HomeHero rebrands as an integrative medicine company called “Harvey”
Last December, my longtime co-founder Mike Townsend and I were put in one of the most bizarre situations founders could ever find themselves in. We were effectively forced to shut down our teetering non-medical home care marketplace HomeHero with much of our $23 million in funding still remaining. The announcement came as a shock to the industry, as well as to many clients, patients, caregivers, health system partners and even some employees. Despite building significant traction in the industry, we felt the growth would be too slow for a venture-backed company to sustain and decided to “pull the e-brake on the freeway”.
While the transition was smoother than we expected, we still experienced some difficult layoffs and departures internally, and it was easily the scariest and toughest few months of our young professional careers. It’s a decision (right or wrong) that we will contemplate and scrutinize for the rest of our lives. But as of now, we still strongly believe we made the right call.
The good news was we still had the full backing of our Board to pivot the company in any new direction that would give us the best chance of long-term success. Our goal was to use the remaining capital to build something important, something new and completely different, and something that had the potential to positively impact the lives of millions of people. We considered many wild and crazy ideas but still felt passionate about our mission at HomeHero of promoting “health and wellness in the home” and ultimately decided to keep growing our roots in healthcare.
So let me start with the reveal…
The HomeHero team is building an integrative medicine company called Harvey. 👈🏽 🌿 We offer virtual consultations with functional and naturopathic doctors, advanced in-home lab testing and natural treatments to help patients with chronic health conditions optimize their health, wellness and quality of life.
Integrative medicine uses natural health and wellness practices to complement, but not replace, more conventional Western (allopathic) care. This personalized and integrative approach takes into account the whole person—including mind, body, emotion and all aspects of lifestyle and nutrition.
Harvey’s doctors help patients find the root cause of their health issues, instead of just treating the symptoms, and work to prevent more serious diseases down the road. We’ve been quietly serving patients (100% virtually) for about 5 months, and the response to our doctors has been incredible.
For anyone wondering, Harvey was named after the English physician and scientist, William Harvey, who first discovered and explained how blood circulates through the human body.
So this is what we‘ve been up to. But Simon Sinek back in 2010 famously asked the question “Why should anyone care?” while calling on companies to better explain why their organization exists. This article explains in broader detail the 10 reasons why we decided to pivot HomeHero into the integrative medicine space and rebrand the company as Harvey.
Reason #1: America is a very sick nation
There are 117 million people (50% of adults) in the United States living with one or more chronic health conditions—such as heart disease, asthma, cancer, diabetes, hypertension, auto-immune disease, COPD and depression—and 1 in 4 Americans are living with multiple such conditions. Chronic disease is by far the #1 killer of Americans.
Obviously, we benefited greatly from the biotech revolution over the last century. Maternal mortality rate fell 98% from 1990 to 2000 and we almost completely eradicated measles, typhoid, whooping cough, scarlet fever and thousands of other illnesses. This was all thanks to the brilliant medical breakthroughs of doctors, scientists and biotech companies.
But for the first time in over two decades, life expectancy for Americans declined last year, while death rates rose for 8 of the top 10 leading causes of death. This is the first time in over 20 years we’ve experienced a drop in our life expectancy. While we successfully eradicated many infectious diseases over the last century (like tuberculosis, pneumonia or diarrhea), we’ve created an entirely new set of problems for ourselves thanks to our unbalanced diets and sedentary lifestyles.
Compared to 100 years ago, we’ve picked up an incredible sugar addiction and increased our consumption of fatty, greasy and processed foods. We got hooked onto prescription medications and are exposing ourselves to far more toxic chemicals and metals in and around our homes.
As capitalism continues to drive Big Pharma and the food industry towards new levels of optimization, the actual health of Americans is spiraling downhill. Total food consumption has increased almost 20% over the last century and sugar consumption has more than doubled.
It’s no surprise that rates of heart disease, cancer, stroke, COPD and many other diseases have gone through the roof. And the standard method of medical treatment today — pharmaceutical drugs — has been largely ineffective in actually preventing these chronic diseases.
