2026 Mid-Year Pulse

Wheel Team
August 1, 2026

Download the Mid-Year Pulse

Early signals shaping virtual care in 2027, built from six months of H1 2026 data.

The trends shaping virtual care in 2027 are already underway

In January, Wheel pointed to three forces shaping the next phase of virtual care: women's health as a durable entry point, weight management as a systemic connector, and virtual care becoming longitudinal infrastructure. Six months in, the data is ahead of where we expected it to be.

Wheel's H1 2026 data reveals how weight management, retention, midlife demand, and flexible care delivery are redefining the next phase of cardiometabolic care.

What leaders should ask now:

Does your vendor connect weight management to the rest of cardiometabolic care, or is that still on the roadmap?
What does retention look like six months in, not just enrollment in month one?
How does the program support a patient managing more than one condition?
Can the platform move a patient between async and sync care without adding a step?

— What you'll learn —

Four shifts already shaping virtual care in 2027

Is weight management becoming part of cardiometabolic care?

Yes. Weight management made up nearly 1 in 3 completed visits in H1 2026, up from virtually zero a year earlier, connecting patients into metabolic and cardiovascular care.

Does better follow-up improve virtual care retention?

Yes. Weight management retention reached 83%, the highest of any major category on the platform, as follow-up visits outpaced new patient growth.

Is midlife care a growth area for virtual care?

Yes. Patients 43 and older now account for more than 4 in 10 visits, up from under 3 in 10 just two quarters earlier.

Does asynchronous care improve virtual care scalability?

Yes. Asynchronous consult volume grew 121% year over year, more than triple the growth in synchronous consults.

— Access the free report —

The predictions from January are holding up

Weight management, retention, midlife demand, and flexible care delivery are already shaping how the strongest virtual care programs operate. Download the Mid-Year Pulse for an early look at what these shifts mean heading into 2027.

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