We recently connected with Rachell Dumas, RN, MSN and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Rachell thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

When people ask where the idea for HEARD came from, I usually tell them it wasn’t born in a boardroom. It was born in hospital rooms.

I’ve spent my career as a nurse working across trauma, neuro, critical care, perioperative services, education, and informatics. Every day, I saw patients and families struggling to navigate the healthcare system. They often knew something was wrong long before anyone else did, but they didn’t always know who to tell, how to escalate concerns, or whether anyone was truly listening. I would hear things like, “I tried to tell someone,” or “I didn’t know who to call.” Those moments stayed with me.
Then I experienced the healthcare system from the other side.

Over four years, I endured nine pregnancy losses. I traveled across states searching for answers, sat in countless waiting rooms, coordinated care between specialists, and learned what it feels like to desperately advocate for yourself when the stakes are incredibly high. Later, I developed a neurological condition that led to significant vision loss and multiple brain stent procedures after my symptoms were repeatedly overlooked and misdiagnosed. Despite being a nurse, there were moments when I felt overwhelmed, unheard, and unsure of where to turn.

The realization hit me that if navigating healthcare was this difficult for someone who worked inside the system, what was it like for everyone else?

At the same time, I couldn’t ignore what I was seeing professionally. Healthcare has incredible technology for clinicians, hospitals, billing, and documentation, but very little designed to help patients and caregivers communicate concerns in real time, document their experiences, navigate care, and access resources when they need them most.
That’s when HEARD was born.

HEARD stands for Human-Enabled AI Reporting & Documentation. The vision was simple but powerful: create a platform where patients and caregivers can be heard, document concerns as they happen, receive guidance, access resources, and escalate safety issues before they become emergencies.

What excited me most was that we weren’t just creating another healthcare app. We were building something that addressed a gap I had experienced personally and witnessed repeatedly as a nurse. Most solutions focus on what happens after a problem occurs. I wanted to create something that could help identify concerns earlier, improve communication, and empower people before a situation reached a crisis point.

I knew it was a worthwhile endeavor because the problem was impossible to ignore. Every person will be a patient at some point. Most people will become caregivers. Yet healthcare navigation remains confusing, fragmented, and overwhelming for millions of people. The stories I heard from patients mirrored my own experiences, and that validation made it clear this wasn’t just my problem. It was a systemic challenge affecting countless families.

What keeps me motivated today is knowing that behind every feature, every update, and every partnership is a real person trying to navigate one of the most vulnerable moments of their life. If HEARD can help even one patient feel more informed, more supported, or simply more heard, then we’re moving in the right direction. And if we can do that at scale, we have the opportunity to fundamentally change how people experience healthcare.

Rachell, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

For most of my life, I never imagined becoming a healthcare technology founder. I thought my path would begin and end at the bedside.

I’m a registered nurse with experience spanning trauma, neuro, critical care, perioperative services, nursing education, and informatics. Throughout my career, I cared for patients during some of the most vulnerable moments of their lives. While I loved nursing, I became increasingly aware of a recurring problem: patients and families often knew something was wrong before anyone else did, yet many didn’t know how to communicate concerns, navigate the healthcare system, or get the support they needed in real time.

Eventually, I experienced those same challenges personally.

Over four years, I endured nine pregnancy losses. During that journey, I traveled across multiple states seeking specialized care, coordinated appointments among numerous providers, and spent countless hours advocating for answers. Later, I developed a neurological condition that resulted in significant vision loss and required multiple brain stent procedures after my symptoms were repeatedly overlooked and misdiagnosed. Despite being a nurse, there were moments when I felt overwhelmed by the complexity of the healthcare system.

Those experiences changed everything.

I began to realize that healthcare has invested billions of dollars into tools that support hospitals, providers, insurance companies, and health systems, yet very few tools exist to support the people at the center of healthcare: patients and caregivers. I knew there had to be a better way.

That realization led me to create HEARD, which stands for Human-Enabled AI Reporting & Documentation.

HEARD is a healthcare navigation, patient advocacy, and patient safety platform designed to help individuals and families navigate healthcare with greater confidence. The platform allows users to document symptoms and concerns, track their healthcare journey, access trusted resources, receive AI-powered guidance, and escalate safety concerns when they feel unheard. Our mission is simple: help people feel informed, supported, and heard throughout their healthcare journey.

What sets HEARD apart is that it was built from both sides of healthcare. As a nurse, I understand clinical workflows and the challenges providers face. As a patient and caregiver, I understand the frustration, fear, and uncertainty that can come with navigating complex medical situations. We are not simply building another healthcare app. We are creating a bridge between patients, caregivers, and healthcare systems while empowering people to become active participants in their care.

I am particularly passionate about improving patient safety, strengthening communication between patients and providers, and helping individuals navigate complex diagnoses, chronic illnesses, hospitalizations, and caregiving responsibilities. Too often, healthcare concerns are identified only after a crisis occurs. HEARD aims to surface concerns earlier, provide guidance sooner, and create opportunities for intervention before problems escalate.

