Directing Women To the Right Menopause-Specific Care for Them
Ann Garnier, founder and CEO of Midday, an app launched in 2022 that incorporates Mayo Clinic’s virtual care, artificial intelligence and wearables, puts it this way: “Technology is imperative.”
A seemingly benign menopausal irritant such as hot flashes can evolve into a life-threatening chronic condition, Garnier says.
“If you are having hot flashes, your sleep is disturbed, which leaves you tired. As a result, you don’t exercise, you eat more, and you feel depressed,” she says. Depression is directly linked to an increase in heart disease, which is a leading cause of death for women.
For this reason, connecting people seamlessly with much-needed menopause care is powerful.
Midday’s Amazon Web Services–compliant app enables direct communication with health coaches and physicians via both chat and Zoom. Subscribers access Midday via an online portal or iOS app, and can choose to track vitals such as sleep, heart rate and body temperature for a fuller picture with wearable devices. AI and machine learning then generate predictive, preventive, patient-specific guidance.
LEARN MORE: How virtual care solutions are addressing rural healthcare challenges.
Broadening Access to Better Menopause Care
At Northwell Health, benefits-enrolled employees and their spouses have access to Upliv, a menopause-focused virtual care platform launched in 2022.
“We noticed an opportunity to help healthcare organizations more holistically support the health of their female employees, especially with the issue of burnout and retention following the pandemic,” says Upliv CEO Allison Schoeneck.
Patients can contact their self-selected care team — which includes a doctor or nurse practitioner and a health coach — via chat, phone, text or email. The web-based platform employs a combination of proprietary, patient-focused front-end software and off-the-shelf messaging, scheduling and e-prescribing solutions to offer its users video consults, prescription and treatment paths, and a robust library with AI-powered content delivery.
Because of its success at Northwell, Upliv is currently expanding its offerings to other employers.
DIVE DEEPER: How AI is making healthcare smarter.
What Happens When Preventive Care Goes Virtual?
Aetna recently added virtual menopause clinic Gennev to its nationwide in-network healthcare offerings. Founded in 2016 by CEO Jill Angelo, Gennev provides patients with access to physicians, dieticians and mental health providers via its Google Cloud–based telehealth web platform.
Patients see specialists an average of seven times per year via Microsoft Teams–based video calls, with dietician health coaches available between sessions via Ring Central text messaging.
“Menopause care is perfect for telehealth because so much of it is a conversation between patient and provider,” Angelo says.
Another benefit: It is low-cost preventive care rather than high-cost acute care.
“Women in menopause with unaddressed symptoms increase healthcare costs by 47 percent,” Angelo adds. “Our care model costs an insurance plan $500 to $700 annually compared with $1,200 for standard in-person care.”
