Episode #92: ‘How COVID-19 is Reframing Healthcare in America’ with Dr. Jennifer Schneider, President of Livongo

Dear Friends & Colleagues,

On Friday March 27th 2020, I launched a limited podcast series addressing how the COVID-19 pandemic is reframing American healthcare.  You can find the introduction episode here.  In this series, I’ll be interviewing future-facing, courageous healthcare leaders and entrepreneurs – asking two questions:

(1) How is the COVID-19 pandemic immediately changing the way you’re delivering healthcare?   (2) How will COVID-19 reframe American healthcare for years to come?

Our guest this week is Dr. Jennifer Schneider, the President of Livongo.  Dr. Schneider previously served as the company’s Chief Medical Officer and is also the author of “Decoding Health Signals: Silicon Valley’s Consumer-First Approach to a New Era of Health.” Livongo is a cutting-edge digital health company that uses advanced remote patient monitoring and machine-learning technologies to empower people with chronic conditions to live healthier lives.  You can hear an initial interview I recorded with Dr. Schneider for episode #72 (Oct 23, 2019) on ‘Creating a New Healthcare’.

In this interview, we’ll discuss a number of topics including:

• The major modalities and approach that Livongo uses to empower patients and providers
• The specific chronic medical conditions that Livongo is currently managing
• How Livongo’s approach greatly advances the patient care experience as well as health outcomes – and provides much more customized, personalized care than the current approaches to chronic disease management
• How Livongo is being deployed to help keep patients with chronic disease safely at home, and away from healthcare facilities during this COVID-19 era

Livongo has, for years, been developing a highly sophisticated approach to chronic disease management that has been used by hundreds of healthcare systems and hundreds of thousands of individuals. The unique approach allows patients to receive state-of-the-art chronic disease management without having to be seen in person. What is amazing and elegant about their applications is that it allows for greatly enhanced customization and personalization while also providing immediate responsiveness to remotely monitored biometric signals and personal health needs.  So, care is delivered continuously – when and where the patient needs it, as opposed to the reactive and episodic care provided through the current mode of medical office visits and care management programs.

Livongo has been on a trajectory to deliver the type of care that is desperately needed at this point in time, during the COVID-19 pandemic. It enables patients with chronic conditions and complex chronic conditions to be cared for at home and in a highly efficient manner that also reduces the amount of provider time required. This is life saving, as patients with pre-existing chronic conditions are most likely to become infected from the SARS-COV-2 virus, and to have greater morbidities, higher risk of hospitalization, and increased mortality. It’s also life saving for the healthcare system, as the need for provider time is greatly reduced through the use of automated, machine learning technologies.

The needs of our healthcare system – and the healthcare market – have caught up with the trajectory that Livongo has been on. I suspect that, once providers and healthcare systems begin to appreciate what Livongo has to offer, we will see this, and similar digital health offerings, become ubiquitous and standard of care for individuals with chronic medical conditions.

These are unprecedented times, so I hope you find valuable information, guidance, and inspiration in listening to these experts and entrepreneurs share how they are adapting to this pandemic (in real time); and how they’re thinking about and planning for the future.

Until next time, be safe and be well,
Zeev Neuwirth MD