Reason #2: A third of deaths are preventable
The five leading causes of death in the United States are heart disease, cancer, chronic obstructive respiratory diseases (COPD), stroke and unintentional injuries. Together they accounted for over 60% of all deaths. Below are the top four disease-specific injuries (ignoring injuries):
What’s sad is that at least a third of deaths could have been prevented with better nutrition or lifestyle changes. Below is an expanded list of the top 10 causes of death in the United States and ease of prevention.
Top 10 Causes of Death (United States)
- Heart disease (very preventable)
- Cancer (somewhat preventable)
- Chronic lower respiratory disease (very preventable)
- Accidents (very preventable)
- Stroke (very preventable)
- Alzheimer’s disease (somewhat preventable)
- Diabetes (very preventable)
- Influenza and pneumonia (very preventable)
- Kidney disease (somewhat preventable)
- Suicide (very preventable)
A whopping 9 out of every 10 Americans are considered malnourished with significant vitamin or mineral deficiencies, and adult obesity rates now exceed 35% in four states, 30% in 25 states and above 20% in all states.
According to by the CDC, one-in-three adults are projected to have diabetes by 2050. It’s hard to imagine what these graphs below, comparing obesity rates from 1990 and 2015, will look like by 2025.
This is insane. Personally, I believe this is a more urgent issue than climate change or global terrorism. We are killing ourselves at increasing rates, mostly due to poor nutrition and lifestyle habits.
Reason #3: Our healthcare system is not designed to keep people healthy
The United States has the most expensive and financially inefficient healthcare system in the world. The reasons are complicated, but in any fee-for-service system the service providers have a natural incentive to optimize for profits instead of health outcomes. And that has lead to overprescribing pharmaceutical drugs.
At the peak of HomeHero, our caregivers during home safety audits used to find garbage bags full of medications, some with over 100 different bottles in them. It was unbelievable.
Each year 3.9 billion prescriptions are filled in the United States — that’s about 12 prescriptions per adult per year. What makes this most dangerous is primary care physicians spend only 13 minutes with patients on average, and they hand our prescriptions after 80% of visits.
Let’s compare this to Switzerland, who some would argue has the best healthcare system in the world. Their doctors prescribe medications only half as often, they have 60% lower per capita healthcare costs, they spend 6% less of their GDP on healthcare, and their life expectancy is four years higher than ours. Something’s not right here.
The commercialization of our healthcare system and big-time influence of Big Pharma over state and federal legislation have inflicted major damage to the reputation of the medical industry. Back in 1966, nearly three fourths (73%) of Americans said they trusted leaders in the medical profession; and that number has since fallen to 34% in 2012. When asked virtually the same question, 83% of adults in Switzerland said they trusted their doctor.
Medical doctors are often trapped in a cutthroat fee-for-service system that is designed for maximum reimbursement, not maximum health outcomes.
Reason #4: Doctors lack training in nutrition
Despite the shocking statistics from the CDC linking preventable deaths with poor diet and lifestyle habits, most medical doctors spend very little time talking to patients about nutrition. In a national study in 2009, 86% of the medical doctors felt “inadequately trained to provide nutritional counseling to their patients”. Even worse, 20% of doctors didn’t even feel like it is a doctor’s obligation to discuss nutrition with patients at all.
It might make sense that doctors feel this way because in four years of medical school they receive less than 24 hours of coursework related to nutrition (compared this to Naturopathic Doctors who get much more, but we’ll get to this in a second). Medical doctors see patients for less than 13 minutes on average, and nutrition seldomly comes up.
Even at the top medical schools, such as Harvard, Stanford and UCLA, you can’t even find the word “nutrition” on the curriculum. But there are 500+ hours of coursework taught in clinical medicine and pharmacology.
Wouldn’t it make sense that the thing that’s killing the most Americans be covered in the most detail in medical school?
Reason #5: Telehealth is inevitable
The growing popularity of telehealth (including phone and video) is fundamentally changing the way doctors diagnose and communicate with their patients. It’s improving the frequency in which patients request doctors and makes it easier for patients (especially those with complex health conditions) to find the specialists they need.
The direct-to-consumer segment of the telehealth industry, which includes all non-reimbursed remote access to physicians and care providers, is expected to grow from $300 million in 2016 to $2 billion in 2020.
