Teladoc unveils virtual care tool for cardiometabolic health

Teladoc is wading into the population health waters, with its new Cardiometabolic Health Program leveraging remote health coaching and virtual care options, the company announced today.

The tool was designed to offer virtual health and telehealth options to scale health coaching in areas of sleep, nutrition, stress and weight management, the virtual care company said. Additionally, the tool offers remote monitoring for certain clinical measures including blood lipids, blood glucose, blood pressure and nicotine exposure.

Ultimately, Teladoc said it intends the program to support better population health and focus on diabetes, hypertension and obesity prevention.

"Nutrition, activity, sleep and stress management all have an outsized impact on population health," Kelly Bliss, president of U.S. Group Health at Teledoc Health, said in a press release. "Our program comprehensively addresses these foundational pillars of cardiometabolic health because we know that’s what it takes to deliver meaningful outcomes -- both for those managing multiple conditions and those looking to avoid progression of disease."

"Conditions and their risk factors are often interconnected, and with the right tools and behavior changes, they can be prevented," Bliss added.

Teladoc said it built the program using principles developed from previous care management programs, such as its diabetes and hypertension management programs. Drawing on what Teladoc said were those programs' successes -- the diabetes program yielded remission-level A1c, and the hypertension program helped users lower blood pressure -- the company created a multichannel approach to cardiometabolic health.

Specifically, the program includes a premium subscription to Teladoc's sleep app, BetterSleep, access to a registered dietitian, outreach from health coaches, at-home testing for cardiometabolic measures, insights into patient-generated health data and integration with Teladoc's virtual primary care services.

Teladoc said this program is part of an integrated care segment strategy it has built to support chronic care management. This includes at-home testing, virtual preventive care access and weight management programs.

Sara Heath has reported news related to patient engagement and health equity since 2015.