there and really like work on a note and the wording and make sure everything's there. When there is a full panel and there's you know five patients a day, that time is gonna severely compress. And I don't want my patients to have to feel the pain of that by waiting like days or weeks for their note to be done for the recommendations to be in. You know, I don't want somebody to have to wait two, three, four days for me to have to refill a prescription. Um, so I think, like I said, those infrastructure in place for like patient message triaging and for documentation, I think really have have me set up for future scalability to a certain point, of course.

Dr Andrew Greenland 33:24

Great. So you're the founder, you wear all the hats, like you just said. So which of which of the things is draining your time most now? Is it is it clinical because it's taking you away from the build, or is it the operational or the administrative, or is it a kind of a mix of all three?

Dr Sonia Diaz 33:40

So I think right now it is more the administrative side. I uh the regulation side, you know, making sure like licenses and insurance, billing, um, set just setting up our payment processing has been uh kind of a whole thing for a whole journey for me because we work, you know, we operate in a very specific niche field, you know, we're direct pay, precision psychiatry, we're telehealth. Um, so there's a lot of like regulatory things that come with that. There's a lot of laws that need to be followed. So I think a lot of my time now, is especially you know, with the early build and as we we are starting to stop launch, has really been the regulatory business administrative side, just making sure that like all of our ducks in our in a row, we have everything we're set to that we can see patients with no issue. Um, that also might be my own anxiety as well. I don't ever want to make sure that like we're not in compliance, but that does eat up quite a bit of time. I mean, one of the things that I think for me was like, oh wait, I have to meet with and discuss and sign an agreement with every lab and uh pharmacy and all of this, and things that like kind of I never even thought that I took advantage of that. I just sent, you know, an e-script and kind of walked away. So kind of those things have been taking quite a bit of time, but I'm willing, you know, kind of try to get it out of the way and hopefully as time moves on, that clinical, I mean that administrative burden will go down as the clinical burden goes up.

Dr Andrew Greenland 35:12

And if I was to give you a magic wand and you could fix one thing in the business tomorrow, what would that be at this point in time?

Dr Sonia Diaz 35:19

Oh goodness. Oh gosh. Um so difficult. I think there's so many little things I would go for. Um I guess probably just I think probably um just uh recognizability. I think right now we're I operate on a very niche model, and um that's not something that people see and like immediately recognize. And I think that that that would be a huge thing. If I can wave a magic wand and kind of have that recognizability and have people know, like, hey, this is what we're offering, uh, I think that would be just huge just for the field in general, not just me alone.

Dr Andrew Greenland 36:08

Thank you. And what would um success look like for Wellm V over the next 12 months? We take you 12 months ahead. Where would you like to be with the business?

Dr Sonia Diaz 36:17

So in the next whole month, um, I think success for me uh would be getting, you know, a great initial patient panel and making sure that like in 12 months they still want to continue and continue having success. Um it would also be I think launching uh one of the things that my partner and I have been discussing is launching a specific um peri and prenatal tract for walmivia. So um a very uh structured plan that really addresses where the risk factors lie in that entire pregnancy process and post-birth as well for for women. So I think in about a year, success would be a you know robust patient panel and the launching of uh Walmivia met a preenatal program.

Dr Andrew Greenland 37:10

Fantastic. Um, beyond 12 months and thinking more generally, where would you where do you see sort of the excitement in mental health care in say five to ten years? What would you like to see in this field?

Dr Sonia Diaz 37:24

I think um there's some like very exciting things when it comes to treatment, obviously, always, but I I think I'm really more excited for the assessment and kind of diagnostic tools that we're seeing coming out. Um, like I mentioned, pharmacogenomic testing is something I'm very excited about. Um, I think pharmacogenomic testing and um psychedelics as well. Um so I'm very excited about kind of having these more precise diagnostic tools, more precise, you know, metabolic genomic tools to pinpoint really like the the core root cause of like someone's suffering, you know, is this neurological, is this physiological, kind of being able to really, really kind of hone in on what we're treating and to get just kind of you know to have person have the most relief. So I think that's what I'm I'm really excited about, you know, the focus on diagnosis, the focus on assessment, um, so that we really know what we're targeting when we treat.

Dr Andrew Greenland 38:28

With that, Sonia, I'd love to thank you so much for joining me today. It's been a really fascinating conversation. I think a lot of practitioners listening will resonate with your willingness to question traditional models, build something more aligned with patient outcomes and professional fulfillment. Thank you so much for sharing the nitty gritty behind the scenes of your business and the model that you're building. It's been a really fascinating conversation, and I'm very grateful for your time. Thank you so much.

Dr Sonia Diaz 38:51

Thank you.