Meet Vida Health, a virtual platform for primary care

ST: We have customers across the board from ages 20-75, men and women. Everybody has a health goal or problem they are working on!

VN: How do you want to change the healthcare space? What is your vision for what it will look like in five to ten years thanks to what Vida is doing?

ST: I believe healthcare will be transformed over the next decade to a point where it will not be recognizable, much like Amazon has transformed shopping and Uber transportation, healthcare is next. The consumerization of healthcare has already started and will take hold in the next couple of years but will take 5-10 years to play out.

There are three major trends underlying this shift:

1. Growth of high deductible insurance, now 32% of all insurance plans offered by employers. The consumer is footing a higher percentage of the bill each year, it is at least $5K now in the U.S. and only increasing.

2. Growth of mobile and wearables and cheap diagnostics (like Theranos), consumers are getting data that is enabling them to take charge of their health. Telemedicine is cheaper, faster and more effective in the majority of primary and chronic care issues, consumers are excited about having the instant gratification of a health coach or doctor on their phone, helping them immediately as opposed to having to drive, wait, etc. to see a doctor. 

3. The ACA has two key components that are imporant - 1. wellness incentives (84% of employers offer a wellness program and more and more are taking advantage of the Obamacare wellness incentives) and 2. shift to value-based care (from fee for service) so that incentives are aligned between consumers, providers, payers and employers. If you don't get the right treatment, you have to spend more and so does your provider and employer (and payer). With charging for readmissions you are seeing a closing of the loop of financial incentives. 

Vida provides a continuous, connected, collaborative care model with a coach and a doctor in your pocket 24/7 to help you lose weight, manage a chronic condition, deal with an auto-immune disease, etc. We cover over 20+ conditions and have evidence based clinical programs paired with a national network of health experts that can help you from the convenience of your own home.

We are marketing direct to consumer and we have pilots with Duke, MD Anderson and others (we have not announced yet).

We believe in the future you will get your blood work done at your local Walgreens and instantly get connected to a health expert to help you optimize your health, reverse a chronic disease or avoid a genetic predisposition. If you have surgery, you will be mapped to the right health coach pre and post surgery to optimize your health outcomes. Much of primary and chronic care will become virtual. For example, we are working on cardiac rehab with Duke. We can offer rehab for a much lower cost with higher engagement and better outcomes. 

VN: How many users do you currently have?

ST: We just launched in October and have thousands of users.

VN: Has Vida been able to get data on how it has helped people improve their health? Can you share any of those numbers with me?

ST: Yes, 78% have lost weight , 85% have increased the amount of exercise they are doing, 40% have increased their exercise intensity. People have lowered their A1C, blood pressure and high cholesterol and some people have reversed type 2 Diabetes and improved their ecocardiogram results (heart health).

VN: Have you raised any money yet  and, if so, from which investors?

ST: We raised $5 million from Aspect Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Jerry Yang at AME Cloud Ventures, Signia Venture Partners, The Valley Fund, Kevin Scott, Skip Battle, Lorrie Norrington and Maynard Webb (Chairman of Yahoo!, board member of Salesforce, former COO of eBay, and former CEO of LiveOps), through the Webb Investment Network, his early-stage venture capital firm.