Keas announced at Healthbeat today two new content partnerships with My Healthy Dish and Noshtopia that will help employees make wiser nutritional choices and save employers money on health care costs. 

Businesses use Keas to create and manage their workplace health programs. The system promotes healthy behavior and teamwork by rewarding people for achieving simple exercise and nutrition goals through games and social motivation. Keas’ CEO Josh Stevens said that seventy to eighty percent of health care costs are preventable, like those caused by smoking and over-eating, or conditions triggered by certain habits and behaviors. Unhealthy habits can lead to lower productivity and the business bears the brunt of these costs. Keas uses gamification to make losing weight and making healthy choices a fun, social, and mobile experience. 

“It is in employers’ best interest to motivate their employees to do the right thing,” Stevens said. “Healthcare costs are rising and every time an employee takes personal time off to visit a doctor or fill a prescription can result in $250-$500 in productivity costs. The productivity savings of health employees are huge.” 

Stevens said his goal is to provide solutions for the “99 percent of a patient’s life when they are not a patient.” Often this means supporting actions like eating more fruits and vegetables and reducing stress. Obesity-related conditions cost around $150 billion a year and a nutritious diet is a central element of overall wellness. 

Keas recently conducted a survey to track employee sentiment towards nutrition and gain insight into what it can do to improve workforce habits. The survey found that 73 percent of the U.S. workforce frequently or always reads nutrition labels, 86 percent is eating breakfast at least 5 days a week, and 94 percent is increasing the daily intake of fruits and vegetables. 63 percent believe that fast food and junk food are leading causes of obesity, and an increasing number of people are turning to home-cooking in an effort to eat healthier. 

The partnerships with My Healthy Dish and Noshtopia will help employees do things like prepare green smoothies for the morning and provide inspiration for simple-to-prepare healthy dinners.  

“These are the folks that publish best content in nutrition,” Stevens said. “They provide meal planning and recipe ideas from experts that employees can use for inspiration. We want to bring everyone together, including CFOs, HR teams, wellness experts, and employees in one central portal.”

The easier it is to integrate nutritious eating into every day life, the healthier employees will be and the less employers will have to pay. It seems like a win-win, except for, maybe, the fast food franchises.

Photo Credit: Michael O’Donnell/VentureBeat

Digital health incubator Rock Health released data today that shows an increase in funding for med-tech startups in the first quarter of 2013.

Thirty-seven health deals were valued at a total of $365 million, which is 35 percent higher than the first quarter of 2012, “suggesting that 2013 will be another record year for the digital health industry,” the blog post reads.

Rock Health cofounder Halle Tecco said the uptick in venture investment was matched by several acquisitions, including UnitedHealth Group’s buy-up of Humedica (a deal that was reportedly valued in the hundreds of millions). “The players seem to be especially heating up their M&A engines,” she said.

According to Rock Health, the largest and most notable deals of the quarter include:

• Healthcare data warehousing provider HealthCatalyst raised $41 million from Kaiser Permanente Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, and Sequoia Capital
• Audax Health, led by a 23-year-old college dropout, raised $21 million from former Apple CEO John Sculley
• Kareo raised a $20.5 million sixth round to build out its medical office software
• Mobile health company PatientSafe Solutions raised a $20 million third round from Merck Global Health Innovation

What’s coming up in 2013? Tecco predicts a booming demand for wearable devices from companies like Jawbone, Misfit Wearables, MC10, and Basis. She said Fitbit has been shopping for a $30 million round, which was leaked to the press, but to her knowledge, the deal has not yet closed.

Remote patient monitoring is another rapidly-growing digital health market, which increased to $10.6 billion last year, according to a report by Kalorama Information. Rock Health points to a handful of startups that received funding this quarter, including Bam Labs, a sleep monitoring device placed under a mattress to detect movement and heart rate, and Independa, an independent living solution for the elderly.

Other areas to watch include personalized health and cloud-based electronic health records. On the other hand, bio-tech and medical device entrepreneurs are struggling to gain investment due to complex regulatory issues. Read more on Rock Health’s research here.

