As health care costs and obesity rates rise, health providers are turning to digital health products in an effort to meet consumers where they’re at — online.
San Francisco startup Rally Health wants to go one step further, by turning the digital health platform it launched Tuesday into something of an online game.
Gaming is often a sedentary, even solitary activity, but Rally Health believes some of the elements that make games so appealing can help get people off their couches and onto their feet.
Distributed through health plans and employers, Rally Health tries to coax users into healthy behavior with a game-like rewards system, doling out missions like exercising three times a week, laying off sugar for a day or cutting back on tobacco.
The industry calls it gamification.
The platform already has millions enrolled. In a January earnings call, UnitedHealth Group, which includes a division that has backed Rally Health, said it had quietly added 5 million people to the service. Rally Health has also announced a partnership with insurance provider Health Alliance.
“The whole purpose of the company today is to really put health in the hands of the consumer, and we’ve been focused on that by building a data-driven platform that creates an increasing engagement, said chief operating officer David Ko, formerly of Zynga.
With Rally Health, users begin by completing a survey that takes into account things like physical fitness, nutrition, alcohol use and smoking. Based on their score, Rally Health suggests activities to help them maintain or improve their lifestyle.
When users complete those activities, some reported on the honor system and others automatically entered from wearables or fitness exams, they win points. From there, they can enter drawings for prizes — gift cards, electronics, health savings accounts and others — through Rally Health, their employers or insurance companies.
Rally Health is game-like, but not a game, Ko said. Its points are more like systems users already understand, like credit card points or airline miles, he said.
In addition to its points system, Rally Health has a social component — users can interact with each other anonymously through forums or compete in challenges — and the service allows them to schedule sessions with health coaches.
Turning fitness into a game isn’t new: Look no further than Wii Fit, or “Zombies, Run!” — a popular app that keeps runners going by making them feel as though they’re being chased by the walking dead.
“People in our industry have played with gamification and in some cases overused it, more from there’s a line between actually building a game and using game theory to engage consumers,” Ko said.
The key to making people live better is behavioral change, said Cameron Lister, the lead author of a study on the subject who holds a master’s in public health from Brigham Young University.
In a survey of 132 health apps, Lister and his colleagues found that health and fitness apps that used gamification often lacked elements that were likely to change users’ behavior. In some apps, rewards were little more than marketing schemes, he said.
“The same apps that were heavy on those gamification tactics scored very low on behavioral theory integration — trying to teach people skills (to) integrate into their daily health,” Lister said.
Rally Health announced partnerships with two insurance companies and has high hopes for the future.
Ko would not disclose how many monthly active users the company has so far. As it adds partnerships, he eventually aspires to reach 350 million users.
Malay Gandhi, a managing director at Rock Health, a venture capital firm that invests in health startups, said the digital health field is “extraordinarily competitive.”
“There are a lot of people who are not well: They’re chronically ill or at high risk of becoming chronically ill. Everybody is seeking a solution for behavior change,” Gandhi said.
Date: February 3, 2015