Vitalic Health

Great piece Michelle Hoy -it's hard to fully appreciate the impact of agism in healthcare as the term can be abstract, but you've done a great job of providing easy to understand issues created by ageism as well as their direct costs.

As Vitalic continues to grow and make our mark on providing desperately needed geriatric-informed behavioral health to the aging adult population, we are thrilled to welcome Dr. Charlotte Yeh to our Advisory board. As you can see from her impressive work and bio below, Dr. Yeh has been an innovator and advocate for this population over the years with her last role serving as the Chief Medical Officer of AARP. We're grateful and inspired by your work, and the expertise that you'll be providing to Vitalic in our mission. Welcome Dr. Yeh! Bio: Dr. Yeh is a passionate advocate for healthcare transformation and healthy aging. Her career has spanned the industry: providers, payers, tech companies, nonprofits, and the government. Roles have included Chief Medical Officer, AARP Services Inc.; Regional Administrator, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; and emergency department chief. Dr. Yeh received an MD from Northwestern University Medical School. She has extensive board experience and has garnered many honors for her work.

🎉 Exciting News: Tim Blevins Joins Vitalic Health's Advisory Board! We're thrilled to welcome Timothy L. Blevins to our advisory board! With over 30 years of healthcare leadership experience, Tim brings unparalleled expertise in behavioral health innovation and healthcare delivery systems. Tim is a recognized national subject matter expert in Behavioral Health Digital/Technology Innovation and has shaped clinical and commercialization strategies for industry giants including Aetna, Cigna, Blue Cross/Blue Shield Rhode Island, and most recently served as Senior Vice President, Employer Channel with Optum Behavioral Health. As founder of Blevins Counseling & Consulting, Tim continues to drive innovation in the healthcare space, making him an invaluable addition to our team as we revolutionize mental health services for Medicare Advantage plan members. Tim's extensive experience with major health insurers and deep understanding of behavioral health systems will be instrumental in helping us expand our specialized geriatric-psychiatry care model. His background in developing innovative healthcare delivery systems aligns perfectly with our mission to improve aging adults' mental well-being while reducing total cost of care through proactively delivered services. We're excited about the insights and direction he'll provide as we continue to grow and innovate in serving the unique mental health needs of older adults. #GeriatricMentalHealth #MedicareAdvantage #BehavioralHealth #DigitalHealth #SeniorCare

Vitalic is excited to announce that Carol L. Alter, MD has joined our advisory board. Dr. Alter, is the Executive Associate Chair, and Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Texas-Austin, Dell Medical School. She has over 30 years experience as a consult-liaison psychiatrist and expertise in integration of behavioral and physical healthcare and value based care delivery. Her leadership and experience in research regarding these topics, as well as implementing a number of collaborative care/integrated behavioral health programs across both public and private settings will be instrumental in our mission to bring much needed geriatric psychiatry and behavioral health to the aging adult population. Welcome Carol, we're glad your with us!

All the recent AI advancements are exciting, and we've been thoughtfully incorporating them into our workflows and core product at Vitalic Health. As we evaluate vertical AI tools, it's fascinating to see how new technology is changing everyone's perception of our space's Idea Maze – what features matter and where products fit in the competitive landscape. Andrew Chen's piece on the Growth Maze resonated. It just reinforces how crucial it is for Product to work in lockstep with GTM, Clinical, and other teams as we leverage new technology to find the right customers and patients. We're spending a lot of time thinking about innovative ways to reach more patients and get them the care they need. The opportunity isn't just in the technology - it's in reimagining care delivery as we find traction, grow, and scale. https://lnkd.in/g3MVBNgR https://lnkd.in/gZdnxTuR

February is Heart Health Month, and here's a statistic that should make us all pause: Depression increases cardiovascular costs by 15-53% in older adults. This isn't just about dollars - it's about lives. The connection between heart health and mental health in older adults creates a critical cycle: -Depression can lead to poor medication adherence and lifestyle choices that impact heart health -Heart conditions can trigger or worsen depression and anxiety -The combination dramatically increases healthcare utilization and costs -Traditional care models treat these conditions in silos, missing crucial opportunities for intervention A recent study showed that 1/3 of older adults with chronic conditions have undiagnosed depression that standard screenings miss. For heart health, this is a critical gap we must address. This Heart Health Month, let's remember: Taking care of the heart means caring for the mind. They're inseparable, especially for our older adult population. #HeartHealth #MentalHealth #HealthyAging #HealthcareInnovation #CardiovascularHealth #BehavioralHealth #vitalichealth

Interesting research out of Health Affairs this month covered by MedCentral showing, "Enrollment Increased Visits To Primary Care Providers But Not Mental Health Care Providers." Yet, as reported recently in Behavioral Health Business, "Half of Older Adults Say Thier Providers Don't Ask About their Mental Health". Seems to me this growing population isn't getting the behavioral care or even attention they need. As revealed in a well known study out of Yale, Ageism in healthcare costs the U.S. $63B a year. Too often, our healthcare community assumes behavioral conditions such as depression are simply a part of the aging process -leading to what I believe is the reason why providers often aren't asking thier patients about thier mental health. We will continue to pay, as defined by member satisfaction, well being and financially, until we begin to acknowledge this and provide the aging adult population with the care they need and deserve. https://lnkd.in/d39FDBAS https://lnkd.in/dTU62hUq https://lnkd.in/dpGtGDUr

We're thrilled that Jules Rosen is starting as our CMO, and bringing his expertise to helping aging adults find access to behavioral health treatment!

I began at Vitalic with some preconceived notions – I thought building digital health products for aging adults would be fairly easy, and I could just lean on my years of experience in product. “Just follow accessibility best practices, use bigger fonts, increase contrast ratios, simplify the copy and UI. How hard could it be?” Turns out, pretty hard. The past few months have really reshaped how I think about inclusive product design: • “Digital-first” isn’t always the answer. A portion of our users don’t have smartphones or computers, and many still rely on landlines. Building “accessible” web and mobile apps isn’t enough when some of your users aren’t even online. • There’s no such thing as a “typical senior user”. The 65+ demographic is not homogenous – it spans multiple generations, tech comfort levels, and needs, in fact, it is the most diverse age group. For every older adult that doesn’t have online access, there are thousands of tech-savvy folks turning 65 every day. • Caregivers are an important (yet often overlooked) user to design for, as many of our older adults rely on them for care coordination and delivery. They are a “proxy” for our end users, and supporting them ends up directly benefiting our patients. In this way, we need to expand our thinking from building directly for patients, to thinking about how we include others they depend on. I’m spending time thinking through how our product can “meet patients where they’re at” – beyond web and mobile interfaces. Many patients are used to modalities like chat. And like many of us in product, I’m excited about advances in generative AI, which could allow us to facilitate care in many other unique ways. One of the main reasons I’m passionate about our work at Vitalic is that we are designing experiences and care for aging adults from the ground up, not repurposing a general application. I’m convinced this will drive the best outcomes for our patients and cost savings for our customers. #Product #ProductManagement #InclusiveDesign #Medicare #MedicareAdvantage #DigitalHealth #HealthTech #VitalicHealth #Vitalic

Insightful commentary on why there's a pressing need to help aging adults – from our head of clinical ops, Michelle Hoy