Liva Healthcare Attracts Top Medical Scientific Leaders to Global Advisory Board

COPENHAGEN, Denmark--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A leading provider of scalable digital health coaching in Europe, Liva Healthcare (“Liva”), launches new Scientific Advisory Board. Liva has attracted some of Europe’s most respected scientific leaders within chronic conditions and behaviour change psychology to join its global Advisory Board. The board will oversee the medical quality of the programmes and conduct the latest scientific research into Liva’s behavioural change model.

Liva is a health tech company that improve the lives of people at risk of, or living with, chronic conditions such as type 2 diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular diseases by driving positive behavioural change. Liva recently announced a new funding round of EUR 24.5 million with the aim to expand its European operations. The Liva programmes are used by leading players in public healthcare, insurance and life science industries globally.

Through an app, Liva provides personal human coaching programmes to help people manage their condition and develop healthier habits that last. Liva’s combination of scalable health coaching focused on personal human relationships, with an intuitive and user-friendly interface, has proven to drive substantial clinical outcomes, and is particularly effective among traditionally hard to reach socio-economic groups.

Users on the programme living with obesity have an average sustained weight loss of 6,8kg during the first 9 months, 85% of users at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes reduce their HbA1c levels in 6 months, and 44% of users living with type 2 diabetes normalise their HbA1c level and achieve ‘control’ of their condition after 12 months on the programme (HbA1c level gets below 48 mmol/mol (6,5%).

The Advisory Board will be chaired by Liva’s Chief Medical Officer, MD, PhD, Carl J. Brandt, Postdoctoral researcher at the Research Unit for General Practice, University of Southern Denmark.

“We are proud to present a global Advisory Board of this calibre. With this board, Liva has managed to attract some of Europe’s top scientific leaders to oversee the medical and ethical quality of the Liva programmes, give input on study scope and design, and oversee the evidence-based nature of the Liva programmes,” says Dr. Brandt. “We have gathered multiple competences within our therapeutic and technological areas to guide decision-making and ensure science and research is the foundation for everything we do,” adds Dr. Brandt.

Joining Liva’s Advisory Board is Prof. Dr Lisette Van Gemert-Pijnen, Chair of Persuasive Health Technology at university of Twente, and Head of Centre for eHealth & Wellbeing Research.

“In our research at university of Twente and the Centre for eHealth & Wellbeing Research, we study how persuasive health technology can be applied to increase self-management of long-term chronic diseases, like diabetes,” says Prof. Gemert-Pijnen. “Liva Healthcare has demonstrated impressive proven clinical outcomes in chronic disease prevention and management, especially within obesity, prediabetes and type 2 diabetes, and that is why I have decided to join the Advisory Board.”

“I have been conducting research on the Dutch COVID-19 contact tracing app: CoronaMelder, and COVID-19 has taught us the importance of user-friendly, reliable and inclusive digital health tools. Generally, there has been a shift in acceptance of remote healthcare, and the need for credible digital solutions is now greater than ever. Fortunately, the Liva programmes have demonstrated how effective personalised, remote health solutions can be, and I am delighted to take a seat in this highly competent Advisory Board,” adds Prof. Gemert-Pijnen.

Additional Advisory Board members include:

- Prof. Timothy Skinner, Director of University department of Rural Health at La Trobe University, and Professor of Health Psychology at University of Copenhagen. Prof. Skinner has been responsible for developing several diabetes self-management support programmes, including DESMOND, the longest standing NHS training course for people with type 2 diabetes.

- Prof. Thorsten Lewalter, Head of Department of Cardiology, int. Klinikum München Süd, and Director of Department of Cardiology, Peter Osypka Heart Center. Prof. Lewalter is a renowned cardiology expert. He is co-editor of numerous professional journals and is considered one of the founders of modern therapy of cardiac arrhythmias.

- Stephanie Kaiser, Founder and Managing Director of the digital health platform Heartbeat Labs. Kaiser has more than 12 years’ experience in building and developing digital, consumer-oriented products. Since 2018, Kaiser has been a member of the Digital Council that advises the chancellor of Germany and the German government on the important matter of digitalisation.

- Prof. Åke Sjöholm, Associate Professor of Medicine at University of Gävle, Associate Professor at Karolinska Institute, Professor of University of South Alabama, and Associate Professor Diabetes at Region Gävleborg. Prof. Sjöholm is a prominent Swedish diabetes expert and has been listed as a noteworthy diabetes researcher by Marquis Who's Who.