Last year I gave a TedX talk in Manhattan Beach where I envisioned a world in the near future where majority of doctor-to-patient interactions will occur without the doctors ever stepping into the same room as their patients, even for x-rays, CT scans and brain imaging. Our healthcare delivery systems will consist of mostly telehealth conference calls in virtual or augmented reality and doctors will summon autonomous health vehicles to drive to a patient’s homes for lab testing, analysis and various forms of treatment.
In 2016, 1.2 million people were projected to have virtual doctor visits in the United States, up 20% from 2015. Kaiser Permanente even announced that their telehealth consultations actually outpaced their in-person visits last year. While they may have slightly exaggerated this number, the growing trend towards telehealth is significant and undeniable.
Reason #6: Personal wellness is booming
In 2014, the U.S. market for health and wellness is $160 billion. This includes categories of nutrition, weight-loss, beauty and anti-aging, preventative medicine, dietary supplements and a small and fast-growing sector of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), representing a $9 billion market (growing ~12% per year).
Over half of adults in the country take at least one dietary supplement every day and 38% of adults use one or more alternative health approach in the CAM category — such as yoga, meditation, dietary and herbal supplements, massages, chiropractic and osteopathic medicine, naturopathic medicine and one of millions of natural products (such as Tom’s deodorant).
Most likely, most of you already use some form of CAM on a regular basis to improve your health, wellness and resistance to disease.
Reason #7: Most of the top hospitals already have integrative medicine programs
“Our mission is to empower patients to develop optimal health and wellness through an academic-based model of primary care rooted in the principles of individualized disease prevention, holism, integrative medicine and traditional healing philosophies.” —UCLA Center for East-West Medicine
When you combine Eastern medicine philosophies such as nutrition, prevention and natural self-healing with advanced evidence-based lab testing of Western medicine, you get a new form of medicine called integrative medicine. Integrative doctors view symptoms as warning signs of nutritional deficiencies in the body, environmental toxins, improper body functioning or unfavorable lifestyle habits. They help patients find the root cause of chronic health conditions and focus on treating the whole person, not just a set of symptoms in perpetuity.
This seems like a reasonable approach to medicine, right? Unfortunately, there are a lot of “naturopaths” and “homeopaths” out there (not doctors) that give Naturopathic Doctors (real doctors) a bad reputation. And while pharmaceutical companies have done unbelievable good for millions of people over the past century, the replacement of medical prescriptions with vitamins, supplements and natural treatments is not good for business, and they have been generally opposed to ND state licensing.
Regardless, over the last eight years we’ve seen dozens of the top hospitals and health systems across the country open integrative medicine departments in response to the large patient demand. Many of these clinics have on staff a Functional Medical Doctor (MD), Naturopathic Doctor (ND), Doctor of Osteopathy (DO), Chiropractor, an Acupuncturist (or Chinese Medicine Doctor), Nutritionist and perhaps a Massage Therapist.
Here are some notable integrative medicine programs from some of the top hospitals and health systems around the country:
UCLA Center for East-West Medicine
Stanford Health Center for Integrative Medicine
Cleveland Clinic Center for Integrative & Lifestyle Medicine
Mayo Clinic Integrative Medicine and Health Team
Johns Hopkins Integrative Medicine & Digestive Center
Kaiser Permanente Center for Complementary Medicine
University of Michigan Integrative Medicine
Vanderbilt Health Osher Center for Integrative Medicine
UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine
New York Presbyterian Integrative Health & Wellbeing Program
Columbia Center for Integrative Medicine
Ohio State Integrative Medicine
Duke Integrative Medicine
Integrative doctors in these clinics are bringing together the best of Western and Eastern medicine (or naturopathic and allopathic medicine). They integrate complementary and alternative medicine practices into the health care system to improve clinical outcomes and help explore the root cause of chronic issues and diseases with their patients, especially those with more complex or unknown health conditions.
They take a more personalized, preventative and holistic approach to medicine than most MDs because the private/cash pay component allows the doctors to spend extra time with patients.
