healthcare startups are not shadow - especially not when run with doctors.
My response to a WaPo article, wherein I rant about how broken our healthcare system is, the hope I have from doctor-led startups , and my plea to listen to mothers // trust your instincts
I’ve always believed strongly that words matter.
Much to my father’s chagrin, I studied English and Women’s Studies in college and have dedicated my life to communicating - the power of the truth, the beauty of nature and the exhilarating experience of gaining knowledge. So I pay extra attention to the words used around topics that are near and dear to my heart.
Which is why I was so upset when I was forwarded - several times - the recent WaPo article “Doctors couldn’t help. They turned to a shadow system of DIY medical tests.”
Shadow system. Which definition of shadow did they intend here?
“Partial darkness or obscurity”
“Small degree or portion”
“A source of gloom or unhappiness”
“A state of ignominy”
How about a better title: “In a system that prioritizes profits over patient health, parents find answers.”
I learned recently at a Women’s Health summit held at Parsley Health that preventative care is not recommended by our traditional, health insurance driven system because the average time that a person is covered by any given insurance provider is only 2.5 years. (This article backs that up). So why would they spend a few hundred bucks on a test that could detect issues, if those issues are likely over 2.5 years away?
But of course that’s not what’s being said here. Instead, deliberately upsetting language is used to take away solace and answers from those who have had to seek - relentlessly and often at great cost - for solutions when traditional avenues were not helping. This happened to me personally and this happened to my daughter.
My health saga is another post for another day, but the TL/DR is that years ago I was getting frequent sinus infections, living on antibiotics and steroids, and being ignored by my ENT doctor as I begged for options other than surgery. He shrugged and tried to schedule my 3rd, once-in-a-lifetime surgery. Fed up, I listened to my friends in LA who urged me to see a functional or integrative doctor, who saved my life. No third, once-in-a-lifetime surgery for me. A five month elimination diet (to heal my depleted stomach lining), a regimen of supplements that added to my already thousands of dollars spent, and I was healed.
Fast forward to the birth of my daughter (a whole other health saga in between), and around 2 months, I sensed something was wrong. Her stool was not normal. And not every once in a while, like the books say, but all the time. I’d cry to my pediatrician and friends, and everyone would just say: “baby poop is weird. It’s fine. Wait and see.”
And I’d self-diagnose food allergies. Or massage myself like a mad woman, thinking the fat content of my breastmilk was off balance. And I would cry. Good lord, I would cry as I changed diapers that did not look normal, and would then have doctors and well-meaning loved ones make me feel insane.
So while they say not to Google in your early days of motherhood, I did. And found Tiny Health. Yes, the company mentioned in the fear-mongering WaPo article. Because I had experience with stool samples and integrative doctors, I was thrilled to see such an offering for babies, who cannot tell you their symptoms and whose bodies are changing right before your very eyes.
Which reminded me of my beloved puppy, now dog, Augustus. At his first veterinary visit, we were asked to bring a stool sample. And in later months, when his stool was looking strange, they happily tested him again. It’s not shadow or strange for dogs, but for humans? Or babies? Who also can’t communicate… WaPo calls that shadow.
I won’t divulge all of her medical info here, but I’m glad I listened to my own instincts and bought that first $200 kit to test her. It proved that I was right - something was wrong. She was missing a key bacteria in her gut, likely due to the barrage of heavy-duty antibiotics I was pumped with during my 36 hour labor.
So, as my very well-meaning pediatrician was telling me to “wait and see,” there was a real, treatable issue forming. According to the National Library of Medicine: “Specifically, a reduction in the abundance of the genus Bifidobacterium in infants has been shown to increase the prevalence of obesity, diabetes, metabolic disorder, and all-cause mortality later in life.”
I should state here that I love my pediatrician and nurse. Technically, they didn’t do anything wrong - as this is always how things have been done. And this newfangled online startup wasn’t real to them.
But if this practice of testing stool early and doing intervention is embraced for canines, why is it being labeled as SHADOW for HUMAN, WANTED, BABIES?!
So what did we do? I started taking another supplement and put her on a probiotic that they recommended - but did not profit from with affiliate links or white label purchase. And within one week, her stool was fine. Months later she was still not sleeping through the night and had started breaking out with bad eczema. So we did another Tiny Health test, gave her a different probiotic, and she was all good. And as studies show that strong gut health before the age of 3 is crucial to a healthy adulthood, I am investing in doing this test every 6 months to help my daughter lead a happy, healthy life as much as possible.
So why am I writing about all this?
Because as hopeful as I am about change and innovation, there are also naysayers trying to sow suspicion. And, as the journalist rightly pointed out, there are also snake oil salesmen preying on upset parents and non-sleeping mothers. So it can be hard to know what is real and what is fake and who has good intentions or not.
And as a marketer, I’ve been stewing about a very dangerous disconnect that I’ve been observing in this space. With all this attention on health (and the dollar signs that spring up around a “new” category), there is more and more money being pumped into companies looking to solve health challenges and provide solutions. VC firms are doing the demographic and psychographic trend studies and finding that yes, millennials will pay - a lot, every month, recurring monthly revenue - to feel good.
The good news is that there are also doctors who are getting fed up with how broken the system is, and are trying to build new ways - peppered in with the research and training and regulations that they’re accustomed to.
Doctors like Dr Danielle Wright-Terrell, MD, FACOG, Major USAF, who is building HONEY, a platform for parents to prepare for and overcome challenges of postpartum. She one day hopes to influence ACOG training to better prepare doctors and patients. (Full disclosure - I’m a past advisor to Dr Danielle, and fan).
And Dr Sophia Yen, MD, MPH of Pandia Health, specialized Doctor founded, women led telehealth platform for personal, specialized treatments for birth control, menopause, and acne.
And I’m sure many, many others.
But then we all know that MINDBLOWING stat that female founded startups STILL receive less than 2% of venture capital. And even then, most of that goes to white female founders.
And then there are the slick “health” focused brands created by the same agencies who have built up your favorite yoga clothes, non-alc beverages, sunblock and more. As much as I’m all for innovation, I want a doctor, a real life doctor, prescribing my medicine and supplements. While the system may be broken, the knowledge and experience and research and training is not.
(I’ll acknowledge here that the founder of Tiny Health is not a doctor. But she is a mother and entrepreneur who is building a better, more attainable option for parents seeking answers - after she herself had been in this same boat - by surrounding herself by doctors and trained medical professionals.)
And yet, without those slick brands and brilliant marketers who break down complicated issues into snack-sized instagram captions, how will people today find what they are looking for? If the algorithm controls what you find - and brands have to pay to play more and more each week - are we all just being prescribed what marketers think is best?
Ooof, I didn’t know how this post would go when I sat down to write it. But I’ve made myself uncomfortable. Which is how I know I’m on to something.
So, words matter. For the doctors building better ways of delivering health care, know that there are patients out there who need you. And that you need to explore new ways of marketing (not just performance!) to help them become aware of you. (I can help!)
And for those seeking answers - especially from these new startups - research who is behind the curtain. Make sure there are MDs and PhDs and all the other alphabet soup involved (see the doctors I listed above) - not just a marketer like me holding the pad.
If you’ve made it this far, thank you. And I’m here for any questions you have about stool samples for babies, dogs and adults.
The other advice from Tiny Health? Spend more time outdoors, with a dog. Who could argue with that?
