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Below is our recent interview with Todd McGuire, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at incentaHEALTH:
Q: Todd, could you tell us something more about incentaHEALTH?
A: A leader in measurable wellness programs, incentaHEALTH provides a solution for reversing the obesity crisis. Our breakthrough discovery was harnessing the power of visual results. By capturing and displaying the participant’s image each time they hop on our scale, we have transformed a traditionally dreadful experience (getting on the scale) into an intrinsically pleasurable event. This “Healthy Selfie” creates a visual record of their weight loss journey and becomes a powerful motivator, leading to long term weight improvements.
incentaHEALTH's digital health platform is designed to help organizations, communities and consumers reduce health care costs by offering an intrinsically pleasurable approach to disease prevention.
Members manage their weight through the use of an interactive app, email and text message coaching, weigh-ins on private scales and access to live health coaches. Through visual weigh ins on the patented HEALTHspot® scale and cash incentives for weight loss, incentaHEALTH’s unique platform creates a fun, rewarding experience for the participant, resulting in medically significant weight loss and sustainable behavior change.
incentaHEALTH’s mission is to reward 100 million people for healthy eating, active living, and disease prevention. The company is currently looking for partners who wish implement the incentaHEALTH platform in community, clinical or corporate environments. Email: info@incentahealth.com for more information.
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Q: You’ve recently launched a new visual approach to diabetes prevention; could you tell us something more?
A: incentaHEALTH is excited to offer an enhanced version of the platform specifically targeting type 2 diabetes. incentaHEALTH + Prevent Diabetes is built on incentaHEALTH's award-winning behavior change platform and features, and includes 26 weekly webinars, live support from diabetes educators and a gamified dashboard for participants to interact virtually. The program is based on the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Diabetes Prevention Program and has pending-recognition status. The program is a great fit for individuals that have a hard time attending classroom-based diabetes prevention session. It’s so convenient to be able to participate by following our virtual course on a smart phone and tracking your progress visually on our wireless home scale.
Q: What makes your platform different from other weight management programs?
A: Most other weight management options we’ve seen are self-reported and passive by nature. We are focused deeply on the most important component: long-term behavior change.
Many times, these are distracted consumers, working two jobs and not likely to engage in a health-related program at the extent needed to see long-term results. To overcome this barrier, we practice touch-based coaching. We find the participant where they are, whether that be through text message or email-based coaching.
At least once per quarter, participants complete a patented photographed weigh in using our HEALTHspot™ kiosk – creating a fundamentally motivating experience.
The program also harnesses the power of social tools like Facebook to allow participants to share their health transformation visually with their social network, boosting effectiveness through social support from their peers. The results include high participation rates, durable behavior change, and sustained weight loss.
Q: Who is your target market?
A: We’ve designed our platform to be appealing to individuals who are most in need. Our average participant is a 44 -year-old female with a BMI (body mass index) of 34. We currently have a user base of over 100,000 members. We work with four primary market segments: corporate wellness, community health, clinical care, and consumer-direct.
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Q: What type of outcomes are your achieving?
A: A study recently published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine found 71 percent of engaged participants in our weight management program reduced their BMI, with 34 percent of those participants achieving a 5 percent or greater weight loss. These results were sustained for an average duration of 1.7 years. This level of sustained weight improvement demonstrates durable behavior change.
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Additional research, published in Preventive Medicine, reported a 16:1 return on investment (ROI) across all race and ethnicities, saving the insurance payer an estimated $47.3 million over the study population’s lifetime.
Q: Can you give us insights into incentaHEALTH’s new home scale?
A: The incentaHEALTH Smart Scale is our first product for the consumer market and makes our visual weight management program available to users in the comfort of their own home. For the first time, individuals anywhere in the U.S. can track their weight on our wireless home scale, and then use the companion app to view a private photo gallery of their physical transformation, receive daily meal and exercise plans, and be connected directly to a health coach. And members of our Premium Coaching plan are eligible for receiving cash rewards for their success.
The incentaHEALTH Smart Scale is available for purchase atincentahealth.com/smartscale. The companion app is available for iPhone and Android.
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Q: What are your plans for the future?
A: We are adding a Spanish language option to our +Prevent Diabetes platform so we can reach even more people with our program. We are also preparing to add an incentaHEALTH activity tracker and home blood pressure monitor. These two new devices, along with our Smart Scale, will create a complete home monitoring ecosystem and allow us to expand our gamification platform to offer rewards for improvements in daily activity and blood pressure. All from the comfort of home.
