Thought Leaders in Healthcare IT: Kristen Valdes, CEO of b.well Connected Health (Part 1)

Kristen founded the company when her daughter couldn’t get swift diagnosis due to lack of interoperability across various health records.

Today, her company addresses the interoperability problem in digital health categorically and strategically.

Sramana Mitra: Let’s start by introducing our audience to yourself as well as to b.well Connected.

Kristen Valdes: I’m the Founder and CEO of b.well. We are a digital transformation in healthcare. Our goal is to help health insurance companies, health systems, and retail pharmacies to create and deliver on the promise of consumerism in health. What is missing from today’s healthcare technology and what is required is a new platform layer that allows for interoperability of data, quick aggregation solution, and the creation of true personalization so we can reimagine the consumer health experience to make things frictionless and more consolidated.

Sramana Mitra: Double-click down for me. Let’s do some use cases. What kinds of situations are you brought into and what impact do you make?

Kristen Valdes: We’ll start on the provider side of things. We help our providers create a reimagined consumer experience that is digital first. There is a new frontend to consumers, which consumers would arguably say is missing. Our consumer frontend has a couple of key things. It allows consumers to have all of their healthcare data in one place. We are a leader in interoperability, which means that we operate on behalf of human beings.

We collect all their provider information, insurance information, wearables, pharmacy, labs, Medicare data. We provide that to a consumer in a way that they can not only start to understand it, but they become the custodians of that data. That means that they can also share it. Imagine seeing a doctor and wanting a second opinion. Being able to share your complete medical history with another physician is something that consumers have a hard time doing today because we’ve made it very complex to do so.

We pull all that data in and then we use that data to create a truly personalized health journey for that individual. Consumers today don’t have a book that tells them when it’s time to get a mammogram screening. We need to get more upstream and proactive. Think of this as a pocket guide that says, “Just a reminder, it’s time to get your preventative mammogram. It’s time to get your labs drawn.”

We help do the real complex part of accessing care. We are big believers that care is now going to be delivered in a combination of in-person, virtual, and digital care settings. That means that consumers need to be presented and matched personally with the right care option based on the gap or the need that they have. Sometimes, telemedicine might be appropriate. Sometimes, an in-person visit. Other times, there might be digital solutions or connected health solutions that can support them in between doctor visits.

Most importantly, we connect them with what we call the Health Circle. Healthcare tends to be consumed in a family unit. 86% of the time there’s a female making healthcare decisions and appointments not only for their children and spouses but also more commonly for their parents and loved ones.

Connecting all of the health data and shared information in a secured way based on the user’s ability to set permissions and building new health networks where information can be shared, especially if the person we’re targeting is not the person who’s responsible for making those appointments. 

This segment is part 1 in the series : Thought Leaders in Healthcare IT: Kristen Valdes, CEO of b.well Connected Health
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