ÌìÑÄÉçÇø

To understand the thinking at , a health-care company co-founded by Sameer Dhar, ’14 BComm, and Mike Goss, ’15 BSc(MechEng), you first need to know the inspiration behind its name. 

The “Nia” in NiaHealth comes from Sardinia, Italy, the second-largest island in the Mediterranean — a designation some researchers gave in 2004 to a handful of places where people seemed to enjoy exceptionally long and healthy lives thanks to factors like physical activity, whole-food diets and rich social interactions. 

Dhar sold his first startup, Sensassure, a company that focused on technology for long-term care communities. And he says he was animated at the prospect of helping people live healthier lives for as long as possible. His travels to various blue zones, including Sardinia, inspired NiaHealth’s mission “to elevate health for humanity, starting with a next-gen health checkup supported by the latest evidence-based tests.” These tests, he says, include advanced blood work that looks for more than 50 biomarkers, V02 max fitness testing, body composition scans, gut microbiome testing and more. Based on test results, the company provides a personalized plan to clients to mitigate their risks and optimize their health. Clinician consultations are available for clients to gain deeper insights and health guidance they can act on. 

Dhar and Goss began discussing NiaHealth in August 2023, and by January 2024 they had raised early funding and the company was up and running. Drawing on their entrepreneurial journey, they share five key lessons they’ve learned while building a business that aims to reshape what it means to stay healthy.

1: Think prevention, not just treatment

Dhar and Goss say they recognized the limitations of traditional health care while working in different aspects of the sector before they joined forces on NiaHealth. Goss was a health-care consultant who advised provincial governments across Canada on health-care policy and Dhar was a co-founder of Sensassure, which saw him spend a year living at three North American nursing homes to better understand the needs of elderly residents with urinary incontinence and their nursing staff.

“The system that exists is a sick-care system, not a health-care system,” says Dhar. Researchers and thought leaders have long argued that the focus of health-care systems needs to shift from treating symptoms and disease to preventing illness and improving overall health. But structural change on that level is slow and hard to come by. 

When Dhar and Goss began their foray into preventative health care, they focused on two key questions: Which tests offer the most accurate picture of someone’s current health and future risk of disease, and which interventions — such as lifestyle changes and medicines, for example — will make the biggest positive difference?

“The knowledge of what drives disease has never been greater,” says Goss. “The key is preventing it before it starts.”

2: Measuring and tracking metrics drives change

NiaHealth tests and interprets results for clients, providing them a baseline that they can track, with the goal of improving their health over time. A clinical team reviews the data that comes from these tests and creates a personalized online report with insights and an action plan for clients. 

Both Dhar and Goss say that NiaHealth avoids overwhelming clients with data that aren’t actionable. “It’s about distilling the most important insights in a consumer friendly way and turning them into steps people can take to lower their risk,” explains Dhar. “We’ve seen customers totally turn their lives around — everything from losing 40 pounds in three months, to kicking lifelong smoking habits, to starting medications that drastically reduce their cardiovascular risk.”

While it’s true that most of us could stand to eat better and exercise more, Dhar and Goss said that people are more likely to take action to improve their health if they see personalized recommendations based on their blood panels. “When you educate and empower people with data in a consumer-friendly manner, it galvanizes them to take action,” Dhar says.

3: Embrace innovation and iteration

“Preventative health care is time-consuming,” says Goss. “Technology is a key part of the answer to offering it at scale.” For context, found that a primary care provider with an average patient panel of 2,500 adults would need more than 14 hours a day to provide guideline-recommended preventative care. 

“Our model is not about replacing clinicians. We are taking a systems-based approach that allows clinicians to integrate the latest evidence into their approach, automate tedious tasks and focus on the most important clinical elements,” Goss explains. “The net outcome is being able to deliver top-tier preventative care incredibly efficiently,” Goss explains.

According to the NiaHealth website, the company offers better checkups than a standard executive health assessment, starting at one-tenth the price. Still, Goss says that their team is now “obsessed” with lowering costs further while proving the model’s effectiveness. “None of this matters unless you can show that people are actually getting healthier,” he explains. “In a startup environment, it’s easier to test and innovate.”

4: Be persistent and focus on your mission to succeed

As a first-time entrepreneur, Goss has learned a lot about what it takes to turn a transformative idea into a business. 

“Building something new can feel like pushing a boulder up a mountain, especially early on. You need an unwavering belief in what you’re doing to keep going. It needs to be your life’s mission,” he says. 

Dhar agrees. “It’s about staying in the game, being close to your customers, and always making your product better,” he says.

5: Think from first principles

Starting NiaHealth required navigating competing opinions and skepticism about the company’s approach, including from clinicians who consider the company’s approach as one of over-testing or catering to consumers who want a magic-bullet solution to longevity. 

“In a complex industry like health care, you have to be evidence-based and contend with competing incentives from different stakeholders,” Dhar says. “You need to have the humility to listen, the discipline to reason from first principles and the confidence to experiment towards the future, all while keeping your clients front-and-centre.”