This is a guest post by Keas CEO Josh Stevens

As technology increasingly permeates our lives, a tech-savvy generation of workers tied to their desks and smart phones have 24-7 access to things that will either hurt or help their health and wellness.

Because of today’s technology, both individuals and employers have every opportunity to kick start programs that promote healthier lifestyles with dynamic online tools that are just a click away. The key to decoding the array of choices is to identify where technology can hurt — then finding the right tools online to help.

People are connected to their computer screens at work and at home in a way that promotes inactivity, aches and pains. For example, sitting, shoulders hunched over a computer for several hours a day, has a well-documented negative impact on health.  Repetitive keystrokes can result in stress injuries in wrists and arms.  Overall, sitting in office chairs for hours upon hours a day may not only lead to back pain, but the inaction associated with sitting increases the risk of developing the following:  cardiovascular disease, high-blood pressure, cancers, high blood sugar level and excess body fat.  Sitting for extended periods can literally cut years from a person’s life.

In addition to physical inactivity at work being a problem, simply staring at the computer is another.  So-called “computer vision syndrome” with associated dry eyes, neck pain, headaches, and blurred vision, are caused by forgetting to blink while gazing at computer screens. And those headphones that cover ears in a bid to cut out office noise and help gain focus? Well, those can lead to hearing loss and tinnitus.

Despite the growing list of technological grievances, some technology is providing a gateway to sophisticated tools that can help those same people make healthy lifestyle choices, such as programs for weight management, fitness planning, improving sleep, boosting cognitive health, and implementing easy-to-monitor wellness targets.

So, what does the everyday consumer think about technology and its impact on their health?  In “The Truth About Wellness” study recently released by McCann Truth Central, the global intelligence unit of advertising agency McCann Erickson, nearly half of respondents were concerned that technology is encouraging the bad behaviors that lead to obesity, but that the other half of respondents felt that the use of technology could help improve health.

So what’s the best way to kick start the use of technology to help people find better ways to get fit?

Individuals can now benchmark personal activity — currently known as the “Quantified Self” movement — such as exercise, diet, sleep and emotional and intellectual wellness, one click at a time. This is being done in the office, too, as more employers facing an unfit, desk-bound workforce, reach out to promote at-work wellness programs. Addressing wellness in the workplace is actually becoming a strategic business decision with the lack of employee engagement costing U.S. companies $370 billion in lost productivity in 2012.

Apps for almost any kind of wellness can be found on smartphones and tablets. Apps include lightweight, wearable activity trackers, such as Fitbit; MyFitnessPal, a calorie counter and exercise tracker; workout plans or coaching, such as GAIN Fitness and Nike’s Training Club. For improving cognition and memory, there’s MyBrainSolution and Brainscape.

Small changes lead to bigger ones. For employers, implementing a wellness program that is both online and social gives employees an interface that is familiar, fun and easy to use can be one of those changes. Adding games to the mix can also help engage workers, boosting their competitive nature, encouraging planning and strategic thinking, fostering organizational skills and giving the group shared goals.  If there is a team element to the wellness program, employees may become more inclined to commit to their changes and goals via carving out an hour for a team power walk, or encouraging each other on food choices during a team lunch out.

Here are some of the ways employers can promote better workplace health:

1.      Learn about the popular and effective ways your employees are already using in an effort to improve their health and wellness.  Are 10 percent of employees’ runners, or maybe yoga buffs?  Do you have a significant number of Weight Watchers on staff?  Are employees using Fitbits or Nike+ Fuel bands?

2.      Find a wellness program that employees of all health and fitness levels can easily embrace, whether they are training for their 6th marathon or just starting to walk for exercise.

3.      Use a healthy dose of “fun” vs. “homework” to help inspire employees to set and achieve their health and wellness goals.  Find ways to recognize them and celebrate their success when they reach milestones. Determine what the key goals are and create a clear path for achievement, but find a way to make achieving those goals fun, vs. homework.

