David Weingard
Chief Executive Officer
Fit4D
Transforming the Diabetes Landscape
Diabetes is a complex, 24 hours-a-day, 7 days-a-week disease, and David Weingard is no stranger to this. At the age of 36, he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, and learned to navigate balancing medication, nutrition, and exercise regimens with the guidance from a Certified Diabetes Educator (CDE).
After his positive experience, David had the idea to use technology to scale the reach of CDEs and provide people with access to this expert diabetes support. In 2009, he left his job at Microsoft and founded Fit4D, a web-based diabetes coaching program. Fit4D financed its innovation years by delivering paid services to leading pharmaceutical brands.
Quickly, David discovered a gap in the diabetes patient-support service market: 40% of patients prescribed a new diabetes medication either don’t fill their first script or stop taking the medication in the first few months, representing a $20 billion per year problem for pharmaceutical companies.
To solve this problem, Fit4D hires CDEs nationwide who use the technology platform to coach patients through a personalized, data-driven journey, increasing patient capacity 5x and enabling CDEs to solve for complex barriers to medication adherence.
“Before ‘treatment adherence’ became a buzzword, David had already constructed a program to improve the lives of people with diabetes,” says Olivier Jarry, Managing Partner, Imagiance and Former COO of Bayer Diabetes. “Over the years, David patiently and systematically learned from his first clients and built a robust proposition that optimizes the balance of human touch and automated information.”
David set up a B2B model, selling the technology-enabled Fit4D service directly to pharmaceutical companies, payers, and ACOs. Pharmaceutical clients have improved patient adherence by 20%, delivering a 3:1 ROI, and payer clients’ members have yielded improvements in blood glucose levels and a ROI of 5:1. Fit4D has partnered with payers such as Healthfirst and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska, and Accountable Care Organizations such as Acacia Health Network.
With Fit4D, David is transforming the diabetes landscape and providing the essential problem-solving and emotional support that people living with a chronic condition need.
