In this Q&A, you’ll hear from Dr. Matthew Dawson, co-founder & CEO of Wild Health, a precision medicine platform. Matthew shares how his experience as an emergency room physician inspired him to explore AI and hyper-personalized preventative care to keep people from getting sick in the first place.
Can you tell us about Wild Health?
Dr. Matthew Dawson: Wild Health is a precision medicine service delivering personalized, genetics-based care to optimize your health and maximize your healthspan. With a proactive and preventative approach, Wild Health is taking radical action against a medical system historically focused on sick care.
Our passion for holistic health, grounded in precision medicine, drove the development of our product Clarity — the world’s first precision medicine algorithm.
It combines advanced machine learning and in-depth analysis of a patient’s genetics, biometrics, microbiome, and lifestyle data to create a blueprint for optimized health and a maximized healthspan across all key pillars of health: nutrition, exercise, recovery, sleep, microbiome, neurobehavioral, and chronic disease risk.
To put that into action, Wild Health pairs each member with a board-certified physician and an accredited health coach to guide them through a tailored and personalized health plan to transform their physical, mental, and spiritual well-being.
Wild Health has both a Standard and Premium program — the latter being a high-touch, all-inclusive, concierge medical experience designed specifically for high-performers.
What led you to pursue this opportunity?
MD: My co-founder, Dr. Mike Mallin, and I both worked as emergency room physicians, seeing patients with diabetes, heart disease, and other chronic conditions that would have largely been avoided or far less advanced had there been a focus on root causes rather than symptoms.
We both knew there was an unequivocally better way to practice medicine — one that prioritized the patient’s healthspan and overall well-being. Coupled with our shared passions for genomics, health and human optimization, and lifestyle-first interventions, we decided to start practicing precision medicine.
How did you turn your idea into a company?
MD: When we first started Wild Health, it was more of a private practice where we worked with patients within our immediate networks while building the technological infrastructure we envisioned with AI and machine learning.
It quickly took off and transformed into a full-scale telehealth company that delivered precision medicine to patients across the country.
Our first growth channel was launching the Wild Health Podcast, which we still run today as a way to educate more people on the power of precision medicine and make them aware of Wild Health’s offerings.
We also partnered with top-tier organizations that were aligned with our mission, like CrossFit and Spartan Race, to drive brand awareness and user growth.
With a grander vision to scale our incredible patient outcomes through AI, in 2022, we were acquired by software developer LivePerson, allowing us the ability to broaden our incredible patient outcomes through AI. We grew tremendously, and our service offerings evolved to meet demand.
Now, Wild Health has a Standard program, a Premium program with two membership levels, as well as an Enterprise division to service corporate entities and teams.
How big can this get?
MD: Telehealth has only continued to grow in recent years, and it’s certainly here to stay. Where there’s opportunity and excitement is in genomics-based, personalized medicine, as well as AI.
We don’t believe providers can or should ever be replaced, but the ability to leverage AI to make data analysis infinitely less time-consuming only allows doctors to do their jobs better. We know AI also has the potential to give patients a health assistant in their pockets, which is incredibly powerful when you think of the numerous one-off questions that any person might go down the rabbit hole researching on their own.
Instead, having a well-informed AI assistant to translate information and tailor information specific to your genomics and preferences will be truly game-changing. We have a lot of new ideas in the works around this, which will only make this kind of medicine more accessible to more people — so stay tuned.
How do you reach your core customer?
MD: Wild Health is certainly for the individual who’s invested and motivated to better their health and well-being. It’s a collaborative approach to achieving your health goals—from reversing diabetes to body recomposition—that necessitates commitment on both sides.
That said, we have members who come to us with highly targeted health goals but also others simply looking for an all-around better alternative to traditional healthcare. For the latter, we take a patient-first approach in addressing all of their needs.
Elevating the experience, our Premium program is a much higher-priced offering and designed as such for C-level executives, professional athletes, and other individuals focused on cognitive and athletic performance. It includes all the high-touch, concierge-level services you’d want, along with advanced testing and imaging. You also receive more direct access to your dedicated doctor, health coach, and executive care coordinator.
What’s next on the roadmap?
MD: We’re really excited about some of the aforementioned AI advancements that currently work to make our providers’ jobs more streamlined and efficient, but we also have plans to develop an iteration that gives members access as well.
The idea would be to provide a virtual health assistant that knows everything about your genetics, biometrics, and lifestyle in order to provide hyper-personalized recommendations and insights. We believe it’ll really change the industry for the better.
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