Dr. McKinney started his career as a communications intelligence officer in the United States Marine Corps before medical school and residency training in emergency medicine. A practicing physician in Northern California, Dr. McKinney founded CirrusMD in 2012 after observing that his own friends and family had better healthcare experiences than many people because they were able to text with him before, during and after traditional healthcare encounters.

In providing his loved ones with this free, instant and ongoing access to expert guidance, Dr. McKinney hypothesized that he was saving significant costs, improving overall experience and shortening time to diagnosis and treatment for those with direct access to him.

Denver-based CirrusMD has raised over 26 million dollars to provide tech-enabled clinical communications services to integrated delivery networks, payor systems and employers nationwide. With voice, video and asynchronous chat as available modalities, over 90% of CirrusMD encounters begin and end using text only — a fully sufficient means of communication between doctors and patients in most cases. Operating at scale since 2015, CirrusMD has proven Dr. McKinney’s hypothesis that giving member-patients direct, instant access to an expert lowers costs while improving outcomes and satisfaction.

Dr. McKinney heads the CirrusMD Provider Network which is a curated team of multi-specialty physicians licensed to practice in all 50 US States and the District of Colombia.