4.      Combine friendly competition and group support with worthwhile incentives or prizes to keep people motivated. The more social a wellness program is, the more effectively it fosters community and teamwork that will help engage and inspire employees.

5.      Keep the program content fresh and interactive to better maintain employee engagement.

As CEO of Keas, the market leader in corporate wellness, Stevens is responsible for leading the development and market adoption of the company’s breakthrough wellness platform and applications. 93 percent of Keas customers say they will remain more proactive in their health as a result of their use of and participation in the Keas Wellness Platform.

Stevens has over 20 years of experience in product, sales, marketing, and is a recognized leader in driving high-value product experiences that deliver customer delight and investors valuation growth.

Prior to Keas, Stevens was Vice President of e-commerce at YouSendIt, Senior Vice President of strategy and business development at TicketsNow, and General Manager of e-commerce at AOL. Prior to his GM role at AOL, Stevens held a variety of leadership positions in business development, product marketing, product management, and corporate strategy.

photo credit: Capt. Tim via photopin cc

Today, it jogged out its new 360/365 platform that seeks to keep employees engaged with their physical well-being at all times.

Keas is used by businesses to create and manage their workplace health programs. The system promotes healthy behavior and teamwork by rewarding people for achieving simple exercise and nutrition goals through games and social motivation.

The latest product update seeks to take a comprehensive and personalized approach to workplace wellness. Upon signing up, employees take a health risk assessment to generate a detailed user profile. The technology then generates custom goals, objectives, and recommendations accordingly. As for the 365 component, Keas seeks to be an integrated part of an overall healthy lifestyle, even away from the office. It provides games, fitness challenges, and educational content that are accessible on multiple channels.

Unhealthy habits can lead to lower productivity as well as higher health costs, so it is in the enterprise’s best interest to promote wellness programs. Accordingly, Keas doubled its customer base in the fourth quarter of last year and increased registered users by 282%. Keas clients include Pfizer, SalesForce, Reed Elsevier, British Telecom, and The Cheesecake Factory, where I can only imagine the most significant challenge is to refrain from excessive consumption of cheesecake.

In addition to announcing record growth and its ramped up platform, Keas also formally introduced Josh Stevens as its new CEO. Stevens previously worked at YouSendIt, TicketsNow, AOL, and Time Warner and has experience in both the consumer and the enterprise space.

Keas was founded by former Google Health leader Adam Bosworth to promote corporate wellness in 2008. It has raised $17.5 million in institutional funding from Ignition Partners and Atlas Venture. The company is based in San Francisco, while its namesake the Kea parrot, resides in New Zealand.

For Silicon Valley’s venture capitalists, yoga is big business.

Bessemer Venture Partners,  Institutional Venture Partners and Catalyst Ventures today invested $35 million into MindBody, a Salesforce-like technology for businesses like yoga studios and hair salons.

With this sixth-round of capital, the San Luis Obispo-based startup is plotting its international expansion — it already has satellite offices in New York and the UK, with a third opening soon in Australia.

MindBody provides a suite of marketing tools, scheduling, analytics, networking and point of sale services for health, beauty and wellness providers. It has been around since 2001, and has witnessed the explosion of competition, primarily online scheduling systems like Schedulicity, SalonBooker, Appointment Plus, and Groupon Scheduler.

To strike ahead of the competition, the company has diversified its software stack. Now, it faces heat from Salesforce, SugarCRM and other major customer relationship management (CRM) systems, which also target small businesses.

MindBody claims it is the only company that can offer the full gamut of software and specifically caters to the health and wellness space– for this reason, it is experiencing impressive growth with 900 businesses signing up per month.

“Our intent is to enable and link the 2 million beauty and wellness businesses operating worldwide with the hundreds of millions of consumers who can use their services to improve their own lives,” Rick Stollmeyer, the company’s CEO (pictured above), told VentureBeat.

Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP) participated in all the previous rounds; with this funding, the company has a total of $58 million in the bank.

