Season 3 Episode 7 (26): ViVE Series #4 - Spect and Care3

We have a unique and especially important episode of the Treat Us Right Podcast for you. We feature Spect which helps diabetes patients retain their vision through early diagnosis of diabetes retinopathy.

Visit Spect at www.getspect.com.

And we interview our founder & CEO David Williams of Care3.

Visit Care3 at www.care3.co.

Episode Summary

In this podcast episode, Michael Leung, COO of Spect discusses the low rate of annual eye exams among patients with diabetes compared to other screening programs. SPECT is a company that provides accessible eye care through a platform that allows healthcare workers to perform eye screenings anywhere. The second part of the podcast features an interview with David Williams, the CEO of Care3, a digital health equity company. Care3 helps individuals and their families manage complex health situations by providing personalized care plans and facilitating communication and task management. Care3 aims to promote health equity by addressing the non-medical factors that impact health outcomes and providing equal access to healthcare.

Episode Transcript

(Transcript is automated)

Michael Leung (00:06):

Patients with diabetes are supposed to get their eye screen once a year. Unfortunately, we know that only about 20 to 30% of 'em do get that annual eye exam, which is very low when you compare it to other annual screening programs such as breast cancer and colon cancer, which stand around 70 to 80%.

David Williams (00:25):

Welcome to the Treat Us Right podcast everyone. David Williams, your host, and CEO of Care. Three. We're back with another great episode springing out from the Vibe Conference recently in Los Angeles. If you know somebody with diabetes and we all do, the first company we feature is really important and they're called SPECT and their founder and COO, Michael Young is here with us. Following Michael, we are going to talk about Care three, so get ready. This is really a really important episode.

David Williams (01:13):

Treat us right Listeners, we have another great, great interview here from the Vibe Conference. Please tell our audience who you are and about your company.

Michael Leung (01:26):

All right, thank you. So I'm Michael Leung. I'm one of the co-founders and COO of Spec Spec. We deliver eyecare anywhere, and so what we've created is an eyecare platform. There's both hardware and software that would enable our frontline healthcare workers. So whether that's a medical assistant, a nurse practitioner or paramedic to pick up the device and to perform eye screenings wherever they are, whether it's in the office, at home or on the street.

David Williams (01:57):

Oh, that's great. That's really improving accessibility here. Correct?

Michael Leung (02:00):

Absolutely. And in fact, actually we just did an eye exam five minutes ago here at the conference.

David Williams (02:07):

Oh, that is awesome. So it sounds like this accessibility is a big part of your story. How would you say that is working to improve health equity?

Michael Leung (02:15):

Yeah, great question. So we started the company about six years ago now. My co-founders are ophthalmologists by training and they'd see a lot of patients show up to their office with pretty late stage eye disease where they would show up to the doctor's office and be like, Hey doctor, I'm seeing blurry, I'm seeing red. And the question was always like, how do we catch these patients even three months, six months earlier when they don't have any symptoms of vision loss? That's really when we want to catch these patients to be able to treat them and prevent them from getting there. Looking at health equality and health equity, it's about getting that access everywhere. Right.

David Williams (02:54):

You talk about eyecare anywhere. Are your services today national, they geographically restricted today? How can somebody access those services right now?

Michael Leung (03:05):

Yeah, it's a great question. We are national. We're available in all across the United States to get access, ask your family doctor, ask your family practitioner about spect. We are targeting initially diabetic retinopathy, right? So patients with diabetes are supposed to get their eye screened once a year. Unfortunately, we know that only about 20 to 30% of 'em do get that annual eye exam, which is very low when you compare it to other annual screening programs such as breast cancer and colon cancer, which stand around 70 to 80%. And a lot of the questions that we've asked around in that space were because of access, not being able to access the specialists. Specialists are located in the big cities, they're not taking you appointments, but we know that these patients, patient diabetes, they go and get their annual exams done and they'll do blood work, they'll do blood pressure check, and so that's just one of the other things that the doctors can add under their tool belt is to do the eye exam as well.

David Williams (04:09):

That's great. Everybody. Did you hear him say This is an opportunity to advocate for yourself, ask them about spec to make sure you get that annual eye exam because you can get a much better experience and this is an opportunity again, to advocate for yourself. What challenges are you facing right now and how are you overcoming them?

Michael Leung (04:32):

Yes. A lot of challenges is around just education and awareness, so that's one of the big things that we're focusing on today at the conference is working with the American Diabetes Association is to get the word out there. A lot of patients just aren't aware that they need to get their eye exam checked every year or don't know what the repercussions of skipping these will do. And a lot of it comes down to vision loss at the end of the day, and if it's caught early, it could be treated and it can prevent it from happening.

