Own your Health with Travis Rush

eorge grombacher 0:00
Hi this is George G. And the time is right welcome today’s guest strong and powerful Travis rush. Travis, are you ready to do this?

Unknown Speaker 0:22
I am ready to arch. Let’s do it.

george grombacher 0:24
Alright, let’s go. Travis is the co founder and CEO of repairs to health. They’re an organization reducing barriers to to preventative care and the only provider of an at home screening kit that analyzes results on the spot. Travis, tell us a little about your personal lives more about your work, why you do what you do?

Unknown Speaker 0:43
Yeah, thanks for having me, George. Well, my as with most startups, personal life is really about the startup. I do have family kids wife, this is my my second go around at a startup. So I, you know, this isn’t isn’t the first time my wife knew what we were getting into this time around. But unfortunately, she was willing to go with me on another another journey here. So we, you know, I’ll tell you a tiny bit about why, you know, back in about 10 years ago, I went in to see a doctor about, you know, colonoscopy, that thing you do it, you’re 40 You know, when you’re 40, and you’re supposed to go in and have this done is what I was told, I went into the doctor’s office, and they said, you know, your insurance isn’t going to cover this. And I said, What do you mean? And they said, Yeah, no, they stopped covering this. Now. They, they, they’ll cover it when you’re 50. So you can come back? And I suppose why would they do that? That seems a little backwards. And now Now, now they do it at 45. But back then, you know, 5050 was the next year that they had decided that they would do this. And, you know, I went and did some digging around and researching. Unfortunately, I’d been a very healthy person my whole life, and hadn’t had much interaction with the healthcare system at that point. And as I learned, through digging around that, you know, our healthcare system in the US is really designed around fixing people after they break. And it’s not really proactive and saying, you know, let’s, what do we do? And how can we keep people from getting sick. And, you know, the the math that had been done was, hey, if we wait until they’re 50, it’ll be cheaper for us to fix all the people that break it 50 versus screening them every year for 10 years. And it was pretty horrifying to realize that that’s how decisions are being made in this country around how to take care of each of us. And that really got me starting to think about how we put the control in the hands of us, the people being able to get the data that we need easily and having the you know, access to that information so that we can make those decisions ourself, instead of sitting around waiting for the healthcare professionals to tell us what to do and when to do it. And that was really something that, you know, this was an idea that I had before that but that was a moment that really spurred my interest in getting on it and trying to figure this out. So about three years ago, we started this company and filed a patent to start building this technology that would give people the ability to do a self screening, you know, which includes blood pressure, heart rate, cholesterol, LDL, HDL, triglycerides, glucose, all those things that are kind of the the foundation of how our body is doing, and give them the ability to do this themselves at home with this kit that arrives at their house. They log into their phone and and connect to this kit with their app, and go through the screening process and have all the results instantly no waiting for labs to give information back to you in two to three weeks. And then you have another conversation with a doctor to talk about the results to try to understand them. And so we’ve we’ve tried to put the control in the users hands

george grombacher 4:27
amazing. It’s pretty gross. When you think about it, what jumped into my mind was that story about what whatever the car company was that they would get rear ended and the car would blow up but they made the decision that it’s cheaper to pay the to pay the settlements than it is to actually fix the car. So

Unknown Speaker 4:48
absolutely.

george grombacher 4:49
So fascinating. All right. So you you you you have this this this this epiphany this this awakening moment you say you know what this is? This is a horrible problem. We need to somebody needs to do something about this turns out, it’s going to be you. There’s a lot of ground that goes from that decision to actually engineering creating the kit that actually does it.

Unknown Speaker 5:12
Yeah, yeah, it’s been a lot of work. Fortunately, I’ve, I’ve been able to assemble a pretty incredible team, you know, the, making this technology work, figuring out how to make it work, make it reliable, make it easy for people to use. You know, I would love to take credit for that I can’t, I found the right people that were able to make it all work. And, you know, so far, it’s been a really fun journey challenging at times, you know, there’s no, there’s no roadmap in front of you, when you’re trying to build something new, that you can follow, you got to figure it out along the way. And sometimes, you know, those, those challenges, especially when the industry doesn’t really want you there, because you’re interfering with how it’s been for a long time, you know, can can create some barriers that you got to figure out how to overcome?

george grombacher 6:08
Yeah, that’s interesting, right, there’s certainly money to be made in, in every aspect of of medicine, and the way things are going is typically the way that people want things to go. So the headwind there.

