Fort Worth-based virtual healthcare company TimelyMD today announced a new company name, TimelyCare, and a suite of products to better address the physical and mental health needs of today’s college students.
The rebranding reflects the company’s growth from a medical-only telehealth provider to one that provides a portfolio of services aimed at better student outcomes, including mental health counseling, medical care, basic needs assistance, peer support, and self-guided wellness programs.
Empowering students ‘to create their own path to care’
“Expanding access to high-quality care isn’t enough,” Luke Hejl, CEO and co-founder, said in a statement. “TimelyCare empowers students to create their own path to care through a single, virtual solution that delivers the agency, speed, and freedom of choice they’ve come to expect in their everyday lives.”
TimelyCare said the need for easily accessible mental health services has never been more critical. According to the CDC, Gen Z is experiencing unprecedented levels of suicidal thoughts. And more than half of the students TimelyCare surveyed said that health and wellbeing prevented them from engaging in school at their full potential.
Hejl added, “Three out of four students using TimelyCare already report mental health improvements, and we won’t stop there. We will continue to innovate, anticipate and invest in the future to transform care delivery models and drive positive health outcomes that make a difference on our campuses, in our communities and around our world.”
Newly launched products feature new tools and techniques
Designed and developed with input from students, TimelyCare is expanding with new evidence-based tools and techniques in new products.
Self-Care Journeys is a new resource offering short videos, Instagram-style sliders, and explainer articles that delve into top issues impacting academic performance, including stress, healthy eating, relationships, anxiety, depression, and sleep. The informative “journeys” are based on provider-developed, gold-standard approaches.
A new Symptom Checker gives students a real-time AI-powered assessment to quickly identify health and wellness issues. TimelyCare said that the platform gives digitally native Gen Z students a way to engage with care sooner in a way that is relevant to their lives.
The suite of services also includes peer support resources that students can use whenever they need them.
“Having the more informal ability to share what you’re going through without it being an appointment with a counselor is huge,” Jillian Allen, an Active Minds student leader at University of Virginia, said in a statement.
“With the Peer Community feature, I think people enjoy getting stuff off of their chest and sharing it anonymously,” Allen added. “Reading and responding to the posts, even giving little responses like, ‘you’re not alone,’ helps me in my own life and feeling comfortable to say, ‘I think I’m ready to talk with someone.’ Whether they take that next step or not is up to them, and they know the option is always available through TimelyCare.”
Easy ‘on-ramps for support’
Nassim Bickham, VP of care transformation at TimelyCare, said that the peer support and self-care resources meet students where they are, “at the level of engagement and support they feel safe and comfortable seeking,”
“About half of students who have used our Peer Community or self-care resources have not had a provider visit in the last three months, underscoring the need to empower students with easy and self-guided on-ramps for support, wherever they are on their path to wellness,” Bickham said in statement.
TimelyCampus
To provide a more team-based collaborative approach to student health and wellbeing, TimelyCare has introduced TimelyCampus, a program that helps campus partners more easily manage their virtual care services, provide continuity of care, update protocols, and facilitate communication between TimelyCare and campus clinicians.
The wrap-around support allows team members to access care summaries, track visits and referrals, and receive notifications about at-risk students. TimelyCampus is designed to lighten the load for campus counseling and psychological services staff by improving access to critical aspects of their program on the platform.
‘Shaping the future of healthcare’
TimelyCare officials and student affairs professionals will offer an in-depth look at the new services at the NASPA Annual Conference April 1-5 in Boston.
Co-founded in 2017 by Hejl, Chris Clark, and Alan Dennington, TimelyMD was the first virtual care company focused exclusively on college students. After experiencing exponential growth during the pandemic, the company build its own provider network, designed its own technology, and introduced the student-centric TimelyCare platform in 2021. The company serves more than 1.5 million students at some 250 colleges and universities.
Hejl is featured in the Dallas Innovates 2023 Future 50, a list of North Texas innovators and disruptors shaping the future of their industries and communities.
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