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 Earlier this year, Tilenius' company launched Vida, a mobile app
that lets patients consult with a team of professionals, including
doctors, nurses and nutritionists, from their smartphone. The
program costs $15 a week and includes reminders to take medication.
Caregivers and family members can request access to the app to keep
up to date with a patient's progress.
Tilenius said her father, who eventually died from heart disease,
could not afford regular medical consultations that could have
helped him lose weight and manage stress.
"There was a total lack of resources on my parents' side," Tilenius
said in an interview.
A growing number of high-level Silicon Valley executives from the
"sandwich generation” - those who are simultaneously caring for
children and parents - have left their jobs to launch mobile and
digital health startups. In interviews with Reuters, many say they
have been prompted by their experience of helping aging parents with
one or more chronic conditions, and the discovery of how the U.S.
healthcare system fails to serve them.
Some say they are finding both customers and partners in the large
technology employers where they once worked.
INFLUX OF SILICON VALLEY EXECS
After a similar experience caring for an ailing parent, fellow
Google employee Munjal Shah left the company in October 2011 to
develop an app called Hi.Q, which aims to improve people's health
knowledge. Groupon Inc's former product development chief, Suneel
Gupta, quit his job in December 2012 to start a nutrition app called
Rise and support people like his parents, who struggled with
diabetes, cancer and obesity.
Caring.com, a community forum and information provider for
caregivers, was started by Andy Cohen, who said he was inspired to
leave his job as a vice president at SuccessFactors after his
parents fell ill. SuccessFactors, which makes talent management
software, was acquired by SAP SE in 2011.
The infusion of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs into healthcare is
already making an impact by advancing the "triple aim of better care
at lower cost, with better service," said Aneesh Chopra, the former
chief technology officer for the United States and now the
co-founder of a startup called Hunch Analytics.
In the past, it had been tough to recruit talent from the largest
tech companies to tackle healthcare issues, said Missy Krasner,
managing director for health and life sciences for Box, a cloud
computing company.
"The view is that health is very insular and regulated," said
Krasner, who previously worked at Google Health.
The division aimed to store personal health records but shut down in
2012 after it failed to gain much traction.
Since 2012, Google has pushed more deeply into health and aging with
wearable tracking devices. It backs a biotech initiative called
Calico to research and potentially combat diseases the afflict the
elderly, in partnership with drugmaker AbbVie Inc. Apple Inc has
also announced plans to move into healthcare, with an initial focus
on fitness and wellness.
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EXTENDING BENEFITS
For engineers and entrepreneurs looking for a new market to serve,
caring for an aging parent can open their eyes to the dysfunction in
healthcare, said Bryan Roberts, a health-technology-focused partner
at Venrock.
Interest in backing such projects has grown. In June,
funding for digital health companies had reached a record $2.3
billion, surpassing the previous total of $1.9 billion for 2013,
according to venture firm Rock Health.
Tech companies are also exploring ways to offer their robust health
benefits to employees’ extended families, including parents, as a
retention tool in a competitive market for hiring.
Twitter Inc said it let employees add one additional person to their
health plan - typically a parent – in 2014. For the coming year,
Twitter will cover family, dependents and domestic partners, a
spokesman said. Those who extended benefits to parents in 2014 would
be grandfathered in from the previous policy.
Two sources familiar with companies' HR and benefits plans, who
asked to remain anonymous, said Facebook Inc's benefits team is also
exploring extending health perks to employees' parents to include
more virtual medical services than what is available on the
government's Medicare program for the elderly.
Facebook said it provides benefits for employees at all life stages.
The newest startups, including Vida, are gleaning business and
talent from the companies they left. Tilenius said large employers
are interested in offering her app to employees and their parents.
Digital health startup Grand Rounds Health connects patients with
medical second opinions. Chief Executive Officer Owen Tripp, a
serial tech entrepreneur, cites unexpected demand from benefits
managers at tech companies for the service, which can be extended to
employees’ parents.
Grand Rounds and Vida declined to name specific customers as the
deals are still in the works.
"Employees need ways to stay in the loop about their parents’ care,"
said Tripp. "For employers, it's often about keeping people in the
job for longer."
(Editing by Michele Gershberg, Edwin Chan and Matthew Lewis)
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