Today we’d like to introduce you to Tonya McDonald.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I’m a Texas girl from Beaumont. I’ve lived all over the world first with my family as an oil brat and then in Germany as a civilian pediatrician with the Army. When I was a little girl of 6 or 7, I decided I was going to be doctor when I grew up. My pediatrician was the first adult I felt spoke to me like I wasn’t a kid and I loved it. It changed something in me. I wanted to help kids feel better and know that they were seen and important, too. As I went from elementary school to college, my goal never changed, I read books about the lives of doctors, my favorites were Drs. Elizabeth Blackwell and Charles Drew who were trailblazers and made a way for future doctors to look like me. I never imagined that one day I’d be one to practice medicine differently. I just knew I wanted to care for kids, let them know that they were important and be an example to other black girls that they, too, could be anything they wanted to be if they worked for it.
Has it been a smooth road?
I feel like there is nothing smooth about the road I’ve decided to take. When you embark on doing something that is unusual, the road is definitely a lot bumpier. The first thing was learning the basics of what it takes to run a business. While Harvard Medical taught me a lot about medicine, there wasn’t a single class or even hour spent on operating a practice. Thankfully, I have several entrepreneurs among my friends and one invited me to the Dallas Entrepreneurial Center at Redbird. Being in that space with entrepreneurs from so many different fields was educational and inspiring. The enthusiasm over my plan cemented my belief that Radiance can be successful and grow in this community.
The current struggle is getting people to be enthusiastic about a subscription medical service in the South Dallas/Best Southwest region. It is amazing how many people have encouraged me to move to Highland Park or Park Cities instead of the Redbird neighborhood. The belief that high-quality health care has to be expensive and is only for the wealthy can be quite discouraging. But it also fuels my fire to change how people understand the cost and value of healthcare. I know that more families will want to experience the difference it makes when your doctor isn’t rushed and can actually address all your concerns at one visit. The convenience and ease of your doctor coming to your home when everyone is sick and needs to be seen will be desired and appreciated. Since all parents want good care for their children, I believe that with time, exposure and persistence, Radiance Pediatrics will thrive in this community and more families will demand the value we bring.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Radiance Pediatrics story. Tell us more about it.
After 20 years of practicing medicine, I began to get frustrated and burnt out by the push from administrators and health care industry experts to squeeze as many patients into a day as quickly as possible in hopes of getting paid enough to keep the clinic open. I got tired of spending twice as much time in front of a computer doing adminstrative tasks than I spent with my patients learning about them, their families and the global factors that impacted their health and ability to do well. Every patient wants and deserves to have a doctor who spends time with you, makes you feel seen and important, and has time to answer the questions that are unrelated to the visit but have been on your mind for weeks. That’s the kind of doctor I wanted to be, but wasn’t sure how to step away from the patient and families I knew and loved already.
A few months after I began feeling this way, my position as an employed physician was eliminated due to the formation a corporate partnership. I saw this as a God-given opportunity to build my ideal medical practice and to do something different from the norm without intentionally abandoning my patients. After taking a true summer break, I started looking for answers to these questions:
- Why can’t I text my patients when they have questionsinstead of going through a series of phone calls?
- Why not use video chat and other aspects of technology to prevent parents from missing time at work when their child has a cold or simple illness?
- What prevents me from taking care of babies at their home during those early months of life and decrease mom’s stress and their risk of getting exposed to a contagious illness? Why not do the same for older kids if parents wantit?
- Can I earn enough to have a viable medical practice and still give patients 30-60 minutes, if needed to address all their concerns?
I spent the late summer and early fall months researching models of medicine and answered yes to all of them when I learned about direct primary care. Direct primary care medicine offers concierge medicine quality – longer visits, convenience of house calls, use of technology- for a simple monthly fee. After meeting in person and talking online with other physicians around the state and country, I decided to launch my service in South Dallas, an area that has very few pediatrics offices and none that offered house calls with a physician. Believing it can and will be successful, I began the processes and purchases needed to set up Radiance Pediatrics and get started. I picked my clinic opening date of April 1, 2019 and worked to make sure everything was in place by that date to start seeing patients.
Radiance Pediatrics is a full-service pediatric, holistic health service that is paid for through a monthly subscription. We provide all the standard well and sick child care including administration of immunizations and management of minor injuries. Additionally, we diagnose and manage ADHD, depression, and anxiety and will partner with mental health providers to optimize our patients care. Additionally, we will help children get the educational support they need for school success through strategic partnerships with educators in our community. We specialize in giving families greater access and time with their provider by using technology for 24/7 access via HIPAA compliant text and phone platforms on their phones, a patient portal built into their electronic medical record as well as house calls for visits, when needed. Our goal is to keep kids at school and parents at work as much as possible and not in a waiting room.
What sets us apart is that we are a Christ-centered health care service and it’s reflected in our values. We believe that every child is uniquely and wonderfully made and is capable of shining light on those around them no matter what challenges they face. We believe that all children deserve access to compassionate, child-centered, high-quality health care and advocacy that empowers them to grow and develop to their fullest potential. We believe that it is every adult’s responsibility to foster, fuel and nurture a child’s light and potential until they are ready to shine and prosper independently.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I honestly have no idea where the healthcare industry will be in the next 5-10 years, but I know that people will still need access to care from providers that they trust to have the patient’s best interest at heart. I am hopeful that the push for more transparency in healthcare costs will highlight the importance of promotion of total wellness – body, mind, and spirit- for the prevention of illness and disease. I’m encouraged by the growing awareness of the many aspects of life that affect health outside of genetics and basic science. We now understand that one’s physical and emotional environments have a direct impact on infant and child brain development. And that wiring changes in infancy can persist in behaviors throughout one’s life.
I believe that the upcoming generation of thinkers and innovators will discover ways to heal illnesses that are common today before they even start. I also believe they will have to battle new illnesses and conditions that are a result of the innovations and technologies of today that have long term impacts we aren’t even aware exist. I look forward to the day I’m an old, retired doctor working with medical students and residents and regaling them with the illnesses that are now common, that they only know from a textbook and a history lesson.
Pricing:
- 0-4 years – $125/mo
- 5-15 years – $100/mo
- 16-23 years – $75
- Discounts available if 3 or more children in the same family enrolled.
- One Time Enrollment fee: $50 per child, max $150 per family
Contact Info:
- Address: 3662 W Camp Wisdom Rd, Suite 2044Dallas, TX 75237
- Website: www.radiancepeds.com
- Phone: Call or Text: 469-431-2627
- Email: info@radiancepeds.com
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