Transforming Dermatology Through Value-Based Virtual Care w/ Zest Founder Olivia Deitcher

Thinking about Dermatology may bring to mind Botox injections and commercials for anti-aging skincare products, but behind the scenes, it’s one of the most broken specialties in healthcare. Long wait times for short visits, some of the most expensive drugs on the market, and a system that too often overlooks patients with chronic autoimmune skin conditions.

In this episode, we sit down with Olivia Deitcher – Founder and CEO of Zest Health and one of Slice of Healthcare’s “50 under 50" leaders transforming our health system. A “patient founder” living with psoriasis and a veteran of the biopharma startup world, Olivia launched Zest to build the dermatology experience she wished for: high-touch, data-driven, and value-based.

“I am candidly very optimistic about where dermatology as a field can go if we can put in place value-based care rails.” 

Zest is a virtual-first dermatology clinic designed for patients with chronic autoimmune conditions like psoriasis and eczema. Zest patients are seen within days (not months), and get continuous follow-up care with frequent engagement (30-60 minute visits every 4-6 weeks). Through what Olivia calls the “de-prescription paradigm”, Zest helps patients reduce unnecessary medication use and better manage their conditions — saving tens of thousands of dollars per patient.

“We bring a very vast toolkit of therapeutic interventions into the analysis of what is appropriate for the patient. It may be that that patient should change their laundry detergent… see if that helps alleviate things. Just moving to a $6 unscented laundry detergent, before we initiate that patient onto a $90,000 therapeutic where they’re going to have to be at home, injecting a drug into themselves, managing the side effects, and feeling like that’s the only answer.”

Olivia and her team are serious about the movement to value – Zest only enters value-based arrangements that pay for improving their patients’ quality of life. 

Listen to hear why 91% of their patients said Zest is a better approach to dermatology care – and how Zest accomplishes this while saving patients and their employers hundreds of thousands of dollars on unneeded prescriptions. 

To learn more about the link between environment, lifestyle and health, check out our episode with Dr. Elizabeth Boham. Listen to our episode with Pramod John to learn how his company VIVIO Health helps match patients to the right drug at the right price. 

Sources Referenced:

• ⁠Episode 458 of Relentless Health Value w/ Komal Bajaj, MD⁠
• "Biosimilars in the United States 2023–2027,” IQVIA (Jan. 31, 2023).

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