vHealth Lab Ltd.
Contact Information
Contact person: Hajdi Cenan
Email address: [email protected]
Contact number: +447871473244
REGION
Europe
Award Category
The Digital Insurer Startup InsurTech Award
BACKGROUND
Cardiovascular diseases remain the leading cause of death, accounting for 30% of deaths worldwide, with almost 50% of those deaths occurring outside the hospital. Roughly 10% of the population in Western Europe and the US are already diagnosed with some form of a heart condition and a fast-growing middle class and changing diets in Southeast Asia has resulted in a corresponding rise in cardiovascular disease. That percentage only increases with age (up to 30% for those older than 65), which presents an ever-increasing cost burden for our aging population.
Patients suffering from cardiovascular diseases live under the high risk of a heart attack, but without any means to monitor their heart at home and receive real-time advice, they make therapy decisions on their own. Unfortunately, those decisions very often end up being very costly, both literally and figuratively.
The costs of cardiovascular disease are already staggering; in the UK, the healthcare costs of CVDs are already around GBP 9 billion per year and increases to GBP 19 billion annually when viewing the costs to the entire economy. In the US, the situation is even more drastic - costs for cardiovascular diseases are expected to exceed USD 1.1 trillion by the year 2035!
THE CHALLENGE
In many global markets, cardiovascular costs are mostly paid by the health and life insurers, of which 40% of the costs are caused by unscheduled care - an increasingly uncontrollable cost to insurers. The industry mitigates the high risk of cardiovascular patients by either avoiding it completely, or by charging very high premiums to minimize the exposure as much as possible. This blanket view of underwriting cardiovascular risk means a large portion of the population is either uninsured; those that are insured, still have to manage the burden of high premiums and out-of-pocket costs. Furthermore, patients don’t feel protected and satisfied, and have a very low opinion of the insurers.
Data collection can make all the difference in the realm of prevention and disease management. A recent Accenture survey shows that people (88%) are already inclined to share the data from their various connected devices with healthcare professionals, and 72% are fine with their health insurers having that information as well. Consumers already understand it’s in their clear interest to do so.
SOLUTION
vHealth Lab is a spin-off of a private university clinic in Croatia specializing in cardiovascular diseases. We support cardiovascular patients to better manage their health by bringing ECG to people’s home and empowering patients to monitor their heart anytime, anywhere and make objective, evidence-based decisions about their therapy. With our solution, health and life insurers can lower the risk and costs of their customers with cardiovascular diseases, as well as those that are at risk of developing them.
Remote patient monitoring of cardiac patients has already demonstrated many benefits, both for the patients and the insurers. Studies have shown the decrease in mortality as high as 35% which, for example, means the increase of life expectancy of life insurance policyholders. The key benefit of remote patient sensoring is the fast (real-time) reaction in critical cases, when a person is really having a heart attack and needs to get to the doctor as soon as possible.
Another key benefit is the improved pre-hospital decisions; this can reduce the number of ER visits by more than 50%, and hospital visits by more than 35%, as there are cases when the visits are really not necessary. Even if the patients had to be admitted to the hospital, using a remote patient monitoring service after discharge can reduce hospital readmissions up to 51%. In all these cases, savings of time and money are significant. And, in numerous cases, it literally saves lives.
PRODUCT AND PRICING
Our AI-powered platform for remote monitoring, combined with remote ECG devices and a mobile app for end customers, allows for real-time diagnosis and monitoring and provides recommendations to act. The ability to monitor these recommendations allow insurers to create insurance products that adapt and evolve according to customers’ changing needs.
Unlike existing pricing insurance models based on large demographic cohorts, our AI-powered platform can help insurance companies create better risk assessments and more personalized offers that, based on the individual’s behavior, can be adapted and changed over time. We currently have over 20 years of patient data from our cardiovascular specialty clinic, plus extensive data from Spain, France and Portugal in cooperation with a Spanish-based telemedicine center. With the continual collection of new patient data through the vHealth Lab platform, we can observe trends and apply predictive modeling techniques based on data received from ECG devices and historical data from our hospital.
With access to our platform, individuals previously deemed uninsurable may, in fact, now be insurable as improved customer risk management via the use of ECG devices and improved real-time data to insurers improves the ability to underwrite previously uninsurable risks. For all customers, adhering to the service and receiving regular check-ups, creates the potential of reduced premiums over time.
CLAIMS
Real-time diagnosis, monitoring and recommendations reduces risk and claims costs. Furthermore, reduced visits to doctors and hospitals helps reduce their overhead costs and manage patient care on a more efficient level.
CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT
By incentivizing customers to use the service to better manage their own health, insurers become active participants in their customers’ lives. Our data platform has the potential to better predict the risks of individuals developing acute conditions, based on their current conditions and input on past information. This risk prediction can even create alerts and prevent their occurrence.
Our AI-powered platform can help provide customers with valuable insights and recommendations and help lead them towards other insurance products that support a healthy lifestyle. It also supports any insurance company’s goals creating a customer-engagement platform that helps users identify and understand risks so they can better navigate critical life events.