First to See the Light

Food is Medicine

Spencer Trask Venture Good Measures Acquired by NationsBenefits, Bringing Personalized Nutrition to Millions

Pioneering Evidenced-Based Solutions in Healthcare and Nutrition

Spencer Trask & Co. discovers transformative ideas and helps make them practical, salable, and scalable to make a world of difference. Through two groundbreaking ventures—Health Dialog and Good Measures, LLC—the company has again demonstrated its ability to develop innovative solutions to systemic problems and create lasting impact.

 

Health Dialog: Pioneering the Evidence-Based Medicine Revolution

The journey toward evidence-based medicine began with Dr. Jack Wennberg’s research at Dartmouth, which revealed widespread variations in medical care that weren’t justified by patient outcomes. Spencer Trask & Co. responded by helping launch Health Dialog, designed to empower patients through evidence-based healthcare.

Under founder George Bennett’s leadership, Health Dialog transformed this research into up-to-date medical research made actionable through health coaches. As investor and director in both companies, Spencer Trask’s Kevin Kimberlin explains, “Health Dialog first commercialized what today is known as evidence-based medicine…creating a win-win-win for patients, providers, and insurers.” The results were remarkable: a $30 million investment yielded first a $170 million payout followed by a $770 million acquisition. 

This work significantly influenced the foundation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Peter Orszag, as “Health Care Czar” and head of the Office of Management and Budget, designed the ACA to leverage these insights, aiming to expand insurance access through savings generated by reducing unnecessary care variations. Since passage, the ACA has expanded healthcare insurance to 24 million Americans.

Good Measures, LLC: Evidence-Based Solutions for the Nutrition Crisis

The success of Health Dialog presented an opportunity to apply evidence-based principles to another critical health challenge – the misuse of food. With an estimated 43% of American adults being overweight and traditional interventions falling short, Good Measures emerged as a practical solution.The catalyst came through a powerful personal story. Stefany Shaheen, while managing four children under seven and Harvard Business School studies, watched her eight-year-old daughter struggle with Type 1 diabetes. “What used to be the simple step of pouring a bowl of cereal before school became an eight-step mathematical problem,” Shaheen recalls. “Measuring cereal, measuring milk, calculating carbohydrates, determining insulin dosage – and then often requiring additional insulin when blood sugars remain elevated.”

George Bennett recognized the parallel to Health Dialog’s mission. “We attacked the cause of the biggest healthcare problems in the U.S. — the nutritional imbalances that lead to chronic conditions that are a direct result of misunderstandings about and misuse of food,” he explains. Good Measures was the natural evolution of the Health Dialog model, combining mobile technology, clinical research on Food is Medicine with personal coaches for lasting behavior change.

Growing Impact

Good Measures’ patented nutrition technology and coaching platform is utilized by leading organizations such as: 

  • Google’s moonshot precision health initiative, Verily
  • Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare
  • Centene, the 4th largest health insurer in the U.S.
  • WellCare of Kentucky, the first health plan to launch GMI system wide
  • Tufts University, where Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian leads the Food is Medicine Institute and serves on the President’s Council                                                         


The NationsBenefits Merger: Scaling National Impact

The acquisition of Good Measures by NationsBenefits marks a pivotal moment in healthcare transformation. NationsBenefits, serving over 100 healthcare providers and distributing more than 25 million meals annually, provides the perfect platform to scale Good Measures’ evidence-based approach. Integration with Instacart facilitates the delivery of medically tailored groceries directly to users’ homes.

Looking ahead, artificial intelligence will enhance the platform’s capabilities, providing personalized, real-time guidance to millions. AI avatars will help individuals make informed food choices, monitor health metrics, and stay motivated on their wellness journeys.

What began with one mother’s frustration over managing her daughter’s diabetes has evolved into a solution that can transform millions of similar struggles across America. As Stefany Shaheen reflects, “Partnering with Nations to supply food on a tremendous scale and then enhance that with our personalized recommendations, personalized food prescriptions, and connecting nutrition to the clinical coaching that people really can benefit from, is very exciting.”

A Complete Solution for Global Health

With the combination of personalized technology, national reach, and clinically proven coaching methods, Good Measures and NationsBenefits are positioned to help American families transform their daily food challenges into achievable steps toward lasting health. Spencer Trask & Co. continues its legacy of identifying transformative ideas and making them accessible to improve global health outcomes.

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The Immune Response Corporation

Revolution in Immunotherapy

DISCOVERY – Non-infectious viral vaccines.

INNOVATOR – In the history of medicine, few figures have had as profound an impact on human health and wellbeing as Dr. Jonas Salk. His polio vaccine breakthrough was the culmination of centuries of research, dating back to Louis Pasteur discovering inoculation. However, Salk’s method was different. He found a way to protect people from viruses without giving them the very disease the vaccine was designed to prevent.

Using this no-infection method, Salk worked with Kevin Kimberlin of Spencer Trask to develop cancer vaccines and an immunotherapeutic to slow or prevent AIDS. They patented and conducted preclinical studies on a cancer vaccine that demonstrated a startling 90% protection against lethal malignancies. 

IMPACT – A fusion of dendritic cells and the cancer antigen, their technology formed the basis for the first FDA-approved cell-based immunotherapy. Over 40,000 men with metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer have received the treatment, and it appears especially effective for African-American men who receive a 48% improved survival benefit compared to white men.

The team and facility making this immunotherapy also made clinical and commercial supplies of the first approved gene therapy, the CAT-T drug Kymriah.

The first approved cell-base immunotherapy and gene therapy prompted the FDA Commissioner to say, “New technologies such as gene and cell therapies hold out the potential to transform medicine and create an inflection point in our ability to treat and even cure many intractable illnesses.”

The noninfectious vaccine approach developed by Jonas Salk eliminated polio from the developed countries, his flu vaccine mitigated the effects of influenza for the past 75 years, and finally, the cancer vaccine developed at his Immune Response Corporation led the way to gene, cell-based, and immune therapy innovations that will impact human health for generations. In summary, Salk released the last step in enabling the most important preventative medicine – non-infectious viral vaccination.