Canadian startup combines diagnostics with user data to improve health outcomes

Sameer Dhar, Co-Founder & CEO of NiaHealth, and Brooke Thackray, Research Analyst at Global X, joins BNN Bloomberg to discuss the disconnect in data and Canadian healthcare.

A Canadian startup hopes to revolutionize proactive healthcare by combining advanced diagnostics with user data from fitness trackers like smart watches, allowing clinicians to provide their patients with personalized health recommendations.

The co-founder and CEO of Edmonton-based NiaHealth says that Canadians are collecting more data about their health than ever before, but much of that data is being wasted.

“It’s interesting to note that approximately 40 per cent of Canadians have and own a wearable, however physicians are only looking at about 15 per cent of folks with wearables,” Sameer Dhar told BNN Bloomberg in a Tuesday interview.

“There’s clearly a gap between the amount of data being collected and how we’re interpreting it within context, and I think that’s one of the issues that we at Nia are trying to address.”

Dhar said NiaHealth provides users with diagnostics for “advanced biomarker data” including tests that examine blood and gut microbiome health, as well as bone density and body composition scans, among others.

Clinicians are then given access to those test results along with user data from wearables to create personalized, actionable recommendations for their patients, he said.

“Licensed clinicians are actually looking at the data and are able to tell us: ‘Hey, here’s where your risk lies,’ and within context of their clinical knowledge base and understanding are able to provide us with insight that we can act on,” said Dhar.

NiaHealth allows users to integrate their wearable devices directly with its platform, and the company recommends specific blood tests and other diagnostics, he said.

“So, you’re actually combining both the bloodwork and these other biomarkers with your wearables automatically, and then our clinicians are looking at that overall picture in combination with your medical history,” Dhar explained.

Once Nia’s clinicians gain access to this full range of data, they can provide users with insights into how their lifestyle, including things like sleep and exercise habits, are contributing to their overall health, he said.

This proactive approach to healthcare differs from traditional physician checkups, Dhar argued.

“I think in a regular doctor visit where you might have 10 to 15 minutes with your physician, you might get a response like: ‘Hey, you’ve got high cholesterol, perhaps consider exercising more.’ What we’re finding is that type of guidance doesn’t necessarily lead to behaviour change,” he said.

“So, I think it’s very important to include more specific wearables-based data around the different zones of exercise for example that you’re using and how you can actually focus on certain zones of exercise to be able to optimize your health outcomes.”

Dhar said that NiaHealth currently operates in every Canadian province outside of Quebec but hopes to be operational there by the end of the year. The private company has grown approximately 30 month-over-month since its inception, he noted.

“We’re super excited about Canadians across the country wanting to be more proactive about their health and trying to find ways… to get on top of their health in a way in which they weren’t before,” said Dhar.

“In terms of five years from now, we hope to entrench our position as the leading player in Canada from a proactive health perspective, but also our ambitions are global because we really do believe we’ve cracked the code on how to get insight into your health and own your own health outcomes.”