The rate of obesity and chronic health issues are growing in Australia but there is still only one dietitian per 1400 Australians. In an attempt to allow dietitians see more patients Pete Saunders and his team developed Health Delivered. We spoke to Pete about the challenges working within the nutrition space and his drive to collaborate with other health companies.
What is your health innovation? What does it aim to do?
Health Delivered is a dietary management platform designed to tackle the growing rates of obesity, diabetes and other chronic health issues.
Through the platform, dietitians will have access to real-time data regarding the dietary and biometric inputs of their clients. This will allow them to assess existing treatments and recommendations, and engage with their clients remotely with personalised data in between regular consultations.
Health Delivered increases capacity to see more clients, creates a greater focus on quality of client care, increases personalisation of outcomes, creates more points of intervention, and enables clients to succeed.
How do you celebrate and showcase your successes? Who is the first person you tell?
We have a small but really dedicated team who share in success together. So the first person I tell is usually “@channel” on Slack.
Otherwise, we have a great group of advisors and supporters who take an active interest in what we are doing, so the ability to share little wins and tidbits along the way is always valuable.
What challenges have you come up against in developing your health innovation? What motivated you to keep going?
Health in general is incredibly challenging to deliver any type of innovation. There is a lot of red tape, processes and legacy systems, and thinking to deal with. We have worked with a number of people who want to see some kind of change and improvement but don’t feel empowered to do so. That became our job.
Within that though, is the motivation to keep going. When we see the little ‘a-ha’ moments our users experience and we can start to see improvements to their capacity and workflow is the main driver behind our determination.
Otherwise, the current funding landscape is not well geared to supporting health startups. Few and far between succeed because it’s such a challenging world to navigate.
What is one thing the public could do to help your innovation to succeed?
Take a look and tell the people they know! Everyone knows a doctor, a nurse, a pharmacist, a dietitian or nutritionists. Health care workers can all benefit from this and we are looking to work with a wider range of specialties to improve the breadth of our offering.
Soon enough we will be building our consumer app which will empower all Australians to have a personalised approach to their meal planning. We want to test this with as many people as possible throughout the build process so need input there.
What are the benefits of developing your innovation in Australia?
Dietitians cannot provide personalised meal plans to every client because the process is too time consuming and many do not have adequate training.
On average, there are 1400 people per dietitian in Australia, and the workforce is still strapped to inefficient methods of reaching, engaging with, and managing their clients. Traditional, manual paper based plans take up to four hours to create, diminishing the service dietitians can provide to each individual, and limiting their ability to expand their client base.
We are actively seeking to improve this and help quell the growing burden on the health care system. Australia is a fantastic test bed for global innovation and we want to deliver an exceptional product here and expand from Australia.
Anything else you would like to mention?
We are open to collaborating with any health company (start up through to major corporation) that can create mutual value. The health sector will only be improved through collaboration so we want to play a part in the massive and critical machine.
To keep track of the progress Health Delivered is making follow their profile on Health Horizon.
What is one thing the public could do to help your innovation to succeed?
Take a look and tell the people they know! Everyone knows a doctor, a nurse, a pharmacist, a dietitian or nutritionists. Health care workers can all benefit from this and we are looking to work with a wider range of specialties to improve the breadth of our offering.
Soon enough we will be building our consumer app which will empower all Australians to have a personalised approach to their meal planning. We want to test this with as many people as possible throughout the build process so need input there.
What are the benefits of developing your innovation in Australia?
Dietitians cannot provide personalised meal plans to every client because the process is too time consuming and many do not have adequate training.
On average, there are 1400 people per dietitian in Australia, and the workforce is still strapped to inefficient methods of reaching, engaging with, and managing their clients. Traditional, manual paper based plans take up to four hours to create, diminishing the service dietitians can provide to each individual, and limiting their ability to expand their client base.
We are actively seeking to improve this and help quell the growing burden on the health care system. Australia is a fantastic test bed for global innovation and we want to deliver an exceptional product here and expand from Australia.
Anything else you would like to mention?
We are open to collaborating with any health company (start up through to major corporation) that can create mutual value. The health sector will only be improved through collaboration so we want to play a part in the massive and critical machine.
To keep track of the progress Health Delivered is making follow their profile on Health Horizon.