One patient had been living with a severe rash, and—faced with several barriers that all too often accompany the healthcare system—they had never seen a dermatologist.
Until, Modern Ritual Health stepped in. The patient got a prescription filled within a day, and their rash was completely resolved within months.
Modern Ritual Health, co-founded by mother-and-daughter duo Dr. Beth and Elianna Goldstein, is a virtual dermatology platform where patients and doctor offices can send in photos to get same-day diagnoses from registered dermatologists. The Chapel Hill-based startup will be presenting at CED’s Venture Connect summit in Raleigh on March 20-21.
Beth has been a practicing dermatologist for 33 years, and said she felt that the current system is broken.
“What we’re seeing is wait times for people who have been referred by their primary care provider because they’re worried about a lesion being cancer,” Beth said, “and it takes them months to get in to get a biopsy.”
In addition to long wait times, there are often provider shortages and provider burnout. In rural areas, Elianna said patients may have to drive hours to reach a dermatologist, which the virtual technology can help alleviate.
While patients can send in photos from their own phones and tablets, Modern Ritual also partners with primary care clinics and dermatology practices.
Primary care clinics can use a dermatoscope, which is a high-resolution imaging device, to take a photo of a patient’s skin concern and virtually submit that photo to Modern Ritual. Usually that same day, a dermatologist from Modern Ritual will respond to the clinician with a recommendation and care plan, referring the patient to see a dermatologist in-person if needed.
“We’re not trying to work outside of the system,” Elianna said. “We’re really working within it.”
Elianna said that as a patient, it can be hard to advocate for oneself in the healthcare industry. She said Modern Ritual works with dermatology practices across the U.S. to improve triage workflow for clinics with long wait times, helping patients access care more quickly.
“We hear from patients that they were looking at a six-month wait, and they got in the next week,” Elianna said. “It’s just completely changed their experience, and that’s what we’re most proud of.”
A virtual assessment costs $60 without insurance. As of last month, Modern Ritual is now in-network with the majority of commercial payers, including North Carolina Medicaid. Insurance coverage will be available to patients in the spring, Elianna said.
Both of Elianna’s parents are doctors—her dad is a primary-care physician—and she said recent telehealth trends led her family to think about how they could leverage those tools to build a business geared toward improving access to care.
After earning a degree in 2018 from UNC-Chapel Hill in business and public health, Elianna has worked as an investor and is a Venture for America alum. Beth, as a registered dermatologist, is also popular on TikTok, where she posts educational videos about identifying skin cancer.
While Modern Ritual started in and remains HQ’d in the Triangle, the company now has dermatologists in all 50 states since they piloted their business in the summer of 2022.
The startup has also received investment from New York-based StartUp Health and VentureSouth, an early-stage VC and network of angel groups HQ’d in Greenville, S.C. Pitching in front of Venture Connect’s annual audience of hundreds of investors could mean more where those came from.
