Since joining Rula as Chief Medical Officer last year, my north star has been to build a mental health system that actually works — one that addresses the persistent gaps I’ve wrestled with throughout my career as both a practicing clinician and organizational leader.
At Rula, we’re designing something fundamentally different: a system that combines clinical excellence with humanity, using technology to guide care while staying grounded in helping each person feel and function better. Real change happens when we tackle our industry’s core challenges: availability, consistent measurement, and coordinated care.
While many organizations are addressing these problems by making improvements at the margins, Rula is creating a purpose-built solution to address mental healthcare’s unique challenges — rebuilding the model from the ground up. At Rula, I’m honored to work alongside a team of behavioral health leaders and innovators to build a system we’d want our friends and loved ones to use — care that’s simple to access, affordable, and actually helps people get better.
Our early results validate this approach: 73% of Rula patients experience clinically meaningful improvement within 8 weeks — evidence that our program structure is working and delivering real progress we can observe. Today we’re excited to share the framework behind these outcomes by publishing a clinical brief that outlines our vision for delivering high-quality mental healthcare.
We know our work isn’t done, and we’re committed to raising the bar even further so we can help more people feel and function better, faster. We’ve outlined our plans to do just that in the brief. Please reach out if you’d like to collaborate — we’d love to hear from you.
Yours,
Douglas Newton, MD, MPH
Chief Medical Officer of Rula
About the author
Doug Newton, MD, MPH
Douglas Newton, MD, MPH, is a psychiatrist dedicated to improving the wellbeing of families and individuals. Through his role as Chief Medical Officer at Rula, he works to further both his impact and the company’s mission – making mental health care work for everyone.
Douglas holds a BS and an MD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Master’s in Public Health from Yale. He completed residency training in adult psychiatry at Dartmouth and a child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Rula's editorial process
Rula's editorial team is on a mission to make science-backed mental health insights accessible and practical for every person seeking to better understand or improve mental wellness.
Members of Rula’s clinical leadership team and other expert providers contribute to all published content, offering guidance on themes and insights based on their firsthand experience in the field. Every piece of content is thoroughly reviewed by a clinician before publishing.
