health123
Health123 is a platform that offers an individualized guide for improving your health.

There is already a bevy of health and wellness startups out there in a very crowded space. But a new Seattle startup backed by some big names is trying to break into the scene with a robust intelligence platform that features an individualized dashboard for improving your health.

health123logoHealth123, which just raised a little over $1 million, is all about empowering people to take control of their health before they have to go to the hospital and pay big medical bills. Its mission is to “make prevention popular” by knowing which metrics to use to monitor your health.

“Fitness trends, devices and initatives will come and go, and expand and mature,” co-founder and CTO Rebecca Norlander said. “We want to be able to take in data from all of those and simply, consistently show you the impact on your health and welness at the member level.”

Norlander, a former Microsoft exec, co-founded the company with her former colleague and current Acxiom CEO Scott Howe, as well as Rachel Lanham, a former Razorfish exec. Howe had the idea of putting nice infographics together with biometric data and sought out Norlander and Lanham in the summer of 2011.

health123overview1

Two years later, Health123 is live. The website features a digital dashboard that integrates devices like FitBit and wellness programs that target specific health issues, as well as at-home blood testing. Users can create profiles, complete assessments and use tools that help you generate, understand, and keep track of all kinds of health metrics. Specifically, there five main metrics:

  1. Weight Control (includes: BMI, Waist Circumference)
  2. Heart Health (includes: Lipid Panel, Heart Risk, Blood Pressure)
  3. Nutritional Balance (includes: Diet, Digestion, Blood Sugar)
  4. Energy Levels (includes: Vitamin D, Fatigue, TSH, Sleep & Activity Habits)
  5. Emotional Wellness (includes: Stress, Anxiety, Depression, Social Wellness)

Those stats are then built into a management platform that can recommend small weekly changes to positively impact your results over time. The plan is to have users then accumulate points that can be used to unlock offers and benefits.

Health123 founders Scott Howe, Rebecca Norlander and Rachel Lanham.
Health123 founders Scott Howe, Rebecca Norlander and Rachel Lanham.

Health123 is a freemium service and Norlander compared it to LinkedIn. Individual members can use the platform for free with the option of paying for additional services.

The company plans on making money via paying entities. Health123 is working with several employers to roll the service out to their employees, who can reap the benefit of the dashboard while employers can understand their employees’ health and wellness issues better.

“They can then target them with appropriate programs and measure the efficacy of those programs over time,” Norlander explained. “At the aggregate level, we will help employers target the actual health issues in their organizations, and measure which ones work — or don’t. There are quite a few cost-saving opportunities for employers in that.”

Eventually, Norlander said she envisions Health123 as an easy-to-use tool for everyone to be more engaged in their health and wellness.

“It’s a long-term play,” Norlander said. “We’re excited. We are looking for partners and investors who want to be a part of it.”

health123infographic

Previously on GeekWire: The Most Valuable Pitches (MVPs) from Nike Accelerator Demo Day

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