New Twin Cities clinics focus on health for women 65 and older

CATHY WURZER: This month is American Heart Month. And if you're a woman, the leading cause of death is not breast cancer. It's heart disease. More than 60 million women in this country are living with some form of heart disease. And it can hit at any age, but the risk increases past the age of 55.

Heart health is just one aspect of an older woman's well-being that is often overlooked, misunderstood, or misdiagnosed. Kristin Helton was thinking of that issue when she launched Herself Health in 2022. Herself Health runs several clinics in the Twin Cities that focuses on the health of women 65-plus. And Kristin is on the line right now. Welcome to the program.

KRISTIN HELTON: Hi, Cathy. Thanks so much for having me.

CATHY WURZER: Absolutely. So you're an engineer, I understand, by training. You worked for Amazon for a time, launching Amazon Care, a virtual service. There's always a story behind why someone launches a product or a business. It's usually pretty personal. What's the story behind your role with Herself Health?

KRISTIN HELTON: Well, you're absolutely right. I would say everybody also has or has had a mother, an older woman in their life who has a story and who's taking care of them. And something that really became very clear to me talking to the important women in my life is that as we age, the health care system really falls short of serving women 65 and up.

And I've always loved technology. Like you said, I'm an engineer by training. My mom was a nurse, has always inspired me to think about the health care space and improving health services. And she actually had a brush herself. She was feeling dismissed and not heard by her doctor, which is a common theme that we hear, and ended up in the hospital, which is a very costly place to receive care.

And I just knew that there was a better opportunity, a better option, and a better way of delivering care for women. And so I was inspired to really try to rethink and redesign the way we deliver health care to older women.

CATHY WURZER: So what is missing for older women when they engage with the health care system that you fill in? Where are those gaps that Herself Health does well with?

KRISTIN HELTON: Absolutely. We started with research-- and I'll give a nod to Amazon-- always working back from the patient and trying to understand what the problem is. One of the things that I hear time and time again is, I don't feel heard. It is so common to hear that women are not heard, not understood. They don't have enough time with their doctor.

And as a result, they feel rushed out. They're given medication they don't understand if they actually need it. Or they're being directed to specialists. And our belief is that if you spend more time with women in the primary care setting, if you listen, if you take the time to understand the quality of life issues, not just the health and the labs and your typical health care checklist, but really what are the quality-of-life issues that need to be addressed, then you can work together with that patient to improve their quality of life and their health outcomes.

So at Herself Health, it's a vibrant, welcoming environment. Women want to be there. And I think the thing that we're most proud of is if you read our reviews and you talk to our patients, they will say, I've been looking for something like this. I finally feel heard. I finally feel seen.

CATHY WURZER: So I'm assuming, then, that visits to a practitioner with Herself Health go beyond the 15 minutes you normally experience in your doctor's office.

KRISTIN HELTON: That's right. That's right. So your initial visit is very comprehensive. As I mentioned, we're talking to you about what your needs are, what your goals are. And we're doing a comprehensive preventative care visit.

So all in all, it's about an hour that we'll spend with you. And a big chunk of that time is with a provider really trying to understand what the needs are for our patients. And we believe, fundamentally, primary care is the right setting to do the most work. It gets very expensive to deliver care in other sites. So we think it's the right investment of time in the primary care setting.

CATHY WURZER: I have to ask, of course, private pay-- will insurance pay for some of this? How do you parse this?

KRISTIN HELTON: Yes. We are in network with just about every payer in the area. And so there are a few exceptions. But right now, we take just about every plan. So we are in network with insurance. And your typical copays will apply depending on what your plan is.

CATHY WURZER: So a woman, an older woman, comes in, 65-plus or so. What are the general issues that they're coming to Herself Health wanting to talk about?

KRISTIN HELTON: Yes. There's plenty. Some women, osteoporosis and bone health is a big topic. We know that as women age and muscle mass and bone density decline, you're at risk for fall and fracture. And we want to avoid that. So a lot of women are very aware of the need to pay attention to bone and bone health and strength.

Weight loss is a very top-of-mind topic. Still, Cathy, I must say, a lot of women still worry and struggle with that. So we do do a fair amount of weight loss and prediabetes care. Heart health is, of course, top of mind for us. You opened this session on that topic, and especially this month very focused on heart health.

Chronic diseases-- as we age, more people have more chronic diseases. So chronic disease management, of course, is important. But we also focus on the diseases that present differently in women. So it's not just the conditions like osteoporosis and arthritis that are more prevalent in women. But it's also the diseases that present differently in women that we're here to help them take care of.

CATHY WURZER: And when it comes to listening, why do you think so many older women are not listened to when they get into a health care setting? What is it about our society that's not-- something's not tracking?

KRISTIN HELTON: Right. Well, I think, unfortunately, we already-- we're talking a lot about the gender bias that happens in health care. And it is a topic that's being discussed broadly. But these women are actually at the cross-section of not just gender bias, but also ageism.

And some of the things that I hear is that women are saying-- not just not being heard, but being dismissed. So your symptoms are-- it's just you're getting old. This is just kind of what it is, almost like a "get used to it" mentality. Or you're overweight, and you just need to get up and walk more.

And so it's sort of the being dismissed and chalking up to just this is what happens versus really listening and understanding what the symptoms are. Because when it comes down to it, doctors-- even spending 30, 60 minutes with a patient is a finite amount of time. And no one knows your health better than you, the patient. And so taking the time to understand the symptoms, tracking the history, what has happened, and really pulling those pieces together, it's so incredibly important taking that comprehensive history.

CATHY WURZER: All right. I appreciate your time, Kristin. Thank you. Best of luck.

KRISTIN HELTON: Thank you so much, Cathy. Appreciate it. And I want to just say, we're opening-- we're celebrating clinic number three, our ribbon cutting next week, February 22, at our Lyndale Avenue in South Minneapolis location. So invite folks to come out and see us. And I'll be there and would love to meet prospective patients.

CATHY WURZER: All right. Kristin thank you. Kristin Helton is the CEO of Herself Health. As she mentioned, they have a new clinic. They also have clinics in Crystal and Highland Park.