It’s a common story. A bruising encounter with disease or the health care system spurs an entrepreneur to come up with a solution. Stephanie Tilenius watched her father struggle during his lifetime with obesity, before succumbing to a heart attack. A consultation with a Mayo Clinic Mayo Clinic or Cleveland Clinic physician might have saved his life, but he couldn’t afford it.
Tilenius, who recently completed a two-year stint as an executive in residence at venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, is going after the big market for chronic disease. She formed Vida last January to provide consumers with a variety of clinically-vetted, personalized programs that help prevent diabetes, lose weight, or manage cancer treatments, under the supervision of an experienced coach. Vida started selling its service through the Apple AAPL +0.6% app store for $45 a month, whereas a physician consultation might run at least $100. “Everyone should be able to afford a health coach,” says Tilenius, who raised $5 million in a series A round from Aspect Ventures, Khosla Ventures, and Jerry Yang, among others.
Selling directly to consumers is still a gamble in health care, where patients expect their insurance company to pick up the tab. The cost of Vida is not reimbursable. But, Tilenius, who was in charge of commerce at Google GOOGL +1.21%, joins a growing number of entrepreneurs who are going straight to patients with digital health apps, and matching their fees with the price of a co-pay. Better provides 24-hour access to Mayo Clinic nurses for $20 a month, and Lantern provides psychological counseling for $75 a month. To buttress her revenues, Tilenius says she is also speaking to self-insured companies that would offer it to employees.
To test the efficacy of her app in a clinical setting, Tilenius has partnered with Duke Medicine for a cardiac rehab program, and MD Anderson Cancer Center. At MD Anderson, clinicians are in the process of enrolling 100 Leukemia patients who underwent stem cell transplants. They select a Vida coach based on personality, ranging from drill sergeant type to analyzer, who helps them meet their target. The goal is to reduce the chance of transplant rejection by making sure patients are taking their immunosuppressant drugs, following dietary guidelines, and managing stress over a three-month period.
via www.forbes.com