Unknown Speaker 6:21
Yeah. You know, though, if you think back, prior to COVID, things were much different than they are now. You know, there was a lot of positive I think that that did come out of COVID. You know, I think it’s, you know, it’s it’s difficult to see the silver lining, but I think there is one as far as the kind of jolting that it did to all of us around, you know, there are these things called underlying conditions that we all have. There are, you know, pre existing conditions like pre diabetes, that, you know, we found that, you know, 80% of the people that have pre diabetes don’t have any idea that they have it. And COVID also showed us that the entire healthcare system can’t handle all of us. You know, that was the thing they kept screaming about on all the media, and everywhere that was going on is, you know, please stay home, the healthcare systems overwhelmed. They can’t handle it if you get sick. And I think that was, you know, a couple of glaring things that came out of that, that that made it more clear to all of us that we need to take some responsibility on ourselves to manage our health and make sure that we aren’t straining the system so that those people that are very sick, can get the help they need. So I think that was one thing, but I think there’s also a technology side. You know, that’s been around for quite a while, but the healthcare system has been very slow moving. I mean, I, my previous startup I mentioned earlier, one of the things that was fascinating about that business is we were still, even though we were building technology around a different part of healthcare in that startup, we were dealing with fax machines, fax machines, I mean, that’s, I didn’t even know people still had them. And it turns out that the doctors offices are still faxing things back to each other. And that’s how slow they’re adapting to the new technologies that are available out there. So I think one, one good thing that came out of the healthcare system, or the COVID situation was, it forced the regulators to get out of the way and let a lot of the technology bleed into the healthcare industry that had been fighting for so long to get in there. They finally had no choice but to get out of the way and let it happen. Because, again, the system couldn’t handle us. So they had to let the technology take over. So telehealth and telemedicine and things like what we’ve created now are much more accepted than they would have been even five years ago.

george grombacher 9:11
Yeah, that’s, that’s fascinating. A lot of really, really important things there that you just you just mentioned 80% of people who are pre diabetic don’t don’t realize it, the importance of taking responsibility for our health just for ourselves, but also because the healthcare system is is stretched pretty thin as it is, and the ability to allow new technologies to come in. So walk walk me through the process. I am curious about my health. I want to make sure that I’m a healthy person now and then into the future. I go to repair your health, or how does how does the process actually work?

Unknown Speaker 9:51
Sure. Yeah. So there’s there’s a few different ways that it can be utilized. One of them is just taking it upon yourself. So Oh, yes, thank you for the plug there, you can go to repair your health.com. And individuals can sign up. It’s, it’s $99 for an individual to sign up and request this kit. At that point, once they sign up, that triggers the process to begin, and the first thing that happens is you register you request this kit, we then ask when it would when you would like it to arrive at your home, we deliver it, when it arrives, you’ll be asked to log into this app that you’ll have registered through in the first place that’ll connect you to this thing. And it takes about 20 to 30 minutes to go through the screening. There’s a voice narration in the app that’s walking you through it. And when you get done, all of the data shows up instantly. And I think that’s an important aspect of the way we do this is the kid immediately pushes data into the app real time, so you’re not sitting around after you’re done and mail in some information, or go take a get an appointment at a at a lab or a pharmacy or a doctor’s office, taking time off work, haven’t find childcare or pet care, whatever else to make it happen, which creates all these barriers and friction that keep people from doing it. And then they procrastinate. And next thing, you know, it’s been two years since they’ve gone to the doctor. So we’re trying to make sure that you can get into the you know, using the app instantly and, and getting that data back instantly as well. So that you can take action on it. There’s a you know, if you don’t want to buy this yourself, there are also other ways that you can make it happen. One of them is through an employer. So a lot of employers have programs designed around, you know, health benefits for their workforce. And it is to their advantage to make sure that people in their workforce are healthy. So a lot of employers will take a program like ours and make it accessible to all of their employees. So that’s another way that that you know, if it’s not something that you can afford to do on your own, but talk to your employer, see if they want to add something like this to their benefits program.

george grombacher 12:17
That makes a ton of sense. So the kid arrives, I’ve got the app on my phone, I’m ready to go. Is this I pull out some hair, some saliva, blood urine?

Unknown Speaker 12:28
Good question. Good question. So no, it is a it’s a fingerprick. And that’s it, we’re able to get enough blood out of a fingerprick to be able to give you your total cholesterol, your LDL, HDL is triglycerides, and your glucose. And and then there’s also a scale in there to calculate your weight for BMI body mass index. And then we have a tape measure in there to measure your waist circumference, which is a between that and your height and your weight, we can calculate your relative fat mass. And then there’s a blood pressure cuff that also you just slide it onto your arm and it will calculate your resting heart rate and your blood pressure. So it’s all it’s all very easy. You’re not sticking needles in your arm yourself and drawn blood into a tube. It’s very, very simple. Just just a little fingerprint.

george grombacher 13:20
Got it. Nice. That That sounds easy enough to meet Travis. And then I’m waiting there and just in a very short amount of time, it’s gonna tell me it’s gonna tell me what run to the hospital George cough?

