InquisitHealth Expands Peer Mentoring Programs, Improves Patient Care

InquisitHealth, a population health management company powered by peer-to-peer mentoring, recently announced new funding that will help expand existing diabetes, asthma, and pre-diabetes programs and establish new programs for hypertension, sickle cell disease, and COPD. Currently, InquisitHealth’s funding totals $4.2M, which is inclusive of non-dilutive funding from the National Institutes of Health.

“With these new investments and incredible partners, we’re excited to expand our peer mentoring solutions,” Ashwin Patel, MD PhD, co-founder and chief medical officer at InquisitHealth, said in a statement. “We are seeing great results across the spectrum, but especially in the Medicaid population, where there is a higher prevalence of social, behavioral, and health literacy challenges.”

InquisitHealth’s therapeutic peer-to-peer approach leverages high degrees of shared empathy between peer and peer mentor to drive clinical outcomes. Goal-focused conversations among patients and peer mentors often fill knowledge gaps, inspire behavior change and help address the underlying social and behavioral determinants of health, which are often seen among high-risk and high-cost patients. Further, a value-add approach builds upon what is achievable through traditional care models, resulting in better clinical outcomes that are more sustainable.

A recent analysis of InquisitHealth’s diabetes peer mentoring program across all commercial, Medicare, and Medicaid populations demonstrated an average 1.5-point reduction in HbA1c, sustained 24+ months.

“InquisitHealth has opened a new channel in the treatment of chronic diseases,” James Foy, partner at Hudson River Capital Partners and InquisitHealth’s board director, said. “It has replicated academic research in real-world situations to assist health care providers achieve dramatically better, and sustainable, outcomes in a range of diverse communities. It has also demonstrated success in partnering with a wide array of entities including medical centers, unions, and large pharmaceutical firms. This investment round will facilitate a significant scaling of this exciting new approach to peer mentoring.”

According to the company, as health systems adopt value-based care delivery, there is broader awareness of the need to holistically support each patient in between physician visits.

"InquisitHealth is bringing value to the entire healthcare ecosystem—patients, providers, health plans, hospitals, patient foundations, and pharmaceutical companies,” investor Brad Farber, founder of Atika Capital Management, said. “They are tapping into the power of peers to drive medication adherence, healthy lifestyle changes, and through that, delivering significant improvements in health outcomes."

—Julie Gould

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