Omada's new Physician-Guided Care Program is looking to help patients cut down on frequent trips to the doctor with its virtual cardiometabolic clinic, which provides telemedicine consultations to Omada members.

The new service is able to help integrate prescription, medication management, lab orders and patient support. After the company inked a deal with Abbott back in 2019, members using the FreeStyle Libre system could integrate with Omada's app, which allowed the digital health company more insights into a patient's health.

This new service is intended to be used between visits to a patient's primary care physician.

"There was a fax pattern that we kept seeing from our participants where we would notice something and say to them, 'We recommend you go into your primary care doc and have your medications looked at,'" Sean Duffy, CEO of Omada, told MobiHealthNews.

"Someone's either losing weight or not. They may need [medications] adjusted. They may not be on the right medicine, based on our point of view. Ahead of this year and this announcement we really routed them back to their primary care doc. And now, at the member's discretion, if they want our services, we are going to start changing their medications – titrate medicines, recommended and prescribing labels."

According to Duffy, this new program will allow more ease for the patient. It also allows an integrated model of care that can show the prescribing providers a users' latest CGM reading, health history and lab data. All of that data can then be transferred to the user's primary care physician as well.

"It's taking that next level of depth – which is something we always had a vision to do, but you just need to do it in a really thoughtful way, and coordinated way, that thinks through how you interact with a person's medical home, their PCP – that takes member consideration. But what it enables is a slam dunk for both our members and our partners."

WHY IT MATTERS

The company is pitching this as a way to help make care more accessible to patients and catch issues faster. It is also looking to help payers save some cash.

"On the member side, instead of having to make a virtual visit or show up in person to have your medication adjusted 5,10 milligrams, and take time off of work to do it, you can do it basically instantly within the Omada experience which is so much more convenient," Duffy said.

"From a payer or employer's point of view, it is remarkable to these little things in healthcare costs a lot of money. You're sending a patient in for a visit. That visit alone could be $150, $200, just to make that slight modification – and that's something that digital can do more effectively."

THE LARGER TREND

Omada got its start in the diabetes space. In October of 2019, the company announced a new deal with Abbott in order to integrate its coaching platform with the med-tech company's FreeStyle Libre continuous glucose monitor.

The company has quite a bit of funding behind it. In 2019, the company snagged $73 million in a funding round led by Wellington Management Company. According to CrunchBase, Omada has a total of $256.5 million in venture funding.

However, Omada isn't the only provider in the chronic care management space. Competitor Livongo got snapped up by virtual health giant Teladoc for a whopping $18.5 billion.