From dentistry to Wall Street to entrepreneurship: Meet Dr. Bonnie Feldman, founder of Rheumission

Let’s connect on LinkedIn • Youtube • rheumission.com 

I am Dr. Bonnie Feldman, age 69, Co-founder and Chief Patient Officer of Rheumission, a first-of-its-kind, virtual clinic offering specialized, integrative, whole-person care for people suffering from autoimmune rheumatology disease, which affects 50 million people in the US, 80% of whom are women. 

I, along with other leading autoimmune clinical leaders and patient-physicians, spent two years creating an evidence-based symptom and biologics-reducing protocol, delivered in a care team model that surrounds the autoimmune rheumatology patient with five multidisciplinary providers under a single virtual roof for the cost of an insurance copay. We launched the company officially in January 2024 and have already treated more than 400 patients. As of February 2025, we have achieved some incredible results, including: 

• 70% of patients saw a significant decrease in disease activity (as measured by the RAPID3 assessment) after 90 days.
• 35% of patients currently have low or no disease activity.
• Achieved a 6% biologics prescription rate for patients, compared to a 32% rate for conventional rheumatology practices.
• 88% of undiagnosed patients received a diagnosis in under 50 days. 

Immediately prior to starting Rheumission, I spent over a decade (since 2010) working as a patient advocate and digital health advisor with a mission of raising awareness of the largely underserved and growing autoimmune market opportunity for private investment. 

Earlier in my career, I started as a dentist and built and managed two dental practices and later served as an executive with early-stage biotech startups. I also earned an MBA and later became a Wall Street equity research analyst for many years. 

Some of my career highlights include:  

• Co-Founder & Chief Patient Officer of Rheumission 
• Consultant, strategic advisor to chronic disease management, digital therapeutic start-ups and oral health and microbiome companies.
• Strategic advisor, content consultant and speaker for big and small onsite conferences IDEAS-LA, Targeting the Microbiome, Molecular Med Tri-Con, Medical Informatics, Scope, Internet of Things and Food Technology.
• TEDx speaker on the Importance of Self-Care for Chronic Disease Management
• SXSW Interactive Advisory Board Member and Speaker 2015/16/17/18
• Stanford Medicine X Abstract Review Team and Speaker 2015/16/17

Rheumission is the first virtual clinic focused on delivering whole-person, integrative and insurance-covered care for people suffering from autoimmune disease — 80% of whom are women. What’s the startup story in a nutshell? 

I started Rheumission for myself, and my family, including my 10 grandkids, some of whom have a double dose of autoimmune genes. The big-picture goal is to find the diseases earlier and use the tools of lifestyle modification to prevent disease progression. When done on a national scale, this approach will reduce the rising incidence of autoimmune diseases in young adult women.

More specifically, where I started on this a few years ago was in identifying a group of doctors, many of whom also autoimmune patients, who shared a belief that the body’s own natural healing is the most powerful weapon in the fight against autoimmune disease. What we all shared, after watching patients, including ourselves, get poor results from conventional medicine’s focus on medication as the sole treatment plan — along with unwanted, negative side effects, longer-term health risks, and high costs of specialty medicine, particularly biologics — was a vision to bring the Rheumission methodology to as many people as possible, and improve as many lives as possible. 

Together, we spent years testing and improving a protocol to help people with rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis find a balance between medication and lifestyle changes — including food as medicine, movement therapy, stress management and restorative sleep — and still reach remission. The idea was to create a telehealth clinic that took insurance and would provide access to this whole-person, integrative approach to autoimmune diagnosis and treatment to anyone who could benefit from it across the country, especially young women, where this disease is rising at alarming rates. 

You are a first-time founder and raised $4M in seed capital. What was your experience raising funding like? Any tips or learnings you can share with fellow entrepreneurs? 

You often hear how hard it is to be a venture-funded startup. Even though I was “mature” when I started Rheumission, I did not appreciate how really hard it is. My advice to other entrepreneurs is to bootstrap their “babies” as long as possible to retain as much control over the mission and vision as you possibly can.

You’ve pivoted your career from dentistry to Wall Street analyst to investment advisor to digital health founder — all while raising four children and navigating Lupus, Fibromyalgia, and Celiac Disease. How the heck did you accomplish all of this? And how did you decide to pivot your career? 

The pivots in my career were largely out of necessity, not desire. For example, nerve damage to my wrist caused me to shift from dentistry to finance. This made sense because I loved people and numbers, so I earned my MBA in finance from UCLA and became an equity analyst on Wall Street. 

When the investment bank I was working with merged, I had no choice but to pivot again to be able to stay in Los Angeles while raising my family. 

As far as my autoimmune diseases go, I feel best when I am inspired and working with folks who share my core values as well as my mission and vision. In these situations, my chronic pain and fatigue become “background noise.”

But it’s important to note that I was able to achieve much of this because I did have a lot of help from my parents and a cadre of fantastic helpers who cleaned, cooked, and provided childcare. They even took care of me! One of them, Ruth, 20 years later, still comes to help take care of me and my family.

What are the best things about life at your age now?

I am currently 69 and I will be turning the big 70 in summer 2025. It is a fabulous time of life, with 10 grandkids and work that inspires me. Each morning I wake up and look at a photo of my 10 grandkids and dream of leaving them an improved approach for autoimmune healthcare.

What is one of the biggest challenges you’ve overcome and how did you do it?  

Living with multiple chronic diseases, including chronic pain and fatigue is a daily challenge. You never know from one day to the next if it is going to be a high-energy day or a day in bed. Doing the things that I love and surrounding myself at work and at home with those who are supportive allows me to maximize my daily joy.

What are your current must-haves in life? 

1. Love from my family and friends — it’s a tough world out there. 

2. Working with capable folks who share my core values as well as mission and vision. I have a low tolerance for poor performance. 

3. A good night’s sleep — something I have rarely had for many years.

Who are some women over 35 you look up to and why?  

Recently I have met women startup CEO founders and women investors focusing on women’s health. I admire both these groups as having the courage to follow their passion, much earlier in life than I did.

Who are you hoping to meet and network with? 

Families who want to support our efforts to improve autoimmune care for themselves and the next generation.

What’s next for you?

Our plan with Rheumission is to scale to a nationwide, virtual-first clinic offering insurance-covered care in all 50 states through value-based care with national health plans, and by incorporating AI to automate provider notes, predict flares, and personalize treatment as we expand our patient volume and funding. 

Eventually, I also want to create an investor fund that supports start-ups in the autoimmune space.

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