Irfan Alam on LinkedIn: Had a fun reminder of how silly US healthcare is this weekend while… (2024)

🔓 reports that U.S. consumers already spend $1T a year on health and wellness — but how much has yet to be unlocked given the majority of consumers surveyed are still holding back their spend?Here are the two most interesting stats from McKinsey's report last week:01 | Majority of Americans said they are TRYING to prioritize their health and wellness even more than they did in 202302 | However, a majority of those trying reported they’re unsatisfied with the resources available to help them accomplish their health goalsIn other words, people do care about their health, but they’re stuck.💡 What if we freed them?If we solved the 2nd point — how many more people can we help meet those health goals, and how many new people will try to prioritize their health for the first time too?📈 That’s where a $1 trillion dollar market can become a multi-trillion market.What's the path to unlocking this?❓ Let’s start with the problem — why are almost 70% of people spending 4+ days a week on monitoring and improving sleep quality still unsatisfied with the resources available to them?Is it because there aren’t solutions available to improve your sleep?No…There are thousands of sleep supplements, masks, trackers, meditation apps, and more sleep solutions developed by companies across the world available to US consumers.So it’s not that there’s a lack of available resources...Then are people unsatisfied because none of those resources are actually safe and effective?Sure, many of them are questionable, but at Frontrow Health we've evaluated sleep brands that hundreds of our doctors recommend to their patients through personalized Frontrow discount stores.So if there ARE available sleep resources that are safe and effective, why are people still unsatisfied?💡 Is it because people don’t know which ones are safe & effective, and have been burned spending their hard-earned $$ on solutions that didn’t work?Now we’re getting somewhere.Trust and affordability are at the foundation of consumer health, and today that foundation is shaky at best.Want to work on strengthening that foundation to unlock trillions more in consumer health spending to better the health of millions?That’s what Frontrow Health is unlocking, and we’re hiring 🚀 If you’re a User Researcher excited about better understanding shopper psychology to increase trust in consumer health, or you’re a Solutions Engineer excited about helping us expand our suite of trust-building solutions, we’d love to chat!Checkout the links below, DM me, or comment someone who you think could be a great fit to help us unlock this massive opportunity 🙌 User Research Lead: https://lnkd.in/gQf-agz3Solutions Engineer: https://lnkd.in/g3V5XCrP#consumer #consumerhealth #digitalhealth #hiringhttps://lnkd.in/g-J-8atS

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Digital / Consumer health companies are scrambling to figure out how they fit into the weight loss craze – most are missing the mark, but here’s one that’s not ⬇️One of Frontrow Health’s brand partners, obé Fitness, a popular home exercise platform recommended by tons of our doctors, just recently launched a joint offering called Muscle Guard with Found, a Dx health weight loss platform, and here’s why it’s genius:💡It compliments vs. duplicates, it fills a gap in the market, and it synergizes w/ their existing offering.Instead of Obe Fitness launching the millionth solution for people to get 'fast weight loss prescriptions online' it focuses on offering a complimentary solution for those already on weight loss Rx to combat a common adverse effect of those drugs: rapid muscle loss.🏋️♂️ It’s a progressive training program 30min a day with multiple Obe coaches focused on building strength to prevent lean muscle loss that happens when you rapidly shed excess weight (like from an Ozempic).So whether you receive Ozempic from a digital health platform like Found, or from your own PCP, Obe Fitness’s Muscle Guard program is relevant to you (i.e., larger market size) vs. Obe Fitness launching its own digital Rx platform for weight loss which would only be applicable to people who aren’t already on the Rx drug from a competitor platform or from their own PCP, etc.📈 The best part? It can be an upsell solution for those already within the large Obe Fitness network, as well as a way to attract new folks into the Obe community who now sign up for other Obe offerings after they enjoy utilizing Muscle Guard.🔑 Key takeaway? The weight loss craze isn’t about just feeding people more drugs – it’s about a large portion of our country struggling with obesity that can benefit from: regular exercise, healthier eating, clean supplements, community motivation, better body composition tracking, strengthening mental health, and much more.Focus on those gaps in the market to offer newer solutions to people who may be on a weight loss journey for the very first time that can benefit from more than just a drug.#weightloss #ozempic #digitalhealth #consumerhealth https://lnkd.in/gwC6Vhmi

