Genesis Story
Who is Troy?
Troy was a real person and now represents all of the people living in rural communities who are suffering and slowly dying because they don't have the level of care they need. There are 74+ million people living like this. We're here to help them.
One day in December, 2020...
After practicing ophthalmology in Fairbanks, Alaska for over 12 years, I understood first-hand the frustration of living and working without the needed specialty care for my patients. My diabetics were going blind and we had no endocrinologist to manage an insulin pump. I would diagnose multiple sclerosis in my patient with optic neuritis and couldn't get them into a neurologist for 6 months. The nearest rheumatologist was 400 miles away and had an 8 month wait list. Or my patients could fly 4 hours each way to Seattle for the care they needed.
This was my reality until COVID changed everything. One silver lining of the pandemic was the widespread adoption of telehealth. Suddenly, I could bring the specialists to me, in my community, using the resources that I already had. But, I didn't need a one-time consult, I needed a fractional long-term doctor. But, it was December, 2020 and my staff had no bandwidth for anything beyond surviving the worst of the pandemic. And, so I tabled the idea...until 3 weeks later when a beloved patient came into see me. I had been caring for him for a decade with uveitis, glaucoma, diabetes, and macular edema. His psoriatic arthritis was raging out of control. His rheumatologist moved out of state. He had a treatment reaction and no one to manage his medications. His primary care doctor was doing her best, but this was just too complicated.
He could barely walk across my office and he used to climb mountains. I walked out of his exam room in tears and looked at my clinical manager, Stefanie, who said, "We're starting that company, aren't we?"
"Yeah, we're starting the company."
Later that day, I asked my team what we should call this new project. Laura, my oldest and dearest teammate, said, "Let's name it after Troy. He's why we have to make this happen." And, so, Troy Medical was born. For Troy. And for all of the people like Troy, who matter and need us. We're coming...keep hanging in there!
Who is Dr. Kara Hartl?
Dr. Kara Hartl is uniquely positioned to build Troy Medical. Her life and career have been a relentless pursuit of meaningful impact at the intersection of medicine, innovation, and service. Trained at the world’s top institutions—Harvard and Bascom Palmer—she could have taken any path, but chose the most difficult one: founding a solo ophthalmology practice in the remote interior of Alaska straight out of residency.
There, she became a true entrepreneur—building a world-class eye center from scratch, launching a training program for ophthalmic assistants, modernizing surgical care in the local hospital, and offering specialty services never before available in the region. Her vision expanded quickly: in just 5 years, she opened a 30,000-square-foot facility, added multiple providers, launched an ophthalmology fellowship and a retail optical shop, and founded an international nonprofit to cure blindness. But despite her success, she couldn’t solve the problem that plagued all her patients—access to other specialists. She delivered cutting-edge eye care in a vacuum.
Everything changed the day Troy walked in. His suffering clarified her next mission, and as she witnessed the impact this new model could have on patients like him, she knew she had to act. In 2021, she sold her thriving practice and moved to Austin, devoting herself fully to building Troy Medical. She started slowly—listening, learning, and refining the concept. Now gaining momentum, she brings a rare blend of world-class education, entrepreneurial drive, lived rural experience, and an unwavering sense of purpose. For Kara, this isn’t just a company—it’s her calling. She’s not simply building a business; she’s creating her legacy.
