nir-vana innovation network

Our client is a Canadian gastroenterologist and dietitian developed digital platform providing equitable access and effective lifestyle therapies for patients with digestive disease early in the patient journey. Their channel partners include pharmaceutical companies, pharmacies and distributors, and healthcare organizations and professionals. In the United States they offer a direct to patient program. The solution includes: proprietary diets, physical activity, yoga, breathing and mindfulness, and behaviour change programs combined with coaching and specialist support. Our client’s digital platform application provides evidence-based solutions to help manage life-altering chronic digestive diseases (36 percent of the population) including Crohn’s Disease, Ulcerative Colitis, Inflammatory Arthritis, Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, Irritable Bowel Syndrome and those who want to improve their gut microbiome. It is sold using a B2B subscription model to pharmaceutical companies, pharmacies, pharmaceutical distributors, healthcare professionals and patient foundations. These companies cover the subscription cost so the solution is provided to the patient at no cost. Our client’s solution includes proprietary diets based on the founders and others research, physical activity, yoga, breathing and mindfulness specific to different conditions, and behaviour change programs based in cognitive behaviour therapy combined with coaching and health professional support. Customers that use the solution can create an account and use the mobile application to create a program for their specific disease, symptoms, and health goals based on the scores they receive on validated surveys for disease severity, physical activity minutes, sitting time, screentime, stress, sleep, and overall wellbeing (depression and anxiety risk). The coaches and healthcare professionals access the patient’s self-reported data securely using the web application and provide consultation via chat (instant messaging) and face-to-face video conferencing and education programs with patients. Our client’s team includes three researchers with over 300 scientific publications, numerous books on treating digestive disease, and millions of dollars in research funding to study the effects of lifestyle change on the progression and symptoms of digestive disease. They are currently working on identifying a signature in patients with Crohn’s disease that would predict response to diet. This team also published the world’s first food guide for patients with inflammatory bowel disease in Lancet Gastroenterology in 2021. Our client is looking for partners who would be interested in investing in their solution to expand it to other countries. This would require changing content to be culturally appropriate and/or translated, and developing teams with expertise in digestive disease in each country.