As more obesity care programs gain attention due to the rise in popularity of weight loss medications like GLP-1s, one company is leveraging AI to support patients.
New York City-based Alfie Health, founded in 2022, is a virtual obesity management clinic that uses AI to make recommendations to help patients lose weight. These recommendations could include medications as well as lifestyle changes like nutrition and exercise. It then combines those recommendations with virtual visits with Alfie’s providers, including nurse practitioners and medical doctors. Now, the startup is looking to scale its business after raising $2.1 million in seed funding that was announced last week.
“We use a proprietary AI clinical decision support tool that allows us to understand what underlying issues [patients have] that is causing them to gain weight, and then recommend a combination of precision medicine and behavioral change that is unique to each patient to help them sustainably lose weight,” said Alexander Singh, CEO and co-founder of Alfie Health, in an interview.
The seed funding was led by Y Combinator and Nina Capital. It included participation from Goodwater Capital, Phoenix Investment Club and several angel investors.
With the financing, the company aims to scale its sales and partnerships. It currently works with a cardiology group and a large self-funded employer client to provide weight loss services to patients and employees, Singh said. He declined to name the cardiology group and employer client.
Alfie Health also contracts with payers in select states in a fee-for-service model, though it aims to transition to a value-based care model in the future. The states it offers services in include Maryland, Virginia, New York, New Jersey, California, Texas, Florida and the District of Columbia. Patients who decide to pay out of pocket are charged $120 a month.
To be eligible for the program, patients have to be over the age of 18 and have a body mass index of 30 or higher, or have a body mass index of 27 and higher along with comorbidities (like sleep apnea and hypertension). To start, Alfie Health’s platform gathers patients’ medical records with their permission. The company also has the patient conduct metabolic lab testing and bloodwork at Labcorp and Quest Diagnostic locations to determine the safety of different medications. Its AI algorithm then takes in this information to provide a treatment plan that is tailored to the patient and reviewed by the company’s medical team.
Patients then have monthly virtual meetings with a clinical provider to go over their treatment, as well as bi-weekly meetings with a health coach to discuss lifestyle changes.
While GLP-1s like Ozempic and Wegovy (which help lower blood sugar to support weight loss) are sometimes offered as part of treatment, that is not always the case as these drugs don’t help everyone. Singh said it is important to personalize treatment to the patient.
“Having a program that is really focused on not just the precision of which medications may work the best, but also the precision of which behavioral lifestyle changes (exercise, diet, sleep, etc.) will work the best … is really important,” Singh declared. “In the long term, it’s those behavioral changes in combination with the medications that are delivering sustainable results.”
The funding round comes as a series of companies are launching programs for patients struggling with obesity. LifeMD, a direct-to-consumer company, recently started a weight management program that offers access to GLP-1s when considered appropriate, as well as ongoing clinical support and coaching. Found, a weight care company, also recently launched an employer-specific obesity care program that offers medication prescriptions, support from providers, coaching and an app for meal and activity tracking.
Photo: puhimec, Getty Images
