The Health Assurance Podcast, Episode 2: What Healthcare Can Learn from the Travel Business

Livongo exec Jenny Schneider on the power of putting patients first

As healthcare continues to evolve, where can it look for inspiration? One suggestion: the online travel business.

So says Dr. Jenny Schneider, the recently departed president of Livongo, a health assurance company that was acquired by Teladoc this fall for $18.5 billion.

Schneider is the guest on episode 2 of The Health Assurance Podcast, just released on Apple, Spotify and other podcast platforms. She says that Livongo, which uses real-time data and AI to treat patients with chronic conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure, has zeroed in on two things that have been crucial to the firm’s success.

First, she says, is empowering people. “We made a bet on the individual person rather than on the healthcare system or the doctor,” she says of Livongo’s approach to managing diabetes, which gives real-time feedback — and guidance — to patients. While other treatment platforms provided information to a patient’s doctor, Livongo took a page from other industries — among them, the travel business — and put the consumer in charge.

“Let’s do what the travel industry did and flip the computer and make a bet on the person,” Schneider says of Livongo’s approach. “Travelocity said, ‘You don’t need a travel agent. You’re smart enough of figure out what you need.’ Google said, ‘You’re smart enough to figure out what content you need, and we’ll deliver it right to you.’ It seemed simple, [but] it’s pretty radical in healthcare.”

Another key, says Schneider, who has dealt with diabetes herself since she was a teenager, was creating a product design that attempts to make life better for people with chronic conditions. “We talked, and continue to talk, about pain points for people living with chronic conditions and how we can solve them.”

Schneider talks about a number of other topics in the podcast, including the importance of improving access to data.