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Scientific wellness is a straightforward idea: use data about a person’s genes, proteins and other biology, along with behavioral coaching, to keep them healthy, even preventing health problems before they arise. The approach is championed by genomics pioneer Lee Hood, and it’s being pursued his latest startup, Seattle-based Arivale.
It’s such a new and evolving concept that it isn’t in the dictionary yet. Or Merriam Webster’s open-source dictionary. It’s not even in that vanguard of the internet, Urban Dictionary.
But a new study, to be published in the journal Nature Biotechnology, is putting the concept on the map with hard data that points to the effectiveness of the scientific wellness approach. The nine-month study by Hood’s Institute for Systems Biology led to the founding of Arivale.
In the study, known as the “Pioneer 100 Wellness Project,” researchers and health coaches tried out the approach, which would later evolve into the Arivale program, on 108 individuals. At the core of the program are what they call “personal dynamic, dense data clouds” about people’s health and biology.
The clouds were built using troves of data: genetics tests, digital monitoring of physical activity and blood, urine, stool, and saliva samples collected every three months. Using that data, personal health coaches helped participants change their lifestyle to meet health goals.