San Francisco-based Omada Health has received $950,000 from the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF) and The Kresge Foundation to expand its prediabetes program, called Prevent, to low income populations in the US.
CHCF contributed $450,000 through its CHCF Health Innovation Fund and Kresge Foundation contributed $500,000 through its Social Investment Practice. Omada Health will use the funds to conduct Prevent pilots in certain low income clinics. The company also said they would increase access to Prevent "amongst Medicaid plans nationwide".
“Type 2 diabetes disproportionately affects low income Americans and racial and ethnic minorities,” Omada Health CEO Sean Duffy said in a statement. “These investments from CHCF and The Kresge Foundation are a tremendous validation of digital therapeutics as a high-potential new category of medical intervention. We’re excited to leverage the investment and the expertise of our new partners to help test and increase uptake of Prevent in these populations. Through strategic relationships like these, we can more rapidly accomplish Omada Health’s mission of bringing the world’s most effective behavior change therapies to every patient that can benefit from them.”
Omada Health’s program, Prevent, lasts 16 weeks and aims to help those that are at-risk for Type 2 diabetes make positive health behavior changes. The program was based on a 2002 NIH Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) intervention that produced significant results for prediabetics. Users are paired with a health coach who monitors their progress throughout the program. Each week, users take an interactive health lesson that covers a range of topics including exercise and nutrition on a mobile device or computer. As part of the program, users receive a wireless-enabled scale and pedometer so that they can track their progress digitally.
As part of the new initiative to reach low income populations, Omada Health will develop a Spanish language version of the product. Based on data that Omada Health will collect during the pilot, CHCF and The Kresge Foundation will conduct an independent evaluation of Prevent's efficacy in low-income populations, which will be published.
The company raised $23.5 million in April 2014, bringing its total funding to $28.5 million. At the time, Duffy told MobiHealthNews Prevent had signed on more than 10 enterprise customers including “major organizations, integrated delivery networks and health plans such as Blue Cross Blue Shield Louisiana, Kaiser Permanente, and Stanford Hospital & Clinics". He added that the funds from that round would be used to expand Omada Health’s product line to include more services that focus on preventive health. Duffy had said they were actively exploring potential areas that they could create programs in and hope to begin prototyping new programs this year.
