[TT 032] food farmacy, coordinated care, free for treehouses
Hi there Thrivers,
It's an eventful week as I round out the first quarter of my program. Much to celebrate and reflect on in the space I'll have over the next week. And I look forward to using some of that time to respond to the caring notes many of you have sent in recent weeks.
With much relief, on to this week's Thriving Thursday
On a delicious technology for food farmacy
This past week I met one of the brilliant people working on Season, a "nutritious, real food as a medical prescription" company.
It's well accepted that healthy food can reduce negative outcomes for some chronic diseases (really, most ailments). Apparently, some hospitals area already doing this. That hospital saw a 20-100x return on investment and 40% decrease in death or serious complication for diabetes patient.
Insurances, in turn, are looking for ways to decrease their total cost of care. If healthy food is one such way, insurances may have a business case to cover integrative nutrition.
Definitely lots of uphill challenges to scale this idea to more locations and diseases, though this idea is amazing and I really hope the rockstar team is able to succeed on their quest of bring more healthy food to sick people.
On connecting the dots for care providers
The American healthcare system can feel very disjointed, and that becomes especially true for underserved population. Coordination of healthcare between different providers, and especially between providers and social services, can be an especially big challenge.
So it's deeply inspiring to see the work by Unite Us that has a systematic workflow to identify needs in a community, screen patients, and get them the medical and social services they need. Especially interesting that Unite Us just acquired a data analytics firm to accelerate their identification and matching.
Another company with a really fascinating model is CityBlock that coordinates care then shares cost cavings with the insurance provider.
I'm curious where this approach can be applied more focally in mental health. There are ~25,000 psychiatrists (earning on average ~$220k a year) and another ~300,000 mental health counselors (earning an outrageously low average $52000 a year). I heard recently that in North Carolina, 84% of mental health providers had just 1 or 2 providers in the practice. That's a super fragmented market and usually that means room for solving some problems.
I also think coordinating care among many different healing modalities will be critical for addiction clinics as well as psychedelic treatments. So much to learn here!
On the power of free
Give and get for free, with only a few ground rules. Sound too good to be true, but over 9 million (!!) have signed up for FreeCycle.
It's been studied by economists and there is a good writeup here. It's hard to understand, though folks are starting to test and learn, why anyone would choose to give away something to a complete stranger that could have made money.
I think it's key that, on the platform, no one can process a transaction or barter (like CriagsList). This is always free, all the time! What a brilliant way to breed pro-social behaviors by connecting with nearby neighbors that one would never otherwise meet.
On intentionally misleading food labels
Big Ag companies are lobbying food regulatory agencies to dilute the meaning of certain words. In many ways, I find this article sad and unnerving. Who can we trust then?
Oy vey
On underwater fabric sculptures
Mariko Kusumoto has incredible eye for detail (and very steady hands) as she creates shapes and textures the vaguely (or explicitly) look like under water life.
Amazing what one person can do with some tulle.
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Until next week!
~Henry