David Williams (05:05):

That's great. That's great. Well, I want to help you in any way that I can and in so doing the Treat Us right audience needs to know how they can learn more and how they can contact you.

Michael Leung (05:19):

So to learn more, please check out our website. It's www dot get spec, so G-E-T-S-P-E-C t.com or ask your doctor about this.

David Williams (05:31):

Fantastic. We really thank you for talking to us about spect. Thanks for joining us on the Treatise Ride podcast.

Michael Leung (05:37):

Thank you very much.

David Williams (05:40):

That was an amazing, amazing session with Michael Young from spect. And now I have the pleasure, the unique pleasure of interviewing myself as part of the Vibe series. Let me welcome David Williams, CEO of Care three to the Treatise, right podcast.

Tell us who you are and about your company.

I am David Williams, Co-Founder and CEO of Care3. Care3 is the world’s first digital health equity company. Care3 helps you and your family manage complex health and care situations. With Care3, you make better decisions at home and your care providers can make personalized, unbiased treatment decisions. Unlike other digital health apps that focus on managing one condition, Care3 can be used for any condition or combination of conditions. Our lives are not siloed like the medical system where doctors specialize in one area. People experience everything all at once, so Care3 reflects the lifestyle we live.

How does Care3 promote health equity?

Great question. Covid and George Floyd’s murder made the issue of health equity mainstream. For decades, the unequal treatment and outcomes experienced by vulnerable groups was the healthcare industry’s dirty little secret. But here’s the truth: According to research, 80% of health outcomes are impacted by non-medical factors. Only 20% of health outcomes are driven by medical interventions. So our socioeconomic experiences directly impact our health. And the most vulnerable members of our society including seniors, people of color, women, and the disabled do not have equal access to healthcare and receive woefully inadequate care in the home. Those are the people we focus on. People caring for disabled persons and aging seniors are most of our clients and members today. At Care3, we have proven that health disparities can be reduced by translating caregiving experiences in the home into data for improved personal AND medical decision-making. We create the combined clinical AND non-medical information that drives health outcomes. That’s how we promote health equity. 

Our company mission is simple: we make healthcare work for everyone. 

How does Care3 work?

When we were designing the app experience, we realized that people who care for themselves (or others) had 3 main behaviors: communication, task management, and daily planning. So, logically, Care3 is a messaging app and to-do list in one. If you can send text messages, images, and videos in a group chat, you can use Care3. If you can indicate that a to-do list task was complete, you can use Care3. 

The magic of our experience is in the daily planning. Care3 customizes every person’s experience to their particular needs. We do this via our Personalization Survey. Once you sign up for Care3, you are asked to take our 5 minute Personalization Survey. We use your responses to create your Personalized Action Plan which includes the care tasks to be completed, symptoms you want tracked, and any recurring appointments you have–and how frequently they each occur.

Then Care3 delivers the reminders to complete each item each day. You simply indicate when tasks are complete and their results. Care3 takes your inputs and creates data from them. You can use this data to see trends you never noticed before and make real-time adjustments to care. You can also share this data with your doctors so they can see what’s happening at home–this data never hits the electronic medical record, and may not be medical at all–but very relevant to better health and care. Now doctors can make ultra personalized treatment decisions. Simply logging the results of your caregiving activities in Care3–work you’re already doing–you can make improved decisions at home AND your doctors can make personalized, unbiased treatment decisions. 

What challenges are you facing in growing Care3?

Getting the word out. When I show people Care3, I hear this so often: This is amazing! I wish I had this when I was in this situation–or when I was caring for my family member. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that. So we have to let people know that Care3 exists. If you are in a health or care situation, give Care3 a try. Take the Personalization Survey and have your own app to deal with everything. We’re here for you.

The other consumer problem is, these situations are so private. People don’t share these silent struggles. So people who may know about solutions, don’t have the opportunity to share them. Let’s change that. If you know someone in a health or care situation, tell them about Care3. Let them make the decision if we’re a good solution for their needs. 

On the enterprise side, we are just now starting to sell Care3 as an employee benefit to companies. We want to meet with as many HR and Benefits professionals as possible. If you know anyone working in those departments at companies, please refer them to Care3!

How can people learn more about your company and contact you directly with questions–or like you said, refer employers to Care3?

You can email me directly at david@carethree.com all spelled out. Or you can go to our website contact page at www.care3.co/contact. We will treat any personal referrals and employer referrals like gold. We appreciate you.