Hibiscus Health Is Combining the Latest Tech Tools to Transform Diabetes Health
Frustrated by a lack of effective technology to detect and reverse his own prediabetes, serial entrepreneur and two-time Health Transformer Kavi Misri decided to build the solution himself.
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Origin Story
By the time Kavi Misri was three years old, he had already had two open-heart surgeries for a congenital heart defect. Because of that, he’s at an increased risk for other health conditions. When Misri was working on his first healthcare startup, Rose Health, he thought he was taking care of himself. After the acquisition of Rose Health, a digital platform for mental health, he finally took the chance to see his doctor for a physical.
At Misri’s physical exam, he found out that he was prediabetic. “I had no idea what prediabetes was,” he says. His grandfather had passed away from Type 2 diabetes, and the diagnosis “was a bit alarming and an awakening moment,” says Misri.
The exam results led him on a journey of self-care and eventually a new business venture — Hibiscus Health — a comprehensive digital and clinical care platform that leverages cutting-edge technology for the early detection, prevention, and management of metabolic conditions, including diabetes, hypertension, and obesity.
“Almost 40 million American adults currently have diabetes. But 96 million have prediabetes, and eight in 10 of those don’t even know they have it,” said Misri, just like he didn’t. “Prediabetes has no symptoms and lurks silently. If untreated, 70% of those will go on to develop Type 2 diabetes,” said Misri.
He was baffled by the fact that he had visited his primary care doctor more than 15 times in that same five-year period for one-off conditions like a cough or a vaccine, and yet his prediabetes was not detected. “I learned that prediabetes posed no major symptoms, and its only form of detection was through a metabolic blood test panel, which is traditionally done during a routine physical exam.”
He thought there had to be a better way to identify symptoms early, so he built a team and got to work. He was able to combine digital health with clinical care to identify patients at risk using facial blood flow, thereby completely removing the barriers that exist with getting one’s metabolic blood panel completed, which would typically be scheduling a physical with a primary care doctor (which sometimes takes months) and then fasting and going to a lab diagnostic service like LabCorp or Quest to get blood drawn (which many people do not complete because of their busy schedules and the inconvenience).
He also built a dedicated clinical care team supported by AI that reaches out to individuals flagged for metabolic conditions and crafts personalized care plans for each patient. A digital dashboard aggregates data from patient inputs, enabling Hibiscus’ clinicians to offer tailored guidance and support. With a wealth of educational content, Hibiscus Health empowers patients to understand their health better and make more informed decisions about their eating habits and lifestyles.
The Challenge
Before Hibiscus Health, Misri was managing his prediabetes through a regime that involved nutritionists, meal tracking, lifestyle changes, and fitness. This was a challenging task. “It was difficult to navigate the entire ecosystem to get the quality care I needed,” says Misri. Finding a nutritionist who accepted his insurance, identifying the right guidance for lifestyle changes, being held accountable for his changes, and juggling different apps left him frustrated. “I realized there should be less friction in managing my care and more technology to augment the process,” says Misri. “I lived the experience, and I decided I needed to make this happen and build a company that brought in a comprehensive solution of care with a focus on patient engagement and empowerment for a seamless care journey,” says Misri.
The problem of prediabetes and the struggle to manage it effectively is a challenge that Misri shares with many others around the world. Nationally, 96 million Americans have prediabetes. “80% are walking around not knowing they are prediabetic, and 70% of them will develop diabetes if it’s not treated,” says Misri.
What They Built: A Diabetes Revolution
Misri’s solution is a comprehensive digital and clinical care platform that functions like a one-stop shop for detecting and managing metabolic conditions. It’s forward-looking — to the point of feeling futuristic — with its seamless integration of the latest technological developments. One novel feature is a 30-second facial scan done through one’s phone or webcam that detects about 35 different vitals. It can calculate blood pressure, determine cholesterol levels, and assess cardiovascular and stroke risks, eliminating the need for a doctor’s visit to determine one’s A1C score, the metric used to diagnose prediabetes and diabetes. “I wanted to lower the barriers for screening of metabolic conditions,” says Misri. “Existing solutions start at the state of diagnosis or later in the process. We’re able to catch it earlier on by doing this screening.”
