Digital Health Company Hims Gets Into Heart Care

Hims wants to have a heart-to-heart with customers.

What’s happening: Hims & Hers, a digital health and wellness company, launched Heart Health by Hims, a dual-action program coupling erectile dysfunction treatment and cardiovascular preventative care.

What it is: Through a partnership with Labcorp, providers on the platform will be able to screen Heart Health by Hims customers and combine ingredients of ED and statin therapy medications into a single pill — effectively improving sexual health and lowering cholesterol at the same time.

Users will also have ongoing access to resources and education from the American College of Cardiology (ACC), with the purpose of thinking proactively about major cardiac events like heart attack and stroke.

Why it matters: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the US is a major problem.

• ~48% of the population has some form of CVD.
• CVDs cause one in four premature deaths among American men.
• Those with CVD and associated problems live ~10–16 years less than their healthy counterparts.

But, while it’s the leading killer for both men and women, its symptoms present differently across gender. And that gives Hims an in — it determined ~30% of its customers are at risk.

ED can be an independent risk factor for CVD, with some research purporting ED symptoms are an early indicator (roughly two or three years preceding) of cardiovascular disease.

Seeing the opportunity for early, preventative screenings, Hims & Hers chief medical officer Dr. Patrick Carroll believes the platform can insert itself into a system that spends $320B annually on CVD treatment.

“If heart disease can continually be the top killer of all people annually, then the traditional healthcare system has clearly fallen short. Overcoming those shortcomings starts with removing the unnecessary barriers people face when attempting to access preventive cardiovascular care.”

TBD. There has been greater attention to heart health from apps and wearables makers, but monitoring and treatment are two different games. And while many digital health companies flock to GLP-1 weight loss prescriptions, Hims CEO Andrew Dudum has distanced the company (at least for now), perhaps to be a first-mover on CVD-related statin therapy, despite its purported side effects.

Takeaway: Even when advised by a doctor, Americans have a horrible track record of taking and adhering to statin therapy. But, packaged as a single pill for holistic enhancement could be an unexpected savior for thousands who don’t know they’re even at risk of CVD.