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Tag: chronic disease management

Woman’s Health Startup Pollie Wins Bayer G4A’s Attention With Female-Focused Chronic Condition Play

By JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF HEALTH

Forget being pigeon-holed as a “femtech” company! VERY early-stage women’s health startup, Pollie, is taking an integrated care approach to complex chronic conditions that either just affect women, OR impact women differently or disproportionally than men. Think not only about conditions caused by hormone imbalances like PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) or endometriosis, but also auto-immune disorders and digestive disorders that present differently or more frequently in women.

Co-Founder and CEO, Jane Sagui, drops by to talk us through the platform Pollie is building (and I mean, building-as-we-speak) which will ultimately teach women how to manage their chronic conditions via a highly-personalized program that includes all possible treatment management solutions, from pharmaceuticals to lifestyle-based treatments like diet and exercise. The company is currently piloting a version of their solution with a cohort of PCOS patients, but, has grand plans to expand their multi-modality pill-plus approach into other categories of women’s health that are NOT reproductive system related. Their biz has already caught the eye – and some investment dollars – from Bayer, as the company is one of four that’s been selected for this year’s Growth Track within G4A’s Digital Health Partnerships Program.

Jane gives us the details behind Pollie: their business, the pilot, the round they’re currently raising, and the types of partners they’re seeking as they evolve their offering. What’s also exciting? An early-stage bet from a big pharma co like Bayer that signals a future for women’s health care that may (finally) be about MORE than just reproductive health.

Digital Therapeutic for Chronic Condition Management in India | Abhishek Shah, Wellthy Therapeutics

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BY JESSICA DAMASSSA, WTF HEALTH

As the adage goes, “health is wealth,” and Wellthy Therapeutics is a startup looking to improve the health of patients with chronic conditions in India by making treatment more accessible. Only 5% of Indians are insured and much of the population is not health literate, so CEO Abhishek Shah hopes the Wellthy app will fill a critical gap in care for those with type II diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular conditions, and respiratory illnesses. With 15K users, the startup is focused on scaling up to truly capitalize on the potential of India’s enormous population. Learn more about their big plans, including those for a Series-A, to support that expansion.

Filmed at Bayer G4A Signing Day in Berlin, Germany, October 2019.

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Leveraging Time by Doing Less in Each Chronic Care Visit

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By HANS DUVEFELT, MD

So many primary care patients have several multifaceted problems these days, and the more or less unspoken expectation is that we must touch on everything in every visit. I often do the opposite.

It’s not that I don’t pack a lot into each visit. I do, but I tend to go deep on one topic, instead of just a few minutes or maybe even moments each on weight, blood sugar, blood pressure, lipids, symptoms and health maintenance.

When patients are doing well, that broad overview is perhaps all that needs to be done, but when the overview reveals several problem areas, I don’t try to cover them all. I “chunk it down”, and I work with my patient to set priorities.

What non-clinicians don’t seem to think of is that primary health care is a relationship based care delivery that takes place over a continuum that may span many years, or if we are fortunate enough, decades.

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Health in 2 Point 00, Episode 90 | One year older…

Today on Health in 2 Point 00, we’re wishing Matthew a happy birthday!

On Episode 90, Jess and I talk about the drama around Amazon PillPack and Surescripts, HelloHeart’s $12 million raise, and Cerner selling its health data. In the end, the data is going to have to flow after this battle between Surescripts and PillPack. For HelloHeart’s blood pressure and cardiovascular health management platform, have they found their niche or is it too little too late with others like Livongo, Omada and Vivify in the space already? Finally, Cerner has put in their earnings call that they’re going to develop a business model around selling their data, sending ePatient Dave on a Tweet storm, but how big of a deal is this really? —Matthew Holt

Health in 2 Point 00, Episode 71 | Livongo’s SIGNUM 2019, Bobblehead Edition!

Today on Health in 2 Point 00, Jess and I are at Livongo’s SIGNUM 2019 conference in San Francisco—in bobblehead form. In this episode, Jess asks me about my key takeaways from the conference, which focused on chronic condition solutions. It was really exciting to hear how the experience of patients with chronic conditions has been changed. We heard some fun stuff from Seth Stephens-Davidowitz about his book Everybody Lies and Daniel H. Pink’s When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, and from Stephen Klasko of Jefferson University and Mark Ganz of Cambia Health about the importance of proper partnerships and innovation from traditional healthcare companies. At the end of the day, at a relatively small scale we’ve made a difference in the lives of people with chronic illness—but can we deliver this at a huge scale? —Matthew Holt