If a patient is flagged for prediabetes or diabetes, a clinical care team will reach out to the individual. “We provide comprehensive care, which is the digital solution in addition to clinical care,” says Misri. The team includes registered dieticians and primary care physicians, supported by artificial intelligence. Using AI, the team runs about 1,000 simulations on the patient to identify an appropriate care plan based on demographics, lifestyle, activity, food sensitivities, motivations, etc. As part of this process, a digital twin of the patient is created. “It’s a gamification feature and a clinical assessment tool,” says Misri. “The digital twin is a benchmark and shows the progress of care. We want to see the patient and the digital twin moving in parallel, and if they’re not, our clinical team intervenes and reassess the patient’s care plan.”
Since adjusting one’s diet is usually a critical component of metabolic care, Hibiscus Health has innovative dietary features to make it easier to track food consumption and make necessary changes. When Misri used a food app to monitor his prediabetes, he was frustrated by the lack of diversity in the meal suggestions. To solve this problem, Hibiscus Health purchased about four million recipes from leading nutrition sources. “Now we’re able to serve different populations,” says Misri. Users can find recipes from Chinese to Mexican food, and there’s even a feature where AI can identify macronutrients that one is eating from an actual photo of their meal. A ChatGPT feature can populate an Instacart with the necessary ingredients for the user’s meal plans. “We’re providing customized care plans at scale,” says Misri, who boasts that his team at Hibiscus Health — composed entirely of people of color or women — caters to the considerations of patients from various cultures and viewpoints.
A digital dashboard compiles all of the data collected from each patient, including food consumption, health metrics, and survey answers about mood and level of motivation. “Two minutes before a patient is seen, a clinician can go through the dashboard to see months’ worth of data,” says Misri. Providers can offer guidance and problem-solve barriers to achieving healthcare goals in discussion with the patient. In addition, a patient portal provides over 1,000 pieces of content in articles, audio recordings, and videos that educate patients about various topics ranging from how sugar or gluten works in the body to entire modules on diabetes prevention.
Where They Are in the Process: A Collaborative Commitment
To bring Hibiscus Health to patients, the company is targeting self-funded employers and payors who would purchase Hibiscus Health as an employee benefit or member benefit. Misri believes if a company invests in a service that provides early detection of metabolic conditions, they will save money in the long run. To prove his point, Misri points to a statistic: healthcare costs for a healthy employee average $7,000 per year, whereas the cost of an employee with diabetes averages $20,000 per year. “If we’re able to identify a patient at the prediabetes stage or as the disease progresses and get them to adopt the right lifestyle choices and engage with the platform, we’re preventing that overall decompensation that happens down the line,” says Misri.
In their initial cohorts, the results have been promising. 91% of users reported engaging in more physical activity weekly and having an increased motivation to reach their health goals. 89% reported an improved mood and 83% lost at least two pounds within a month. 78% reported better sleep and increased energy.
Our Take: A Vital Partner in Health Transformation
The numbers around diabetes are astronomical and only grow higher each day. Globally, over 500 million people live with the disease. This figure is expected to rise to 783 million by 2045. In this monumental challenge, Hibiscus Health emerges as a transformative force. This smart solution combines the latest technological advances in a digital platform that holistically addresses the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of metabolic conditions to drive engagement and improved patient outcomes. Its digital nature removes barriers to access, allowing more people in diverse geographies to benefit from its services. Hibiscus Health is a nimble, forward-looking solution to an ever-expanding health crisis, and we’re enthusiastic to partner with the venture.
We’re also excited to back Kavi Misri because he’s a two-time Health Transformer, having joined the community previously with Rose Health. Now he and his team are back as part of StartUp Health’s Type 1 Diabetes Moonshot.
We know Misri, his passion for health, and how we can best support him and his team. That kind of continuity turns a normal cohort of startups into a truly collaborative community of mission-aligned people who can accelerate progress.
→ Connect with Hibiscus Health via email
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Published: Jan 18, 2024