As a Partner at TechCXO, Rhonda Willingham serves healthcare technology and diagnostics companies as a Fractional CMO, CRO, and Chief Commercial Officer. With nearly 30 years of healthcare executive leadership — and a clinical foundation as a Registered Nurse — she brings a rare combination of commercial rigor and firsthand understanding of how healthcare actually works.
Growth-stage healthcare companies stall not because their solution is wrong, but because their go-to-market strategy isn’t aligned with what their target market is actually trying to solve. Rhonda works with healthcare tech and diagnostics vendors to close this gap — building GTM strategies, sharpening messaging for health plan, provider, and employer buyers, and developing the commercial infrastructure that drives sustainable revenue growth. A distinctive element of her practice is pressure-testing messaging and pitch decks with relevant industry contacts before they reach the market — catching what buyers will push back on before it costs a deal. Critically, the work doesn’t stop at strategy. Rhonda partners with leadership teams to drive execution — and when implementation resources are needed, TechCXO’s bench of experienced director-level practitioners across marketing, sales, revenue operations, and technology provides hands-on support without the overhead of full-time hires.
Areas of Expertise
- Health Plan Market Access Strategy — all lines of business, including Commercial, Medicaid, and Medicare Advantage
- Go-to-Market Strategy & Execution for Healthcare Tech and Diagnostics
- Revenue Operations & Pipeline Infrastructure
- ICP Definition & Buyer Segmentation
- Omnichannel Marketing & Brand Positioning
- Pitch Deck Development & Messaging Pressure-Testing
- Fractional CMO, CRO & Chief Commercial Officer Engagements
- AI-Powered Diagnostics Commercialization
- SaaS Revenue Turnaround & Commercial Transformation
- Value-Based Care & Risk Model Market Entry
Recent Engagements
Interlace Health – Engaged as Fractional Chief Commercial Officer to assess and reset the company’s revenue engine during a critical transition from legacy software to SaaS. Defined ICP, rebuilt sales and marketing alignment, introduced structured pipeline and forecast discipline, and built the foundation for a scalable RevOps function — including recruiting a dedicated RevOps leader. Advised executive leadership on organizational design and talent alignment.
Nox Health – Serving as Fractional CMO for this telehealth-based sleep health company targeting large self-insured employers. Spearheaded market-facing messaging and value proposition development, optimized marketing team structure and roles, and streamlined omnichannel marketing operations to drive growth and enhance brand impact. Hired full-time CMO.
Biodesix (Nasdaq: BDSX) – Built health plan market access strategy for this AI-driven liquid biopsy and lung cancer diagnostics company — translating clinical evidence into the financial and outcomes language that drives payer coverage decisions.
DermTech – Developed health plan market access messaging strategy for this AI-powered dermatology diagnostics company, aligning clinical value with payer priorities to accelerate coverage conversations.
Orbita – Developed GTM strategy targeting health plans as a net-new buyer segment for this conversational AI patient engagement platform used by Mayo Clinic and Mass General — from value proposition development through sales process design.
Roche Diagnostics – GTM strategy and market viability assessment for new AI-powered digital diagnostic algorithms targeting appropriate care through data and analytics. New market penetration into health plan and provider segments.
Career Highlights
Prior to TechCXO, Rhonda held senior executive roles spanning healthcare technology, diagnostics, and services.
As EVP of Marketing and Product Development at Avalon Healthcare Solutions, Rhonda led the industry’s first initiative to digitize near-real-time lab results and apply proprietary analytics to deliver actionable insights to health plans and providers. Successfully drove a 50%+ increase in sales close rate and created a $50M+ pipeline in year one through a full company rebranding and repositioning.
As VP of Business Development at New Century Health, she developed fully capitated financial risk partnerships with regional and national health plans for this oncology and cardiology specialty care platform — expanding the pipeline by 200%. NCH is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Evolent Health.
As VP of Digital Health and Innovation at Medecision — the largest independent SaaS care management platform in the US supporting 50M+ lives across nearly 100 health plans — she led the company’s digital health strategy and drove Triple-Aim outcome partnerships integrating the platform with workflow and analytics applications for at-risk health plan clients.
As SVP of Sales & Marketing at VRI, she drove the industry’s first remote fall detection at-risk contract with a national Medicare Advantage plan — 25,000 members, predictive analytics, ROI greater than 8:1 — while building GTM strategy across four simultaneous market channels: health plans, integrated channel partners, referral sources, and dealers.
Additional roles include EVP of National Sales at Alere Health (now Optum), where she exceeded revenue targets four consecutive years by 12–15%, generated $25M in annualized new revenue, and opened a $40M Managed Medicaid pipeline as an early mover; SVP of Sales & Marketing at Gordian Health Solutions (now Onlife Health); and VP of Sales at CorSolutions Medical (now Optum), where she grew new revenue from $7.2M to $51.6M in 24 months. Career began as a Registered Nurse at Emory University Hospital on the hematology-oncology and bone marrow transplant unit.
Education
Bachelor of Science in Nursing, University of Florida — High Honors, Sigma Theta Tau Honor Society
Professional Affiliations
Women Business Leaders of the US Health Care Industry Foundation (WBL); Break into the Boardroom; Health Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS); Health Enhancement Research Organization (HERO); Advanced Technology Development Center at Georgia Tech (ATDC), where Rhonda served as a mentor to early-stage health tech founders.
Speaking Engagements & Publications
- “Digitized Lab Results Accelerate the Success of Value-Based Care,” Today’s Clinical Lab, April 2022
- “The Best is Yet to Come: Ecosystem Members Share their Success Models,” Qualcomm Life Connected Health Ecosystem Conference, August 2015
- “Enabling Connected Health to Meet the Needs of Vulnerable Populations at the State Level,” Medicaid Health Plans of America, Washington, D.C., October 2013
- “Communicating Value: A Strategic Business Imperative,” Care Continuum Alliance, Phoenix, AZ, October 2013
- “Workplace Wellness and the Use of Financial Incentives,” American Cancer Society Corporate Impact Conference, Denver, CO, June 2013
- “Next Generation Incentive Design: Are Outcomes the Measurement of the Future?” Keynote, World Congress, Employee Health and Human Capital Strategy Congress, Orlando, FL, February 2013
- “Guidance for a Reasonably Designed, Employer-Sponsored Wellness Program Using Outcomes-Based Incentives,” JOEM, July 2012
