Virtual care company Teladoc Health on Tuesday launched its new cardiac metabolic health program to prevent advances in diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity.
Purchase, New York-based Teladoc Health serves employers and health plans. In addition to supporting weight management and diabetes, it also provides mental health care, primary care and professional services.
The new plan offers BetterSleep a premium subscription, with the app focusing on improving sleep quality. Patients can also get one-to-one support through a registered dietitian, outreach of health coaches, testing cardiac metabolic measures at home, and health insights from connected devices such as glucose meters. This procedure can be used for people with a body mass index of 25 or above.
“The reality is that many of the most prevalent chronic conditions of our time – including type 2 diabetes and diseases of the heart, liver, kidney – share a lot in common in how they develop (such as insulin resistance and chronic inflammation), which means there's also a real opportunity to address these upstream factors and prevent these conditions from developing in the first place,” said Calvin Wu, MD, clinical strategy director of Teladoc Health, in an email.
He continued: “Based on the solutions we have built, the program has new features that effectively promote healthy lifestyle behaviors and provide members with the personalized education and support they need for their healthiest lives.”
The company's clinical approach is based on the American Heart Association's Basic Life 8, a key measure to improve and maintain cardiovascular health. These include better diet, more active, quitting tobacco, healthy sleep, managing weight, controlling cholesterol, managing blood sugar and managing blood pressure.
Research shows that better cardiac metabolic health support is needed: Only 12% of adults in the United States have good cardiac metabolic health. That's why Teladoc Health wants to change.
“Our goal is to better cardiac metabolic health, not just address specific conditions or risk factors. No matter what the members are bringing into our program, we will take care of their entire cardiac metabolic health needs,” Wu said. “For example, diabetics will be asked about their weight, cholesterol and mental health as part of their cardiac metabolic health assessment. Based on the results, we propose suggestions related to basic lifestyle behaviors they can improve to understand better outcomes for their diabetes and overall cardiac metabolic health.”
Teladoc Health has been busy so far. It announced in February that it will acquire a virtual preventive health company Catshot Health for $65 million. In January, it joined Amazon’s health benefits connector.
Teladoc is not the only company that provides cardiac metabolic support. Others include Virta Health and Vida Health.
Photo: Teladoc Health