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The modern health consumer is a growing skeptic – health brands, it's time to run clinical studies to prove the efficacy of your solutions. Here’s why⬇ Consumers have been bombarded with labels like “all-natural” and “clean” for too long without seeing enough evidence to back up these claims. Data from the 's 2024 Trends Report illustrates this shift: nearly half of US and UK consumers list clinical efficacy as a primary concern when making wellness purchases, compared to the 20% that selected clean/natural ingredients.With preventative health measures on the rise, clinical credibility is in increasing demand.But what does that look like? Invest resources early, run a small study, ideally placebo-controlled – against comparators.Last week, I mentioned that Resist, a protein bar for diabetics, had hundreds of medical providers sharing it with their patients on Frontrow Health – That’s because they took the time to have a third-party conduct a clinical trial and compare the impact of their bars on blood sugar vs. competitor protein bars.The results? Competitor bars caused significant spikes and crashes in blood sugar levels throughout a 90 minute period after consumption, while Resist bars did not. And if those patterns aren’t convincing enough, Resist also has a page that walks you through the “why” behind all the ingredients they use, as well as the reasons behind the ones they exclude.This level of diligence is why they can confidently say that so many Frontrow doctors recommend their product, and why their shoppers are far less skeptical of the clinical efficacy of their product.How do you run a trial? There’s tons of research labs / investigators that can help with this, and a good friend, Dr. Jeff Chen MD/MBA, actually built an entire company, Radicle Science, dedicated to helping DTC health brands power IRB-approved clinical studies for OTC products.Yes, it costs $$$ to run even a small study, but McKinsey’s data clearly shows clinical credibility is one of the most important factors to a modern health consumer’s purchasing decisions, so if you want to compete, you need to back your claims with more than flashy marketing statements.#digitalhealth #healthcare #consumerhealth McKinsey's report: https://lnkd.in/geZSpyJ6

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⏰ Just in time for Frontrow Health's newest product launch, last week revealed the secret sauce for how DTC health brands have to combat rising skepticism in 2024 ⬇️🏥 Doctor recommendations.McKinsey’s 2024 Trends Reporton the modern health-consumer showed that doctor recommendations are one of the most critical levers to combat rising “healthwashing concerns” (i.e., deep skepticism that an online health product is unsafe or ineffective).💡 They even found thatdoctor recommendations are 50% more important as a purchase-making criteria than customer reviews.Not terribly surprising, but this kind of data doesn't answer a more important question...How on Earth does a resource-strapped health brand convince hundreds of gate-kept and burned-out doctors to take the time to recommend their product, at scale?I've dedicated the last 2 years of my life to solving this exact problem...Here's what we've been working on & launching today!1️⃣ In 2023, we launched Phase 1 of our work:doctor digital stores. Since then, 600+ medical providers have utilized personalized Frontrow stores to easily share discounts on their favorite selection of non-Rx vitamins, medical devices, and health apps from tons of our vetted health brand partners.Think GoodRx, but for non-Rx products.2️⃣ In 2024, we’re excited to unveil Phase 2 of our offering:doctor badges— a new way for our brand partners to promote doctor-trust to those skeptical shoppers who arrive on their website, ads, and more, which havemore than doubled web conversion rates and ad click-through-rates for some of our brand partners.Think Trustpilot, but for healthcare — with doctors.📈 Take our brand partner, Resist, offering a protein bar for diabetics, loved by almost 200 of our medical providers. Since leveraging our doctor-badge on their product page, their CVR & sales boosted by more than 40%.What's next?Doctors can add patient notes to their stores about why they like a certain product, which brands can share as testimonials to shoppers curious aboutwhyso many doctors love their brand, sometimes even with the option ofasking those doctors follow-up questions right from the brand’s website— like a real doctor shopping assistant.⚙️ We can’t wait to power more brands with new tools to share how many doctors love their products, and why — and most importantly, give consumers the confidence they need when shopping online for their healthcare.If you’re a DTC healthcare company looking to elevate your brand with doctor recommendations,learn more on our websitebelow andschedule a free demo today!Our mission is to uplift the DTC health ecosystem, and we’d love to discuss how we can support your brand. 🚀Website: https://lnkd.in/gN9etRXMFull Medium post: https://lnkd.in/gwZwwdMVMcKinsey Research: https://lnkd.in/geZSpyJ6#digitalhealth #dtc #consumerinsights #healthcare #consumerhealth

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The news everyone will be talking about at this year’s #jpm2024: Eli Lily just got into the DTC health ring—here’s what this move is really all about ⬇️Cost reduction.Big Pharma has spent decades trying to solve two key problems—how do we reduce the cost of inventing a drug, and how do we reduce the cost of selling a drug?Eli Lily is using its new “LilyDirect” telehealth program to gather signals on whether selling its newest GLP-1s direct-to-consumer will solve the latter.Will it save them more money than selling direct-to-physician?Remember, demand isn’t an issue for these wonder drugs—people want GLP-1s. The goal is to find a way to get THEIR drug into patient’s hands more cost effectively. In other words—instead of running a traditional pharma TV ad that basically says…“Call your doctor’s office to schedule an appointment 2 months from now to talk about this weight loss drug with your doctor, who may not like our drug because the sales rep for our competitor bought their office everyone’s favorite Chick-Fil-A for lunch last Tuesday.”Now Eli Lily can just run a TikTok ad that says:“If applicable, get prescribed a weight-loss drug online and have it shipped to your house by Friday.”It’s pretty easy to see why this is worth testing for a Big Pharma company.If you could find a regulatorily viable way to sell to 100,000 patients by connecting them through less than 50 independent doctors online, vs. buying lunches every week for thousands of busy, gate-kept, and fickle physicians…wouldn’t you?That’s the power and promise of DTC health.Eli Lily and all of Big Pharma will be eagerly waiting to see if LilyDirect can successfully show proof of concept in connecting patients to medicines more cost effectively than traditional GTM methods.My guess is they will. But they’ll struggle with hiring and retaining talent to build delightful product experiences over the long term, and if you’re an existing DTC telehealth platform that’s the win condition you should be laser-focused on: patient experience 🔒#elililly #lilydirect #consumerhealthcare #digitalhealth #healthcare #bigpharma

