The greatest benefit of taking care of our health is obviously a longer life, but even then, many of us neglect our doctor's treatment plans and medications. Life gets busy and too complicated; things happen, and other bills come up. An extra incentive to stay on top of our needed medications and treatments is just what we need and exactly what the doctor ordered.

VITiaCARE's founder and CEO, Fernando Silva, has developed a personalized solution with AI insights and rewards for patients with chronic conditions to help take control of their health with a personalized health plan and simplified access to their health ecosystem.

A failure to adhere to medical treatment has a number of negative consequences, including progression and complications from conditions, lower quality of life, an increase in hospital stays, and sometimes even death. Not to mention, it costs the healthcare system hundreds of billions of dollars a year. Non-adherence to medical treatment and medications creates a substantial burden on the system, impacting both individuals and the overall infrastructure.

Wellness: The Inspiration for VITiaCARE

During his years in the pharmaceutical industry, Silva gained transformative insights into what patients and healthcare professionals were lacking and needed. Despite his many accomplishments, including global recognition for the best product launch and national sales manager awards, Silva has found the most fulfillment in witnessing patients make positive progress towards an improved quality of life. Motivated by this, he created VITiaCARE to provide patients with the necessary tools for healing and wellness.

VITiaCARE isn't just an app; it is a healthcare ecosystem that Silva and his team have built that allows patients to easily interact with doctors, caregivers, pharmacies, and other healthcare providers, as well as navigate the complexities of their treatment plans and medication, all the while earning rewards. Users can receive and view personalized health plans, receive virtual health coaching, and get health reports that can be used to help improve their conditions and make important decisions for their care.

VITiaCARE's Rewards Are a Win/Win

Along with users loving the ability to text health providers, VITiaCARE's pièce de résistance are the rewards they receive for self-care. Users will receive points for taking their medications, refilling their prescriptions with a receipt, booking appointments and more, that they can exchange for products and services with VITiaCARE's partners. 

Silva notes, "For example, diabetics get points for measuring their glucose. Some of them will have to measure them two to three times a week, some of them every day, some of them two to three times a day. So depending on the goals and how they match those goals, they will also earn points. When they buy the drugs from our partner pharmacy, they will earn points. It's a combination between loyalty, rewards and also gamification. Users actually compete to be in the top 15% proactively caring for themselves. Taking care of one's health is obviously a win, but if you could also be rewarded, the question isn't why would you, it is why wouldn't you?"

What's in it besides feeling great? Rewards!

The incentives range from Starbucks drinks, Amazon points, and theater tickets all the way to free medications. As the company grows, they will continue to add more incentives and more partners. "We also want to partner with laboratories for bioanalysis when patients need labs as part of their treatment plan. The app will send them reminders that they need a test done, and it will ask whether they want to make an appointment. They can schedule and pay for the analysis directly in the app." With VITiaCARE, they can easily follow their doctor's treatment plan and get their lab work scheduled and paid for, and by doing so, users will not only feel better, but they can also get a discount on their continued care and treatments, not to mention a free movie.

VITiaCARE's business model encourages users to accumulate points for grander incentives. Silva explains, "When you are a member of a frequent flier program, you don't want to buy a ticket from San Diego to San Francisco. You want to save that ticket for that trip to Hawaii or to Europe, so you try to accumulate the most points. The idea behind this is to incentivize long-term commitment; the longer patients follow their treatment, the more points they accumulate and the better they feel."

A Clever and Effective Business Model

Silva explains profits are generated by forming partnerships with various businesses within VITiaCare's coalition. When a customer redeems points for free flights, coffee, etc., the company pays for the reward but often at a discounted rate due to agreements with vendors. Each partner, such as pharmacies, eyewear vendors, and labs, further contributes to revenue by attracting customers through the loyalty program. By expanding beyond individual loyalty programs, these businesses can promote services to a wider customer base, similar to how American Express tailors promotions to its cardholders. This strategy allows for targeted advertising and encourages customer spending, and ultimately, it drives profits. 

The Key Is Patient Education

Because motivation can be very different for each individual, VITiaCARE is founded on diverse motivators. Silva explains, "With smoking cessation, some may express a strong desire to quit but struggle with the willpower, while others may have the capability but lack motivation. Understanding where each patient falls on this spectrum is crucial."

At VITiaCARE they have tailored their approaches based on individual needs, utilizing strategies such as education, communication and personalized rewards in order to effectively support and inspire patients in working towards their health goals. Their comprehensive approach offers patients access to various resources and reports that can aid in their own personal journey to wellness.

Part of the overall mission is to help educate patients regarding their conditions as well as the drugs they are taking. With VITiaCARE, patients have access to the answers to common questions, particularly when they are diagnosed. Silva asserts, "We have already fed a lot of questions to the machine learning algorithm, to the AI algorithm with preset answers. Some of those questions, we have to write in several ways so that the system can really understand what's being asked. If there isn't an answer, a person from our team comes in to help."

Silva's platform is continuously learning. But they also have to do "a lot of challenging homework." The team is not using Chat GPT or any of these platforms because of their biases and a lack of control over what is being said to patients. "We prefer to make our own database. It's going to take longer, but it is more reliable and credible, which is important." Silva notes that the more patients they can enroll, the more funding, the better the AI, but it all comes at a hefty but worthwhile cost. 

Silva has even bigger plans, something similar to IBM's Watson for Oncology. "They fed Watson with thousands and thousands of clinical studies and trials where they could see the clinical aspects of patients, and it actually helps doctors with diagnoses. That's another one of my big plans, to actually be able to help doctors to diagnose patients. We'll get there."

VITiaCARE's wellness ecosystem not only addresses the critical need for patient adherence to treatment plans and a solution to remedy the burden on our healthcare systems, but it also presents a profitable opportunity for a plethora of partners. By utilizing personalized rewards, AI insights, and their comprehensive healthcare ecosystem, VITiaCARE encourages patients to prioritize their health and do just what the doctor ordered. 

With VITiaCARE, the future of healthcare and patient outcomes has gotten a lot brighter.

Explore the VITiaCARE ecosystem now!