(Credit: HealthyMation)
HealthyMation, a company addressing global health issues through evidence-based clinical programs and innovative technology, today announced it has officially launched the company and unveiled its first product offering currently in development.
HealthyMation was founded by Dr. Osama Hamdy, MD, Ph.D., who is currently Medical Director of the Obesity Clinical Program at the Joslin Diabetes Center.
HealthyMation’s key differentiator comes from its executive team. Dr. Hamdy assembled a unique mix of seasoned digital health professionals with experts from non-conventional healthcare areas such as video games and animation.
The team has united to create the world’s first animation studio for healthcare. HealthyMation utilizes Hollywood animation and gaming industry expertise applying them to healthcare programs. The resulting mobile solution delivers personalized, evidence-based health programs, already proven effective in the clinical setting, to a large group of patients in a simple, highly-engaging and entertaining format, regardless of location.
“As I experienced clinically-proven programs literally changing my patients’ lives, I wanted to assemble a very different company, one able to extend these benefits to a much wider audience by raising the level of engagement through a combination of techniques used in the world of entertainment,” said Dr. Hamdy. “We assembled a core team from fields like gaming, animation, and human interaction to attack the same problem from totally different angles. Our goal is to deliver highly-effective programs while engaging patients each day with entertainment and information, ultimately leading to the same successful outcomes previously only achievable in a clinical setting.”
Prior to launch, HealthyMation acquired key resources from the company NuPlanit including its CEO Alaina Adams, who will now serve as CEO of HealthyMation. NuPlanit’s proprietary evidence-based principles of phenotyping, nutrition science, behavior science, and machine learning capabilities will help HealthyMation expand its overall ability to help keep patients on track with their treatment outside of the clinical setting.
“Dr. Hamdy’s vision in creating HealthyMation provides something drastically missing in healthcare—a way to provide the best possible clinical programs remotely with the essential component of human interaction to ensure effectiveness,” said Alaina Adams, CEO, HealthyMation. “Our solution is innovative and disruptive because it allows us to leverage behavior science along with simple, fun daily tasks for nutrition and exercise that any user can understand and achieve. More than just a nutrition or an exercise plan, our approach blends education and entertainment for a truly unique and enjoyable experience.”
Adams is joined by Seavey Bowdoin, a former Senior Director at Warner Brothers Interactive, who has been appointed COO of HealthyMation. Other additions to the team include former NuPlanit executive, Robert Jahreis, as Chief Business Intelligence Officer and former Creative Studio Director at Warner Brothers Interactive, Mark Thompson, as Chief Creative Officer.
Introducing HealthyMation Why WAITTM
Powered by the HealthyMation mobile platform, the HealthyMation Why WAIT core curriculum is based on Joslin Diabetes Center’s successful Why WAITTM program, developed and offered for over twelve years at the Joslin Clinic in Boston. Joslin, affiliated with Harvard Medical School, is recognized as one of the nation’s foremost experts on diabetes and obesity treatment and care.
HealthyMation Why WAIT is a multidisciplinary approach created to reduce weight in overweight and obese patients with diabetes or prediabetes or those at risk of developing diabetes. HealthyMation Why WAIT integrates gaming-style tasks and rewards combined with Hollywood-grade animation. Real human interaction with mobile communication tools extend the reach of HealthyMation’s mobile program beyond the physical clinical setting while incorporating some of the traditional aspects of the original 12-week program that include structured nutrition, individualized exercise plans and behavioral modifications as well as one-on-one coaching.
“The Joslin Clinic-based Why WAIT program, which won the 2015 Michaela Modan Memorial Award of the American Diabetes Association, has been a success at Joslin Diabetes Center. I believe with HealthyMation’s unique mobile application approach, it can not only expand out of the clinical setting but also be applied to address important issues such as overall healthy living,” added Dr. Hamdy.
As presented at the 75th annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association, Boston, MA 20151, participants in the Joslin Clinic-based Why WAIT program average over 24 pounds of weight loss during the twelve-week program and maintain 6.4% of weight loss even after five years. More than half of participants maintain over 9% weight loss. For participants with diabetes, 82% achieved their target glucose control and reduced related medications by up to 60% and reduced diabetes-related costs by 44% per year.
“Twenty-nine million people have been given a diabetes diagnosis and 86 million people are estimated to have prediabetes in the US. The majority of them are overweight, which is an epidemic we need to address,” said Adams. “HealthyMation has licensed the right to modify for a mobile application this most effective and proven program from the Joslin Diabetes Center. We hope our app will drastically improve lives while reducing the total cost of diabetes, which has increased to more than $245 billion dollars.”
HealthyMation has already begun aligning itself with strategic global partners to fully realize Dr. Hamdy’s vision of putting the best possible health programs in the hands of people who need them.
