Onduo is on a mission to make "healthy" easy

Onduo, a Verily subsidiary, announced today that the company is building on the success of its type 2 diabetes program, and launching its new multi-condition platform. We asked Vindell Washington, MD, CEO of Onduo, to shed light on this development and share more on the expanded capabilities of the company.

What did Onduo learn from its experience in diabetes?

First, we demonstrated the impact of data on an individual's ability to own their health and better manage their condition. We generated this data for each individual by incorporating a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) and by providing access to personalized coaching and feedback. We’re already applying what we learned in diabetes to a much broader population through this expansion and are focused on the next chapter of Onduo providing personalized, whole-person care across populations.

What’s new about the program and platform?

The expanded platform is designed to support patients managing one or more chronic health conditions including type 2 diabetes, pre-diabetes, weight loss, hypertension, and mental wellness, and we're working on expansion into behavioral health. We're also providing Spanish language support to make the virtual care experience -- through both the app and care team – available for Spanish speakers.

How will you deliver on Onduo’s mission to provide personalized care at scale?

By leveraging high-quality data and diverse data streams, accessed through contracted relationships and member-level user agreements, we can paint a robust picture of a member's daily life, and we're able to recommend care interventions when it is meaningful to the individual. We're also enhancing the way in which we engage members. Through behavior change theory and digital phenotyping we can find those windows of opportunity for change that are the most impactful. For instance, through the Advanced Real-time Cohort (ARC) engine, Onduo can assign personalized messaging, trigger the right clinical outreach, escalate members for a telemedicine visit, and prompt a medication review—all of which is optimized to encourage the right action by the individual, improve engagement, and help support long-term health improvements.

How are you thinking about best supporting members during the current health crisis?

Our members are looking for ways to stay healthy and on track at home, and it’s difficult to create healthy routines during lockdowns. We’ve found the flexibility of a model that includes virtual coaching, feedback and app-based communication, and which incorporates key wellness support such as stress management, makes a tremendous difference in how our members engage with their health. We also provided additional one-on-one coaching through the virtual clinic and broader guidance to members through webinars to ensure they had the latest information on how to keep themselves as healthy as possible.

What are you most looking forward to with the expanded platform?

The expanded platform is live with customers today, and we’re able to look across the challenges members face while managing chronic conditions and serve up services that are helpful for whole patient care. I’m looking forward to integrating more data sets, based on information we are able and allowed to access from our members, to continue expanding our virtual clinic to bring this valuable support to more populations.