CGMs: GLP-1 Weight Loss At A Fraction Of The Cost | with Colin Rogers

This video provides an in-depth exploration of Signos, an AI-powered application leveraging Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGMs) for personalized weight loss and metabolic health management. Colin Rogers, VP at Signos, discusses how this solution serves as a highly effective, sustainable, and cost-efficient alternative or complement to GLP-1 weight loss drugs, particularly within employer-sponsored health programs. The discussion highlights the shift towards preventative healthcare, emphasizing the power of real-time data and artificial intelligence to drive micro-behavioral changes for improved population health outcomes.

Rogers elaborates on Signos' core technology, which integrates real-time glucose data from CGMs with other wearable lifestyle data (sleep, movement, stress) and applies six years of AI development to provide predictive prompts for users. This approach aims to empower individuals to understand and control their metabolism, leading to significant and sustainable weight loss outcomes comparable to GLP-1s but at a fraction of the cost. The conversation traces Rogers' extensive background in consumer-driven health and the founder's personal motivation, an individual journey of weight management, to develop a tool that addresses the root cause of metabolic dysfunction.

The video delves into the strategic application of Signos within employer populations, moving beyond the traditional direct-to-consumer model. It outlines how employers can stratify their workforce by metabolic risk (highly acute, acute, preventative) and offer tailored program durations, with the goal of preventing chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes and obesity before they become acute. A significant announcement made during the interview is Signos' recent FDA clearance as the first software medical device for weight management, underscoring the regulatory validation and potential for broader adoption of AI-driven health solutions. The discussion also covers the economic benefits for employers, including potential claims cost reductions and the interest from stop-loss carriers in leveraging longitudinal health data for actuarial risk management.

Key Takeaways:

• AI-Powered Metabolic Health: Signos is an AI-premised app built on CGM infrastructure that uses real-time glucose data as a proxy for internal metabolism, combined with other wearable lifestyle data, to guide micro-behavioral changes for weight loss.
• GLP-1 Alternative/Complement: The Signos program demonstrates weight loss outcomes very similar to GLP-1 drugs (e.g., 5% total body weight loss in 90 days, 12% in a year) at a fraction of the cost, with the added benefit of sustainability through behavior change. It can serve as a preventative step before drugs, a complement to sustain outcomes after drugs, or a direct alternative.
• Employer-Sponsored Population Health: Signos targets employers to deploy its solution at scale, offering a personalized approach to managing employee health, particularly for weight loss and metabolic control, addressing the high prevalence of overweight/obesity and pre-diabetes in the workforce.
• Preventative Healthcare Focus: The solution shifts the paradigm from managing acute chronic diseases to preventing them by intervening early to right-size metabolism, thereby lowering other comorbid risks associated with metabolic dysfunction.
• Real-time Data Transparency & ROI: Employers gain real-time, de-identified longitudinal data on population engagement, clinical outcomes, and behavior change, allowing them to directly correlate spending on the solution to measurable health improvements and potential claims cost reductions (estimated $3,000-$5,000 per employee per year in acute categories).
• FDA Clearance for SaMD: Signos recently received FDA clearance as the first software medical device (SaMD) for weight management, a significant regulatory milestone that validates its clinical efficacy and safety.
• High Engagement and Activation: The program sees mid-to-high 90s activation rates and strong engagement, attributed to the novelty of receiving a medical device sponsored by the employer and the personal relevance of understanding one's own body's response to lifestyle choices.
• Micro-Behavioral Change Catalyst: Seeing real-time glucose responses to food, exercise, or sleep acts as a powerful catalyst for small, incremental behavioral adjustments, leading to ingrained habits rather than wholesale lifestyle overhauls.
• Structured Onboarding and Tracking: Employers onboard populations through structured webinars and receive regular (every 45 days) de-identified reports on engagement and clinical outcomes, with quarterly gates on supplies shipped, ensuring accountability and measurable progress.
• Stop-Loss Carrier Interest: The real-time longitudinal data collected by Signos offers a new dimension for stop-loss carriers and reinsurers to actuarially assess and price risk, potentially leading to more favorable premiums for employers.
• Addressing Metabolic Dysfunction: The program aims to address the widespread issue of metabolic dysfunction (88% of the US population is metabolically dysfunctional, 80% of pre-diabetics don't know it) by empowering individuals to understand and control their metabolic responses.
• Longevity of Behavior Change: The goal is for users to internalize the understanding of their body's responses, eventually managing their health intuitively without constant app prompts, making the changes sustainable.
• Future of Personalized Health: The commoditization of passive data collection tools and the evolution to include multiple biomarkers (proteins, ketones, etc.) will enable AI-driven personalized health management to address a broader range of chronic conditions.

Key Concepts:

• Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM): A small device worn on the body that continuously measures glucose levels in the interstitial fluid, providing real-time data on how the body processes food and reacts to lifestyle factors.
• GLP-1 (Glucagon-like peptide-1) Drugs: A class of medications, such as Ozempic or Wegovy, primarily used for managing type 2 diabetes and increasingly for weight loss.
• Metabolic Dysfunction: A cluster of conditions that increase the risk of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes, characterized by issues with blood sugar, blood pressure, cholesterol, and abdominal fat.
• Software as a Medical Device (SaMD): Software that is intended to be used for one or more medical purposes without being part of a hardware medical device. FDA clearance for SaMD signifies regulatory approval for its medical use.
• Micro-behavioral Change: Small, incremental adjustments to daily habits and routines, guided by data and prompts, that collectively lead to significant long-term health improvements.
• Population Health Management: A proactive approach to improving the health outcomes of a defined group of individuals, often within an employer or community setting, through targeted interventions and preventative strategies.