Unknown Speaker 13:36
Well, hopefully not. Yeah, it’s gonna it’s going to give you some some ranges. So on that final screen in the app, when you’re done, it’s going to show you where you land in a spectrum or a range of that particular metric. And there’s, you know, a red area, kind of a yellow orange area, and then a green area. And you can imagine it’s very standard with all of those beam. And depending on where you land, yes, it will give you some advice. You know, we’re not diagnosing anything. That’s not our role in this our our our goal is to give you information, tell you what it means. And then, you know, let you know whether or not you’re in a good place or if you should seek some medical support and get some professional additional diagnosis from a doctor.

george grombacher 14:29
Got it? And do the majority of Americans have a primary care physician that that they work with?

Unknown Speaker 14:41
You know, that it’s it’s actually pretty amazing that the data that’s out there, says that nearly 50% of the US population does not go in for an annual checkup? Yeah. You know, so that’s pretty telling about it. why we ended up where we end up in a lot of cases and have the shocking moment in our life that, you know, he said said there was some Docker and they say, you know, this could have been prevented. And, you know, that’s a pretty horrible place to be. So we’re trying to make sure that people don’t have to have that kind of conversation.

george grombacher 15:23
Got it? And do you help people to bridge that gap? So okay, if you don’t have a doctor, here are some options for you. Or here’s some information that you can, you can educate yourself, so you can close this gap and actually start to take care of these. If your levels aren’t optimum, optimal, here’s, here’s some things you probably ought to do.

Unknown Speaker 15:48
Yeah. So, you know, at our level as just how I was mentioning people can sign up as an individual. We don’t get into those details, yes, we’ll we’ll give them information about you know, what is? What is cholesterol? And how do you improve it? And what are the things that affect it and, you know, based on your range, here are some things you might want to do. You know, and if it’s bad enough, then yes, we’ll recommend that they go see a professional but or a medical professional, but we don’t provide connectivity to those professionals. Now, with that said, if your employer is willing to get involved and be providing the service, most employers will provide those ancillary services. So in a benefits package with employers that are really doing everything they can to ensure that the their workforce is healthy. They’ll provide things like a you know, nutritionists, dieticians, access to wellness coaches, you know, memberships to fitness organizations. And then obviously, the health plan that’s provided by that employer will have access to, you know, the doctors and the network that that comes with that. So you know, we’ve really a big, big part of our focus is to get to those employers, and try to educate them on the benefits not only of just caring about their their people, but also showing them that look, there is value in you taking the steps and the initiative, to provide your workforce with something that is useful and educate them on how to stay healthy, they’ll perform better, they’ll show up to work more, they’ll take less time off because they’re sick or not feeling well. There’s there’s a lot of just automatic benefits to providing things like this as a kind of underlying benefit.

george grombacher 17:56
Couldn’t agree more. More ownership, we can take over every aspect of of of our lives better, and fortunate to have physicians on the show. And several of them have said the doctor of the future is you. So taking ownership and such a big part of that is just knowing, like, Hey, I wonder if 80% of the world are pre diabetic or of America are pre diabetic. i I wonder if I fall into that. 80% Just

Unknown Speaker 18:21
to clarify, it’s not that they are is that 80% of the people that are don’t know it.

george grombacher 18:28
That that that that makes more sense. Yeah. I love it. Well, Travis, thank you so much for coming on. Where can people learn more about you? Tell us how we can connect with repair to health.

Unknown Speaker 18:41
Yep, we have our website repair to health.com. And that’s our e p e r i o health.com. And we also have a blog that they can get access to that provides also a lot of additional information around health care and self health and and things like that.

george grombacher 19:04
If you enjoyed this as much as I did show Travis your appreciation and share today’s show with a friend who also appreciates good ideas if you work for a company and have health insurance benefits mention repairs to health to your HR leaders. So the folks who are in charge to the benefits and see if this is an additional benefit that they can bring to the euro to the employee population. Go to reputable health.com It’s r e p e r i o health.com. And check out the great resources in the blog. Thanks good Travis.

Unknown Speaker 19:35
All right. Appreciate it. George. Have a great day.

george grombacher 19:37
And until next time, remember, do your part by doing your best

Transcribed by https://otter.ai