An interview with Abhishek Shah

1.Can you please tell us more about Wellthy Therapeutics and what inspired you to create the business?

I hail from a background in healthcare, working with my family businesses that deliver healthcare products and solutions to South Asia, Africa and South America. After spending a few years as a venture capitalist investing in consumer tech companies, I was fascinated by how the smartphone was enabling behavior change and aiding decision support. Wellthy’s founding and leadership team share a common connect in that our close family members all have chronic conditions we manage today; intersecting better patient outcomes for healthcare stakeholders using digital therapeutics became a no-brainer way to attempt a scalable, world class solution, and at the same time solving problems we see first-hand at home.

Wellthy Therapeutics is a digital therapeutic company inspiring and enabling patients to prevent, reverse or manage their chronic condition. Over the next decade, we aim to help 10 million patients. We work with existing healthcare stakeholders (Pharma, Insurance, Medical Device, Healthcare systems) to improve their population health. Our current therapeutic focus areas are diabetes, cardiology and nephrology. Wellthy Therapeutics’ first digital therapeutic for Type II diabetes has been endorsed by Asia’s largest diabetes association (RSSDI), and the company has been recognized as a global innovator by the American Diabetes Association. Wellthy Therapeutics has published and presented real-world evidence at the AACE 26th Annual Congress in Austin; AACE 27th Annual Congress in Boston; ADA 77th, 78th & 79th Scientific Sessions in San Diego, Orlando and San Francisco; IDF Congress 2017 in Abu Dhabi; ATTD 11th and 12th International Conference in Vienna and Berlin; AADE Annual Conference in Baltimore, Maryland; RSSDI 44th, 45th and 46th Annual Conferences in India; and the 12th RSSDI Regional Conference in India.

2.You have changed the game in terms of pioneering support treatments. How were you able to come up with these innovations?

We did this with a deep understanding and loyalty to the only thing that matters – the patients, the member of an insurance plan, the user, the customer. With a focus to solve problems for all stakeholders in the healthcare ecosystem. And finally, we wanted to intersect deep clinical science, cutting edge technology, and design to solve user problems. There is no substitute for that. When you dig deeper into truly understanding the user, a few things become obvious. That episodic healthcare can’t solve continual lifelong diseases. That the patient pays to be healthy, not for pills or the consultation. That one size does not fit all. And that the only way to truly align healthcare to the patient, is to align to patients’ health, not the service or products around it.

3.You aim to inspire and enable 10 million patients to reverse, prevent or control their chronic condition by 2025. How close are you to the goal?

Great question! We are on track to enable millions of patients to reverse, prevent or control their chronic condition, just with our current partners. As we scale to other
therapeutic areas (we are live in diabetes and cardiology already), and scale to other geographies, we hope to achieve our goal in this coming decade.

4.The Middle East has one of the biggest prevalence of diabetes disease in the world. Are you planning to also set up shop in the GCC?

Absolutely. Diabetes and cardiovascular diseases are our core focus. We are working over 2019 and early 2020 to identify the right partners to invest into scaling in the
Middle East, as well as localize our digital therapeutics in diabetes, cardiology and nephrology to deliver better health outcomes for the GCC. We expect to be live in the region in the next 12-24 months.

5.What advice can you give to entrepreneurs especially to those who would fuse technology with health/ wellness?

a. Have a strong founding team consisting of experienced members in healthcare, design, technology and consumer help.

b. Don’t forget that in most cases in healthcare, the product may be for the patient to use, but the sale happens through the provider or the payer. Don’t leave them out of the design and user experience process.

c. Scientific validation and real world evidence matters – healthcare doesn’t believe in “fake it till you make it” or “MVP”. You need to show your product delivers the outcomes you promise or claim, before adoption.

d. ROI – solutions that deliver value, need to deliver it on an ROI scale. An investment in technology doesn’t mean you can charge an arm and a leg – ensure there is a quick, meaningful return on investment for the healthcare stakeholder to adopt.

e. The core foundation of healthcare is better outcomes – whether better diagnosis, better health or better economic savings. Deliver that, and economic value creation for you and your shareholders will follow.

For more information:
www.wellthy.care