At Juxtapose, we aspire to build businesses that have the opportunity to address some of our nation's biggest and most meaningful challenges. These types of challenges are easy to find in healthcare, which touches the lives of all 330 million Americans from the moment they’re born to the moment they die. And in spite of tremendous investments and healthcare’s increasing adoption of technology in recent years, we believe we are still in the very early stages of the space’s evolution.
Within our concept development and user research teams, we’ve been spending significant time on four “meta” healthcare themes: (1) the “consumerization” of healthcare, with the patient increasingly taking the role as an active decider in choosing a provider, (2) the massive gap and opportunity in women’s healthcare, (3) the role of technology in creating more personalized and scalable delivery models, and (4) the opportunity for providers to create value by taking risk for outcomes. After years of focused work around all four themes, including a special deep dive over the last several years on the massive opportunity to better serve women in healthcare, we are thrilled to share more about our next venture - one that sits directly at the center of all four of these theses.
Today we are proud to announce our partnership with Kristen Helton, Co-Founder and CEO of Herself Health, a new healthcare technology company designed to deliver advanced primary care to women over 65. This week, the company opened its first clinic in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Herself Health breaks the mold of one-size-fits-most healthcare, which consistently and systematically fails to provide the right care for senior women. Today, women are misdiagnosed at higher rates than men, take longer to diagnose, and express frustration at not feeling heard, often being asked to “prove” their symptoms to physicians. Women were not even included in clinical trials until the 1990s, and still today women suffer increased adverse side effects from many drugs due to assumptions around a male “standard patient”. These issues are compounded with healthcare’s universal shortcomings, including not giving patients enough time with doctors and expecting them to navigate their own care across specialists. Herself Health is built by women for women, bringing keen insight and empathy to traditional primary care.
Herself Health will soon be the first fully value-based advanced healthcare business focused exclusively on the unique needs of women on Medicare, age 65 and up. The company links women’s health goals with their life goals, taking into account a patient’s physical, mental, social, sexual, and spiritual needs.
Herself Health is taking an omnichannel approach, starting with the launch of its first clinic in St. Paul. Soon, the brand plans to expand to include home-based and virtual care touch points. At its inaugural clinic, patients can be treated for geriatric health, women’s health, and weight management. Patients will work towards personalized goals alongside a specially-trained patient care team who will provide care based on clinical evidence that identifies how conditions present in women specifically.
We are thrilled to partner with Kristen, who has spent her career bridging technology to patient care, to bring Herself Health to life. From clinical diagnostics and implantable biosensors, to telemedicine and connected devices, Helton brings a unique set of experiences to building modern, patient-focused healthcare delivery. She previously co-founded the biosensor company, Profusa, and founded and led Amazon's first foray into healthcare services, Amazon Care. Amazon Care was designed to deliver convenient, patient-focused virtual and in-home healthcare. Care’s on-demand service was built first for Amazon employees, and then expanded to serve other employers and their workforces. Under Helton's leadership, Care grew from an idea to virtual care in 50 states and in-home care in 15 cities with over 100 thousand patients. With a customer satisfaction score of 4.7 out of 5, Care boasts one of the highest ratings for healthcare services.
We have also welcomed former President and CEO of WW (formerly Weight Watchers) and current partner at the Consello Group, Mindy Grossman, to Herself Health’s board. Mindy brings an incredible history of building products and brands to help women live their happiest and healthiest lives, and we're thrilled to have her partnership on this new venture.
At Juxtapose, we believe that talent is everything, and we are proud to be working alongside this powerful team to bring Herself Health’s mission of helping women growing bolder.
Welcome to the family, Kristen!
