Healthimation’s animated Lena character functions as a companion for program participants.
What would you make of a healthcare startup that, in the past year, hired a comedienne, was working with Dunkin Donuts and plans to integrate mystery-themed storylines into its platform in the style of the Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV series? It seems a little over the top for a company that already had an animated cartoon character in the style of Pixar named Lena helping participants navigate its weight management program.
For Paul Buonopane, Healthimation cofounder and board member, this is just part of the company’s grand experiment to add more tools to its engagement armory and widen its appeal. He talked about the new developments in a phone interview in the runup to MedCity’s ENGAGE patient engagement conference where it is one of several healthcare startups taking part.
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The company wants to make clinically validated healthcare programs more engaging, starting with a 12-week weight management regimen for people with Type 2 diabetes and those at risk of developing the chronic condition called Why WAIT, an acronym that stands for Weight Achievement and Intensive Treatment. Marking its official launch last year, Healthimation is the digitized version of a program developed by Dr. Osama Hamdy, the medical director for Joslin Diabetes Center’s Obesity Clinical Program.
“I think 2018 will be a big year for us if we do it right,” Buonopane said.
Buonopane explained that it hired comedienne Maggie Maye to add some humor to help users cope with the daily struggle of managing a chronic condition or trying to prevent one. As for the conversations with Dunkin Donuts, he said sooner or later, participants will be tempted to eat what they shouldn’t. Despite the venue, perhaps they can still be persuaded to make healthier choices such as buying an egg white sandwich instead of a donut or add cinnamon to their coffee instead of sugar.
“Dunkin Donuts and McDonald’s are trying to get into the health space just like everybody else,” Buonopane said.
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The business is also working on a rewards program with a point system that could include financial incentives such as reduced or waived co-pays when participants earn a certain number of points from healthy choices.
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Lena, an interactive companion who is designed to be as whimsical as she’s portrayed on Healthimation’s website, will be more intelligent next year. A summary emailed from the company explained that Lena will be able to read lips if users have face recognition enabled on their devices. The company has also built a storytelling lab for Lena, Buonopane said. The lab will be used to create mysteries for users to play.
From the end of this year through 2018, Healthimation plans to roll out device integration for connected scales and glucose meters to track and contextualize patient health data for patients and clinicians.
Also in development is a simplified “scorecard” for patients and physicians to track patient progress. The idea is to make it faster for physicians to understand what their patients need and identify eating patterns shaped by mood or activity levels between appointments that’s less like an electronic health record and is more like USA Today, according to Buonopane. The goal is to make patient interactions with physicians more interactive.
With Healthimation’s approach combining animation, gamification and maximum interaction, the startup seems intent on positioning itself to appeal to younger sensibilities than, say, companies geared to older adults such as Omada Health. Although Buonopane regards Omada as a competitor, Healthimation’s approach won’t appeal to everyone and why should it? Not everyone wants or needs to be entertained when they’re just trying to lose weight. But Healthimation’s experimental approach will add to the range of options currently available to manage chronic conditions and could offer some valuable insights as other companies check out its progress in the coming year.
