Two local entrepreneurs make strange (but healthy) bedfellows

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota — Scott Danielson is a former AOL executive, filmmaker and creative director. Lee Zukor used to work at Best Buy and Target.com. So naturally, they’re forming a start-up focused on pushing people to eat healthy.

Well, maybe not naturally, but after listening to two entrepreneurs lay out their vision of “connected health care” at a breakfast forum Tuesday sponsored by Ovative/Group at Open Book, it all starts to make perfect sense.

I think.

After building Internet-based consumer engagement platforms for UnitedHealth Group Inc., Danielson founded Healthy Heartland Inc., a firm that advises clients like Mayo Clinic on how to increase the supply of health care, especially to under-served rural areas. He then met Zukor, who started Simple, Good and Tasty, a local blog dedicated to promoting healthy foods.

The two men hit it off and now each advises the other’s company. But the entrepreneurs soon realized they occupied two ends of the health care chain: nutrition and wellness at the beginning (Simple, Good and Tasty), and acute care at the end (Healthy Heartland). What’s missing, they said, was a company that focuses on the middle area- disease management.

It’s kind of vague but Danielson and Zukor envision a company that promotes “food-powered health” by designing incentives for patients, employees and students to eat nutritious foods. Think RedBrick Health for food.

From what I could glean from their remarks, this yet-to-be-formed company might use social media, diagnostic technology and Internet tools to create a fun and interactive community of like-minded eaters pursuing similar goals.

Maybe I should let Danielson explain. From his book Health Transformation 2.0:

“Imagine, for example, a platform in which you can easily see how other 45-year-old males fared in their cardiac risk assessments. You could then add the results to your personal health record and reuse the tool to track progress as your health improves. You would also be prompted with additional online and offline sources and next steps.”

I can easily see the following scenario: A company decides to host one of those god-awful weight-loss challenges. Each team of employees selects a different strategy to losing weight: nutrition, running, yoga, swimming, lifting. The winning team receives a cash bonus or a discount in health insurance premiums.

Each employee wears tiny sensors that downloads real-time data to a “wellness chip.” Team members can access the data, compare their progress (or lack of progress) amongst themselves, or even against the competition.

A lot of this is my own conjecture and I could be totally wrong on the details. But the main strategy is to create a system where a community, equipped with some cool technology, shared interests, and maybe a little cash, can nudge people to change their lifestyles. It all depends on how you frame the conversation.

“Nobody wants to talk about health,” Danielson said. “Everybody wants to talk about food, eating good food with good friends.”