As Voltaire once said, “The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.” While the quote was meant to be amusing, there’s certainly some truth to it, because the art of medicine goes way beyond evidence-based algorithms. Thankfully, as technology progresses, healthcare and wellness industries become more engaging and patient-centric. Medical startups, which are becoming more common on the HealthTech scene, try to make healthcare and wellness more accessible, affordable, and agreeable. We’ve found five startups that prove the premise that seeing a doctor, caring for a baby, or following a fitness plan can be more comprehensible, enjoyable, and hassle-free.
Vida: Find Your HealthCoach
Vida is a health coaching mobile app that pairs you with a health coach who builds a personalized plan for you to achieve your health goals. Coaching is not only limited to text and planning, but also includes such awesome perks like video and audio consultations, daily motivation tips and advice, progress check-ups, health education, and tracking software to stay on top of your exercise, diet, and sleep routines. Apart from working for individuals, Vida offers business options for companies that want to improve the health outcomes for their employees.
Since FDA approved mobile apps for digital therapy back in 2017, the apps like Vida came out with an amazing speed trying to fill the niche. The uprise of digital health apps epitomizes the much-anticipated transition to value-based care and the national commitment to curb back on prescription drugs and look for more efficient and affordable treatment.
So, how’s Vida exactly different? Vida’s coaches are super pros in health, nutrition, behavioral science, and motivational psychology. If you happen to suffer from chronic conditions, depression, anxiety, diabetes, obesity, sleep problems, then Vida’s health coaches are for you. Besides, if you want to transition your previous progress, health plan, or exercise routine from other apps, you can do so freely with Vida as it supports integration with a number of popular apps. Vida app offers 30 health trackers and links to more than 100 other apps and devices, including scale, heart rate monitor, blood pressure cuff, and glucometer. The machine-learning algorithms provide personalized feed and recommendations based on your input data and progress.
Vida is, perhaps, the oldest app on our list, thus it has already been recognized by major press publications, including NPR, Business Insider, Fortune, Bloomberg, among others.
Forte.Fit: Join a Boutique Studio Fitness Class in Real-Time
Have you ever wanted to take a glimpse at how famous fitness instructors train their students or gym members somewhere in New York or LA? Have you ever thought of watching over the fitness routines practiced at famous fitness clubs and dance or ballet studios? Well, now you have a chance! Forte has revolutionized the fitness industry by making avant-garde boutique fitness studios suddenly available for all consumers. The company has built both streaming and subscription-based platform where you can watch live or pre-recorded videos from famous studios at the comfort of your own home. Doesn’t matter where you live, now you can participate in fitness classes taught by famous instructors miles away from you.
I was always keen on watching yoga courses online, but I could never have imagined watching yoga classes taught by famous instructors in New York or Salt Lake City in real time. My husband, who happens to be a certified fitness instructor, was surprisingly amazed by the number of disciplines and locations represented. So, give this startup some love and thumbs-up by checking it out.
BabyNogging: Self-Screen Your Child’s Development
BabyNogging has a dramatic story behind it. The founder of an app Dr. Jin Lee, after having her first baby girl, struggled to access appropriate screening and intervention when she noticed her daughter falling behind speech development milestones. It took Dr. Jin Lee about four months to confirm her daughter was falling behind development thresholds and even more time to actually get help and therapy for her child. Every time she was asking for assistance or screening, she was either advised to wait a couple of more months until her child started speaking or was referred to other specialists who didn’t have direct communication with a girl’s pediatrician and had to perform the same screening and procedures before arriving at any medical conclusions. Dr. Jin Lee argues that every day lost in seeking help and intervention can become critical in early childhood development; that is exactly why she decided to help parents achieve universal screening and appropriate intervention for their children.
The BabyNogging app helps parents understand the development milestones, self-screen their children against thresholds, and identify developmental delays as early as possible to begin appropriate interventions. Since the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends development surveillance and use of validated screening tools, BabyNogging has digitalized these evidence-based screening tools to improve workflow and speed in early intervention. The app doesn’t really stop at screening, Dr. Jin Lee went all the way to incorporate reimbursement schemes into the app by both private and public insurance companies.
The Pill Club: Birth Control Delivered Free
Now, if you’re not yet ready to have a child, then this app is probably for you. The Pill Club offers prescription services, medical fulfillment, and free delivery of birth control packages. Moreover, the Pill Club is not just an app, but a fully HIPAA-compliant and NABP-recognized pharmacy service that is approved to dispense medication nationwide. The Club is backed by Stanford physicians and an exemplary team of medical doctors, nurses, and pharmacists. Moreover, the app accepts most insurance and select Medicaid plans, as well as serve patients without insurance.
There are four types of birth control currently offered by the Club, including oral medication, plastic rings, patches, and emergency contraception.
What’s also really cool about the Pill Club is that apart from your regular birth control care you’ll receive lots of fun and free goodies from affiliated organizations, which you can take a sneak peek every month at the Pill Club’s Facebook page.
Ready Surgery: Artificial Intelligence for Surgery
Ready Surgery is more than just a sophisticated medical app, it’s fully powered with data models and artificial intelligence algorithms. Ready Surgery offers a scientific risk intelligence for surgical care to avoid complications and readmissions. The developers and founders behind Ready Surgery argue that surgical risk is not about actual probabilities, it’s about achieving the best possible outcome with each patient. By using Ready Surgery platform, medical professionals are encouraged to cognify every step of the surgical workflow, starting from assessment and finishing with rehabilitation and maintenance. For example, during the assessment stage, the platform offers computer-adaptive granular reports that include such variables as bleed risk and relative clot; during resourcing — minimum-required labs, specialist clearance, antibiotics, pre-medication, anesthesia, other information per scenario-level risks.
Ready Surgery platform is built not just for surgeons but for other medical professionals, like anesthesiologists, nurses, caregivers, service-line directors, as well as patients, and administrators. For example, by using the platform, pre-admission clinics can prioritize patients based on risk, caregivers can plan for pre-op education and discharge planning, and administrators can avoid delays and cancellations with intelligent booking.
Conclusion
Healthcare delivered straight to your inbox, mobile phone screen or Smart TV sounds like a lot of fun. I’m sure the days when healthcare will be accessible and affordable to everyone are in the offing. And if not in this decade, then hopefully in our children’s future. Healthcare, after all, is a basic human right.