One of the things I am most proud of is turning some of the most difficult experiences of my life into something that has the potential to help others. The same healthcare challenges that left me searching for answers became the foundation for a solution designed to support countless families facing similar situations. I am also proud that HEARD is being shaped directly by the voices of patients, caregivers, and healthcare professionals who understand these challenges firsthand.

Beyond HEARD, I am the founder of A Light After Nine, a nonprofit organization inspired by my journey through pregnancy loss. Through speaking engagements, advocacy initiatives, public health education, and storytelling, I work to amplify patient voices and bring attention to healthcare issues that are often overlooked.

If there is one thing I want people to know about me and my work, it is that everything I build begins with empathy. Technology should not replace human connection. It should strengthen it. Whether through nursing, advocacy, nonprofit leadership, or innovation, my goal has always been the same: to ensure that people feel seen, supported, and heard when it matters most.

At its core, HEARD is more than a platform. It is a movement toward a healthcare experience where every patient and caregiver has the tools, resources, and confidence to advocate for themselves and where no one has to navigate healthcare alone.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

One of the most defining moments of resilience in my life began with a series of losses that no one could see.

Over four years, I experienced nine pregnancy losses. With every positive pregnancy test came hope, and with every loss came heartbreak. There were moments when I questioned whether I would ever become a mother. I traveled across the country seeking answers, consulted specialist after specialist, underwent procedures, endured countless tests, and spent years navigating uncertainty. There were tears in parking lots after appointments, long nights wondering what else I could possibly do, and moments when giving up would have been easier than continuing.

But I kept going.

I advocated for myself when I felt dismissed. I sought second and third opinions. I educated myself. I leaned on my faith, my support system, and the belief that there had to be answers somewhere. Eventually, after years of setbacks, I welcomed my son into the world. Holding him for the first time felt like reaching the end of a journey I had fought for every single day.

I thought the hardest chapter was behind me.

Then years later, I began experiencing severe neurological symptoms. My vision was deteriorating, and I knew something was wrong. Yet my symptoms were repeatedly overlooked and misdiagnosed. As my condition worsened, I found myself navigating another complex healthcare journey, this time fighting not only for answers but for my ability to see. Eventually, I was diagnosed with a serious neurological condition and underwent multiple brain stent procedures.

What struck me most was that even as a nurse, someone who understood healthcare, I still struggled to navigate the system. I still experienced delays, confusion, fear, and moments when I felt unheard.

Those experiences taught me that resilience is not about never facing adversity. It’s about continuing to move forward when the outcome is uncertain. It’s choosing hope when circumstances suggest otherwise. It’s advocating for yourself when your voice feels small. And it’s finding purpose in your pain.

Today, the very experiences that challenged me the most have become the foundation of my life’s work. They inspired me to found A Light After Nine, support others experiencing pregnancy loss, and create HEARD, a platform designed to help patients and caregivers navigate healthcare and raise concerns before they become crises.

Looking back, resilience wasn’t a single moment. It was thousands of small decisions to keep going. And those decisions transformed some of the hardest chapters of my life into opportunities to help others feel supported, empowered, and heard.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

One lesson I had to unlearn was the belief that working harder is always the answer.

As a nurse, I was trained to push through. If a shift was difficult, you worked harder. If a patient needed something, you stayed later. If there was a problem, you figured it out yourself. I carried that mindset into every area of my life. During my journey through nine pregnancy losses, I approached each setback as something I could solve if I just researched more, saw another specialist, traveled to another city, asked more questions, or worked harder to find answers.

That mindset helped me survive, but it also left me carrying the weight of everything alone.

The turning point came when I was navigating my own health challenges years later. I was experiencing serious neurological symptoms, my vision was changing, and I was desperately trying to manage appointments, research, work, and advocate for myself simultaneously. I realized that no amount of personal determination could replace the need for support, collaboration, and systems that actually work for patients.

I had to unlearn the idea that strength meant doing everything myself.

Instead, I learned that real strength often looks like asking for help, trusting others, building community, and creating systems that allow people to succeed together. It’s one of the reasons I built HEARD the way I did. Patients shouldn’t have to become medical experts overnight to navigate healthcare. Caregivers shouldn’t have to carry every burden alone. The system should support people before they reach a breaking point.

Today, I still work hard, but I’ve learned that resilience isn’t about carrying the entire load by yourself. It’s about knowing when to lean on others, when to advocate, when to rest, and when to create solutions that make the journey easier for the people coming behind you.

That lesson changed not only how I lead, but also how I live.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.rachelldumas.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therachelldumas
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rachelldumas
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rdumasrn
• Other: Website: www.myheardapp.com
  LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/myheardapp
  Instagram: www.instagram.com/myheardapp
  Threads: www.threads.com/@myheardapp
  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@myheardapp
  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/myheardapp
  Substack: https://rachelldumas.substack.com/