Verily’s Onduo Branches into Mental and Behavioral Health
Onduo launched as a joint venture between Verily and Sanofi.
June 1, 2021
Verily’s Onduo is branching into mental and behavioral health. Onduo virtual telehealth clinic, achieves this goal by allowing individuals are able to access psychiatrists, therapists, and mental health coaches.
“Access to behavioral health services is often a challenge and has become an even greater need during the pandemic,” explained Onduo’s CEO, Vindell Washington, MD. “We also know that individuals often do not recognize symptoms of depression or seek help. This solution is an important extension of the Onduo services for our customers’ members and employees so that we get them matched to the right mental health care support.”
Onduo identifies each individual’s needs and then matches them to the right care pathway using a novel whole health assessment within its predictive analytics framework built by its parent company Verily. Onduo’s offerings include digital well-being journeys, activities, and health coaching. If clinically indicated, members will meet with an Onduo clinician to discuss therapy or psychiatry options through telemedicine—all embedded within the Onduo app.
Onduo evaluates changes over time to step-up and step-down care, as needed, and helps individuals track progress over time and improve their quality of life. Onduo’s solution aims to deliver measurable reductions in depressive symptoms and improvements in managing work and home responsibilities, which is a direct tie to absenteeism.
Ondou was formed in 2016 as a joint venture between Verily and Sanofi each investing nearly $500 million. At the time, both Verily and Sanofi said Onduo’s mission is to help people with diabetes live full, healthy lives by developing comprehensive solutions that combine devices, software, medicine, and professional care to enable simple and intelligent disease management.
However, in December of 2019, Sanofi’s newly installed CEO, Paul Hudson, announced the company had “over-invested” in Onduo. The company said it would focus on immunology and vaccine businesses and stop its work in cardiovascular and diabetes R&D efforts.
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