Since its founding 15 years ago, Virgin Pulse has steadily added to the web of partners available through its Homebase for Health platform. The healthcare app enables users to tap and interact to access more than 70 specialty products, including a broad range of high-impact health and wellbeing programs. Recently, the company announced five new partners, including Fidelity Investments and SleepFit, covering such areas as caregiver support, digestive health, sleep habits, and financial wellbeing.
According to Virgin Pulse CEO Chris Michalak, it’s all part of the company’s goal of serving as a one-stop-shop for all things health, wellbeing and navigation for employers and their workers and members.
Virgin Pulse, which currently employs more than 2,000 employees, moved global headquarters to Providence from Framingham, Massachusetts in November 2017. The company serves 6,200 clients across the globe, and through those clients, support over 150 million users in more than 190 countries.
Michalak, who joined last year, said the past 12 months were especially busy for the Providence-based company.
“Virgin Pulse is in the behavior-change business, which is how we are achieving our mission of changing lives for good,” Michalak said. According to the CEO, just last year, 64% of engaged members used Virgin Pulse daily, and members on average engaged more than six times daily. That resulted in 73% of users developing positive daily habits due to Virgin Pulse, the company claims.
“In 2021, in addition to my appointment, we had several new executives join to help the company scale and support market interest,” Michalak said. “We also added dozens of partner solutions to our platform to provide employers and health organizations with options for addressing users’ most pressing health and wellbeing needs.”
New health partners
The most recent batch of companies to join its network include Cariloop, which focuses on caregiver support; Digbi Health, which concentrates on digestive health; SleepFit, which targets adult sleep improvement; SleepWellBaby, which supports parents with infants; and Fidelity Investments, which offers financial tools.
The companies represent a wide range of tech, from Cariloop, an app that pairs families with a licensed or certified Care Coach through its cloud-based platform to Digbi Health, which uses AI to harness genetic, gut microbiome, clinical, lifestyle, and behavioral signals to deliver tailored whole-person care. That can mean anything from food as medicine, behavioral coaching support, remote monitoring, and MD-connected care coordination.
Last year, Michalak said, Virgin Pulse also went through with the acquisition of two companies — Advanced Plan for Health (APH) and Welltok – adding data, predictive analytics, and other technologies that “supercharge their ability to reach and engage targeted populations and drive better outcomes.”
According to Jeff Yoshimura, Virgin Pulse’s EVP for product and innovation, the newest additions to the company’s partner pool were chosen after studying industry trends and consumer demand to address areas of growing importance.
“With this most recent round of new partners focused on caregiver support, digestive health, sleep habits for adults and infants, and financial wellbeing,” he said. “In late April, we announced partners related to mental health, pain management, prescription transparency, and second opinions. Our partner ecosystem covers a wide range of areas, enabling clients to select the options that will work best for their populations and drive meaningful outcomes.”
For instance, Yoshimura said, proactive management of multiple sleep disorders like sleep apnea and focus on debilitating digestive disorders and related inflammatory illnesses, together, can collectively reverse other related comorbidities that include depression, weight loss, anxiety, etc., and SleepFit, SleepWellBaby, and Digbi lead in those areas.
Michalak said he wants to see Virgin Pulse increasingly tap into new markets and capabilities, evolving to meet consumer and industry demand over the next few years.
“We will continue to invest in our digital therapeutics offerings, via both our in-house capabilities and ecosystem partners. We will also further expand VP Activate, our multi-channel communications product line that drives outcomes for our customers such as improving health plan quality and acquiring new patients for health systems,” he said. “At our annual conference in late April, Thrive Summit 2022, we introduced upgrades for our Homebase for Health platform, including a new digital front door design rooted in behavior change science, improved navigation and transparency, and expanded live services.”
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