Health IT, Startups

From real estate to healthcare: Trulia cofounder’s new health IT venture takes on Type 2 diabetes (Updated)

Virta Health's approach is designed to help patients lower their hemoglobin A1c levels and reduce or eliminate prescription medications. The goal is to reverse the effects of Type 2 diabetes, and cure it.

Virta Health endocrinologist Caroline Roberts and Virta Health physician Jeff Stanley

Virta Health physicians Caroline Roberts and Jeff Stanley

 

This post has been updated to include comments from a phone interview with Virta Health cofounder and CEO Sami Inkinen.

Two years after Zillow acquired online real estate company Trulia in a $2.5 billion deal, Trulia’s Cofounder and former president Sami Inkinen has moved into healthcare with the launch of telehealth startup, Virta Health. The digital health company, which refers to itself as an online specialty medical clinic, sets itself apart by attempting to cure Type 2 diabetes. That’s a significant contrast from most health IT companies in this space, which are mainly designed to help people manage their condition to get it under control with an eye to reducing costly complications from the condition.

Virta Health’s approach is designed to offer an alternative to bariatric surgery or additional medications, according to a company news release.

The company helps patients lower their hemoglobin A1c levels and reduce or eliminate prescription medications through an interactive communication with a physician and online health coach supported by a mobile app. In addition to physicians and health coaches, users receive nutrition, guidance on changing their habits, biometric feedback, and peer support.

Inkinen, who is Virta Health’s CEO, acknowledged in a phone interview that it might seem strange for someone associated with an online real estate startup to shift to healthcare. He noted that he actually trained as a physicist and once worked at a nuclear power plant. The move to launch Virta was partly motivated by a diagnosis of pre-diabetes despite being an accomplished triathlon athlete. That got him interested in what research scientists were doing to address Type  2 diabetes and obesity. That led him to cofounders Dr. Stephen Phinney, a physician and scientist with 40 years of nutritional biochemistry experience, and Dr. Jeff Volek, a professor at Ohio State University with a background in researching the effects of nutrition and physical activity on health.

Although the company was officially launched this week, Virta Health was formed in 2014. The company has received $37 million through seed and Series A rounds, according to Inkinen —Venrock led the $30 million Series A round and Obvious Ventures led the $7 million seed round. Other investors in the business include Allen & Company, Redmile Group, and PayPal and Affirm founder Max Levchin’s Scifi VC, the news release noted.

Inkinen noted that Virta is conducting a two-year clinical study of its platform, but this week the startup shared the results of a 10-week study at Indiana University Health Arnett. That study was published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, which appeared to validate the company’s approach. The study was sponsored by Virta and carried out by people with a financial connection to the business. Still, more than half of participants (56 percent) were able to lower their blood glucose to a non-diabetic range. The majority of patients (87 percent) reduced or completely eliminated insulin and also lost 5 percent of their weight, the release said.

More than 42 percent of study participants (112) were able to decrease their medications and another 21 were able to do away with them entirely.

The study involved 262 participants with Type 2 diabetes varying in age from 21 to 65 years old. They received educational content either through on-site weekly 90-minute group-based classes or in recorded form on the Web depending on what each participant wanted. The content included information such as how to manage carbohydrate restriction and still get enough protein in moderation, a tutorial on ketones and behavior change techniques.

Participants could communicate with online health coaches through texting for advice and problem-solving. They also received support from peers online. Their biometrics were remotely monitored on a daily basis. Participants reported their glucose levels online one to three times per day. A physician made medication changes when needed. Each week a care team and the principal investigator reviewed the medication status of each participant.

Type 2 diabetes is an enormous healthcare issue in the U.S. and accounts for 90 percent of the 29 million diabetes cases in this country, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control. More than one-third of Americans or 86 million are deemed to be at risk for developing the chronic condition.

Photo: Virta Health

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