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Super fun to speak at Inc. Magazine’s annual conference celebrating bussineses that are changing the game 🚀Shoutout to my better half, Zaynab Jan, for making a very upbeat short form video highlighting our time at the event, she is much better at social media than I am 😄Was joined on stage at “Building the Future of Wellness” by Alex Taylor, co-founder of one of Frontrow Health’s very own health brand partners, Perelel — the first OB/GYN-founded prenatal brand that hundreds of our own medical providers have included in their personalized digital stores.Key takeaway from the event:Building trust with consumers must be at the forefront of DTC healthcare. Brands must develop products that are defended by science, and DTC-enablers like Frontrow can play a role translating that science for consumers — in our case, by making it easier for doctors to get involved in their patient’s healthcare shopping journeys.Still much more work ahead, but loved meeting lots of other health and wellness leaders passionate about delivering this trust to consumers 🙌#healthcare #digitalhealth #consumerhealthcare

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Since I started this series, a number of people have reached out asking for advice on how to transition into / be a successful non-technical PM.To be honest, I’m still figuring that out myself, as someone who doesn’t code or design in Figma.But, I can at least share what I’ve learned so far about what it takes to lead a team of experts, as a non-expert.Full article for more learnings!01 | Recognize that their work is more complicated than your work.TL;DR: Coding is simply more difficult than sending emails and having meetings.Example: Our lead machine learning engineer, Nupur Garg, expends so much more ‘Brain CPU’ developing our algorithm to personalize every unique patient’s shopping experience than I do pacing around my living room taking phone calls…Action: Do not clutter your engineers’ calendars — morning sprint check-ins + bi-weekly retros + asynch Slack & huddles are the max, anything more can danger your engineers’ productivity.02 | Good engineers aren’t ‘code monkeys’ — their opinions matter.TL;DR: Don’t command engineers to do something; explain the problem to them, the research that went into defining a solution, and gather their opinions on level of effort, alternative ways to implement, a more minimally viable feature, etc.Example: Doctors were looking for a way to track patient activity on their new digital store, and my instinct was to build an entire dashboard; however, b/c I involved my team, we deployed a patient activity email that providers loved and was 25% of the effort.Action: Slowly loop in engineers during the design, research, and ideation process — it often leads to more well-rounded solutions that take less time to develop.03 | It’s not all on you, be honest when you don’t understand something.TL;DR: A good PM knows their limitations, and a good product team has their back, simplifying complicated concepts when needed, and/or taking direct ownership of resolving issues without looping you into the weeds.Example: We experienced a bug where our search bar was returning results slower than usual. I spotted the bug and anxiously shared it with the team late in the evening. Before our the next morning’s sync — the engineering team had already separately met an hour earlier, discussed a set of solutions, aligned on one, ‘sized’ it, decided who was the right person to tackle, and presented this during our check-in.Action: Don’t pretend like you’re the expert, and, if anything, your non-technical skillset can naturally keep you away from the weeds, while your team gains ownership and command of their area of expertise.Ultimately, whether you know how to code or UX/UI design doesn’t matter as much as whether you know how to lead, be decisive, balance priorities, and communicate clearly — that is the fundamental job of a product manager, technical or not. 🚀#productmanagement #product #digitalhealth

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Had a blast building digital stores for direct primary care doctors at the Hint Health Summit last week!It was particularly fun to meet a number of our existing doctor partners in person, including Dr. Sandy Valino Stock, DO, MBA who was much better pitching Frontrow to other doctors than I was 😅This is her presenting her own Frontrow Health discounts store to colleagues!You can even checkout her favorite products here: https://lnkd.in/gFJc6GRwAnd huge shoutout to the Hint Health team for hosting a fantastic conference — they’ve cultivated a very strong community of providers whose optimism about changing healthcare was inspiring. 🚀

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Always a good time chatting with Jon Bassett about all things startups :)Loved sharing more about our founding story and where we’re headed!

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