SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Omada Health, a pioneer in the emerging field of digital therapeutics, today announced a new relationship with the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF) and The Kresge Foundation to broadly extend the reach of Prevent, its online program for people with prediabetes, to low income populations throughout the US. Omada Health will use the funding to conduct Prevent pilots in select low income clinics, and increase access amongst Medicaid plans nationwide.
“Type 2 diabetes disproportionately affects low income Americans and racial and ethnic minorities,” said Sean Duffy, CEO of Omada Health. “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.”
CHCF is making a $450,000 program-related investment in Omada Health through the CHCF Health Innovation Fund. The Kresge Foundation also invested $500,000 through its Social Investment Practice. The funding will be used to offer Prevent to low-income patients sourced from Omada partners including health plans, clinics, and other care settings. This effort will also include development of a Spanish-language adaptation of Prevent. CHCF and The Kresge Foundation will also fund and publish an independent evaluation of the efficacy of Prevent in low-income populations based on data collected during the pilot.
"CHCF chose to invest in Omada Health because the Prevent program has the potential to make diabetes prevention more engaging, affordable, and effective for patients, leading to better outcomes and lower health system costs," said Margaret Laws, director of the CHCF Innovations for the Underserved program, which manages the CHCF Health Innovation Fund.”
“As part of our mission to expand opportunity for low-income people, we invest in efforts to address health disparities,” said Kresge’s Kimberlee Cornett, managing director of the foundation’s social investment practice. “Kresge’s emphasis is on promoting good health, and Omada has developed a promising approach.”
Prevent is an online diabetes prevention program (DPP) based on guidelines published by the National Diabetes Prevention Program (NDPP), a public-private initiative led by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC). The Prevent program, which has already been adopted by a variety of employers and health plans, has published outcomes in the leading medical journal The Diabetes Educator and is credited for helping patients lose weight and make the sort of lifestyle changes shown to help reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes. The program is guided by dedicated health coaches and offers community social support, meaning every participant has real people, in real-time, monitoring their progress and offering 24/7 feedback. Omada Health is committed to pay-for-performance models for digital therapeutics, and the cost of Prevent is outcomes-based with program costs directly tied to patient success.
“Our new partnerships with CHCF and The Kresge Foundation enables us to extend the reach of DPP to a broader audience within the US low-income population, especially those who are unable or not interested in attending an in-person program,” said Duffy. “And since Prevent has been shown to be highly effective, we hope that we can meet or exceed the results of in-person programs available to Medicaid patients.”
About Omada Health
Omada Health is pioneering a new class of medicine called digital therapeutics. The company believes that technology will redefine behavioral medicine and bring a new future to the 75% of Americans who will die prematurely from preventable lifestyle-related chronic conditions. Omada Health drives positive health outcomes through a combination of immersive digital experiences. The company’s flagship product, Prevent, is the first-ever online diabetes prevention program for the general public and is based on the landmark Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) clinical trial. Prevent customers include major organizations, integrated delivery networks and health plans such as Kaiser Permanente, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, and Stanford Hospital and Clinics. For more information, visit http://www.omadahealth.com and http://preventnow.com.