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L.A.’s thriving tech community is not letting up on its ongoing effort to make the rest of the country more fit and healthy.

Launching today, FitKit prompts you to take a free lifestyle assessment quiz and then doles out personalized guidance from nutritionists. The quiz was designed by nutrition experts Dr. Robin Bernhoft and Dr. Nick Bitz. It asks questions about how much alcohol you consume per week, stress levels, eating habits, and more.

“America is a land of malnutrition,” said Dr. Bernhoft, who recently joined the founding team. “Practically everyone has vitamin and mineral deficiencies which make them feel less energetic, get sick easier, have less endurance.”

On the backend, cofounder Josh Haynam explained that an algorithm works to “analyze and connect user’s lifestyle patterns with nutritional deficiencies” and pairs them with appropriate nutritional supplements. It’s ideal for people who can’t afford a one-on-one session with a nutritionist but are overwhelmed by the range of products on the market that claim to improve joint pain or boost immunity.

The cofounders, Haynam, Matthew Clark, Rohit Seth, and Ethan Paulson (pictured with Dr. Bernoft), hope to use technology to make nutrition more accessible. ”Health and fitness has been jaded by outrageous claims and false advertisements,” Haynam told me.

Haynam is a 20-year-old economics student at UCLA. He founded the company in three months after a football accident in which he broke two bones in his foot. During his recovery, he was prescribed a variety of supplements by several nutritionists, setting him back thousands of dollars in medical bills. But he couldn’t find transparent advice online. It was then that he hit on the idea for FitKit.

FitKit is easy to get confused with FitBit, one of many new companies vying for dominance in the personalized health space. FitBit makes money by using data about your health to tailor a fitness plan, which will likely be the monetization strategy for this company if it succeeds in growing its user-base. The companies recently partnered so you can integrate your FitKit data into FitBit’s quiz to improve its accuracy.

You’re emailed recommendations, but as of today, you can also purchase nutritional supplements directly from the site.

It’s early, but it is already evidence of traction — FitKit offered its beta to friends and family, but told me they have been garnering hundreds of signups per day and are spreading by word of mouth. It’s a recent graduate of StartEngine, a local tech accelerator. Through that program, it raised its first $20,000 in seed funding, and has grown to a team of seven people.

Haynam considers sites that specialize in selling nutritional supplements like VitaCost as the major competitors. However, in the long-term, FitKit may rival later-stage startups like WellnessFX that offer online health consultations and have pioneered a data-driven approach to health.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Exercise good for your health (but boring), while video games are fun (but make you fat). A startup called BitGym is hoping to combine the best aspects of the two with a workout app for the iPhone and iPad that turns exercise equipment into video game machines.

The company has just released Virtual Active, an immersive fitness app with 10 different workout environments. Put your iPhone 4 or or iPad 2 on the magazine rack of an exercise bike or a elliptical machine, and within seconds you’re inside a virtual world that responds to your every movement. While jogging on the treadmill or riding an exercise bike, Virtual Active detects your speed based on vibrations and ferries you through a virtual mountain bike trail in the Swiss Alps, the narrow canals of Venice or the lush, or temperate environs of the Pacific Northwest.

The app isn’t directly connected to the exercise machine’s electronics. Instead, pedaling the exercise bike sends vibrations through your device to make you move faster or slower. Your head movements are tracked by the forward-facing camera for direction control. Move your head right or left your avatar will respond accordingly.

The app is free, but BitGym is selling new environments as in-app purchases for $3.99 or $7.99. Each new environment comes with six jogging courses.

Since launching yesterday in the App Store, 8.5 percent of users have made an in-app purchase, says co-founder Alex Gourley, and the American Southwest environment pack and Northern Italy are the most popular. BitGym has also been contacted by two major fitness industry players for potential collaborations, Gourley said, though he wasn’t at liberty to discuss who they are.

Here’s a tip: If you’re reading this at your desk and you want to try before you buy, open the free Southwest U.S. trial pack, set your phone on a flat surface, and tap the edge vigorously. This will simulate the vibrations registered from exercise equipment, and will allow you to see Virtual Active in action.

