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This week’s Making Rounds spotlights Madhavi Vemireddy, co-CEO of Cleo, an online platform designed to support caregivers. Cleo is sold directly to self-insured employers at a price that varies based on the size of the company and the services the employer chooses to offer its workers. Vemireddy talked about how Cleo works, the problem it’s trying to solve, and why she believes a “family-centered” healthcare model is essential.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
What is Cleo, and what problem is it trying to solve?
The problem is that we don’t have a family-centered care model in our healthcare system. Cleo provides family support across all stages of life, starting with people who are planning to start a family of their own, to those that are pregnant, to those with children, and those that are supporting an adult loved one. Many families are going through multiple of these life stages all at once, and our goal is to provide a platform that supports all families with their parenting journey, caregiving journey, and their own planning-for-parenthood journey.
We sell to self-insured employers, and what they’re looking at is how can they attract and retain talent, and how can they improve productivity in the workplace, knowing how much of an impact caregiving and parenting has on employees day to day. We have more than 180 employers today, and we’re in about 15 countries.
How does Cleo work?
The first step is downloading our app. When you complete the enrollment process in the app, you’re telling us what your family profile looks like and what the needs are of everyone in your family. Once you complete that, you will get matched with an expert guide depending on your situation—if you’re going through a pregnancy, you’d be matched with a midwife or doula; if you’re taking care of an adult loved one who has Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, we can match you with a dementia-certified provider. Then basically we’re curating content, group coaching, classes, workshops, and more.
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What’s the most fulfilling aspect of your job?
Helping build and implement new areas of support and programs for working families on a global scale. Many families go through their caregiving journey struggling and with little support, but once they realize they have access to trusted experts who they can rely on to answer any of their urgent needs and to help them prepare for what’s around the corner, we see the immediate impact of helping them feel more confident and reducing their stress.
What healthcare trend are you most optimistic about and why?
Caregiving. With our aging population and 80% of older adults having two or more conditions, more of us will become part of the “sandwich generation” and end up taking care of children and older loved ones. It’s clear that we need to raise awareness that family health is public health and that a family-centered care model needs to be a core part of our healthcare ecosystem to ensure that we are looking at the needs of family caregivers as well as care recipients.
What healthcare trend are you least optimistic about and why?
With respect to family support, we currently have a number of point solutions in the digital health ecosystem. For example, solutions that focus on fertility management, pregnancy, neurodivergence, elder care, and menopause support. The current challenge is that families are experiencing multiple life stages and needs at once, so having multiple point solutions for a family to navigate negatively impacts engagement, and not having the full picture of a family’s needs can limit the support they receive.