Reason #8: Naturopathy is making a comeback
The Naturopathic Doctor (ND) is seen as the newcomer to the table of integrative medicine, especially in hospitals. But as a distinct health care profession, naturopathic medicine is over 100 years old, tracing its origins to Dr. Benedict Lust who is commonly known as the “Father of Naturopathy”. He opened one of the first health food stores in the United States and founded the American School of Naturopathy in New York and graduated the first class of naturopaths in 1902. Shortly thereafter, over 20 naturopathic medical colleges were founded and attracted more than 10,000 naturopathic doctors to the industry. By the 1920s, NDs had gained licensing in majority of states and were gaining in popularity.
Then in the 1940s and 1950s, the naturopathic medicine industry experienced a steep decline. The rise of biotech and pharmaceutical industry (“Big Pharma”) popularized the idea that drugs could cure all diseases. This mindset caused majority of wellness and nutrition-focused programs to close down — as they were seen as an inferior form of medicine. I’ve already covered the numerous problems this has caused for us.
Fortunately, the National University of Naturopathic Medicine was founded in the early 1950s in response to the termination of many naturopathic programs and has been influential in keeping naturopathic medicine alive. They have actively supported the eight naturopathic medicine schools across North America and helped lobby for new regulation and licensing for NDs across 17 states (and counting).
Today, there are about 7,000 Naturopathic Doctors (NDs) practicing in the United States who graduated from one of the eight accredited four-year naturopathic medicine schools across North America and passed a medical board exam in their licensing state. According to one study, the number of Naturopathic Doctors has been doubling every 5 years since 2000. They are growing in demand and being integrated into more and more primary care practices.
Reason #9: Lab testing is moving into the home
Specialized lab tests for micronutrient, allergy, microbiome, heavy metals, toxic chemicals, hormones, adrenals and even basic panels like CBC and CMP play an important role in your health journey. Integrative doctors rely heavily on these evidence-based lab tests to gain valuable insights into what’s happening inside your body and help validate the credibility of their proposed treatments.
Not only do we wholeheartedly believe in these clinical efficacy of these tests, but we believe patients should have access to all these tests in the comfort of their home. The days of driving to a clinic to get your blood drawn are likely limited; and the race is on to move all lab testing into the home and even remove people from the entire specimen draw process.
While it’s rare for medical doctors to recommend these lab tests — mainly because they are not typically reimbursed — integrative doctors routinely leverage these tests (funded cash pay) to evaluate functional disorders that are often misdiagnosed or left untreated by medical doctors.
Reason #10: One size does not fit all for vitamins
There is a $160 billion health and wellness market in the United States, and about 25% of this market is vitamin and supplement sales (over 2X bigger than the entire yoga market). There are over 15,000 different dietary and supplement manufacturers distributing various nutraceutical products in our country, and the FDA has been forced to take an “innocent until proven guilty” approach to regulating the industry.
As a result, hundreds of thousands of products are pushed onto the market every year with little to no clinical testing. Most of these supplements contain harmless vitamins and minerals, however many also contain doses of synthetic fillers, GMOs, allergens, steroids, colorants, toxins, contaminants or chemical compounds that may have negative health risks.
Despite the risks, over 50% of Americans takes at least one vitamin or supplement every day, and 80% of them are taken without any formal or informal recommendation from a medical professional. Most advice come from health bloggers, trainers, lifestyle coaches, celebrities and health and fitness magazines (left).
We see a major opportunity for a medical company to help patients connect with doctors on a more personalized basis to determine the right vitamins, supplements and dosages their body actually needs. These recommendations should be based on results of lab testing and quantitative biomarkers instead of taking a one-size-fits-all daily multivitamin that says “recommended for all women” on the box.
Supplements play a critical role in helping people meet optimal levels of health and nutrition, but if taken incorrectly they can be dangerous. There needs to be better medical oversight over vitamins and supplements, and we believe Harvey can play a key role in supplying this medical advice and guiding discussion around safe supplementation.
We are just getting started.
If we are successful, we will completely change the “sick care” culture of healthcare in this country and shift the paradigm back towards nutrition, prevention and “whole body” health and wellness. We will help patients become better consumers of healthcare, reverse the disturbing proliferation of obesity and chronic disease in our country, and improve the quality of life of millions of people. And that’s one hell of a “why”.
For information on Harvey, visit goharvey.com.
Or you can follow Kyle and Mike on Twitter.