The Canals of Venice course

Due up next from BitGym is another app called Fit Freeway, which takes the exercise concept to a virtual racetrack. Think of your exercise bike as Mario Kart, and you’ve got a pretty close approximation. Sky Runner is another upcoming title, which is like Starfox on your Stairmaster.

San Francisco-based BitGym is looking for investments to help outflank any potential imitators.

“Once people realize you can do this, there’s going to be a lot of competition and a lot of people are going to try to do it,” BitGym co-founder Josh McCready told VentureBeat. “We want to get momentum and keep developing it.” One potential rival is iFit, whose apps allow runners to navigate through a Google Streetview map, but don’t have gameplay functionality.

BitGym is focused on developing single-player games for now. Asynchronous multiplayer games could follow soon, where two or more players could log their achievements in Apple’s Game Center and challenge friends to beat a high score the next time they use their exercise equipment. An app store for developers of new environments or workouts is also a tantalizing prospect. Once the notion of playing video games through an exercise bike catches on, other developers may want to sell their workouts through the BitGym App Store.

More than 41 million American adults have access to exercise equipment such as a bike, elliptical or treadmill in their homes, Gourley estimates, and gyms bring this number t0 more than 74 million. Last week we reported that Apple sold more than 30 million smartphones, and as many as 13 million tablets in Q4. Put the two together, and the potential reach of an app like Virtual Active is considerable.

Holove takes over from Nadeem Kassam, founder and now chief alliance officer at the company. Kassam started the San Francisco company (originally known as Pulse Tracer) in 2004 after leaving an entertainment career where he built nightlife social networks. The idea was to make getting healthy fun.

There’s a growing trend toward making connected health devices and marrying them to fun weight-loss programs. The trend is piggybacking on the success of video games such as Wii Fit, the Nintendo game that lets you exercise via a game console.

Kassam came up with a device called the Basis Band (pictured right) that looks like a wrist watch but measures a number of body metrics, including heartbeat, temperature, movement, and “galvanic skin response,” or sweat levels. You wear it all day long, even during sleep. The band collects a bunch of data that can be used to measure your heart health, stress level, fitness level, activity level, and how many calories you’re burning.

You can upload that data to a computer and analyze the results on a dashboard. You can also share it with friends, trainers, and anyone you might want to compete with. You can earn badges, beat your friends on leaderboards, and brag about how many calories you burned. Those features make it more fun to be fit; they “gamify” the process. That’s part of a big trend where companies try to keep users from getting bored by making their products and services more like video games.

By combining the device, the metrics and the game-like challenges, users will be more motivated to get into shape. That’s the idea, anyway. The company hasn’t yet launched the device but plans to do so this year, Holove said in an interview.

“We want to make this rich and engaging and fun,” Holove (pictured) said. “We’re talking about changing behavior, and that requires a lot of effort.”

Holove said he was attracted to the business because it felt like it had a sense of purpose, like the environmental movement. By making people more fit, the company could make an impact on the overall wellness of society. Holove said the key to success will be borrowing the psychology of gaming without positioning the device purely as a game.

“The experience should feel like a game, but it shouldn’t promise too much,” he said.

The company has recruited interesting executives. Bharat Vasan, chief operating officer, previously worked at video game maker Electronic Arts. Marco Della Torre, vice president of product science, has been an inventor and a key researcher at companies such as Emotiv Systems and Bam Labs. Sean Tan, head of hardware engineering, worked at Huawei and on artificial heart control and simulation at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute.

Over time, the business has become easier to pursue because the cost of the technologies used in the device keep on plummeting. The company can also tap cloud-based technologies to deliver services to users wherever they are.

Most recently, Basis raised $9 million from Norwest Venture Partners and Doll Capital Management. Prior to that, it was angel funded. Basis has 20 employees and is hiring. Rivals include devices you can strap across your chest such as Garmin/Polar and step-counting pedometers made by FitBit.