The Intersection of GLP-1s, Health Trends, and Advanced Technologies: An Interview with eMed CEO
Wendi Mader: As the Chief Executive Officer of eMed Population Health,
Wendi Mader has a distinct view into the rapidly-evolving GLP-1 landscape for employers, employees, and consumers. GLP-1s are all the rage for weight loss, and
early research is sparking excitement that the medications may be able to support enhanced health outcomes across a range of conditions, including liver disease, polycystic ovary syndrome, menopause, alcohol and substance abuse, and Alzheimer’s. But since the first GLP-1 was
approved by the FDA in 2005, it has also become clear that
the medications alone are not enough to sustain health benefits over time. In this interview, Mader discusses how her career path led to eMed, including previous experience in leadership roles at Quest Diagnostics, WebMD, and Summex Health Management. She also shares insights on the benefits of taking a population health approach to GLP-1s to improve employee health, and how she envisions medications, technologies, and programs coming together to reduce obesity rates in the U.S.
Q: Let’s begin with your background. How do your personal and professional experience inform the way you lead eMed?
Wendi Mader: I have over 20 years of experience partnering with employers to focus on population health strategies that enhance well-being, connect individuals to clinical insights, and improve outcomes through innovative technologies. I started at a company that did telephonic health coaching when that was a cool thing — actually,
before it was cool. We made it cool and then sold it to WebMD, which used the technology to deliver online health coaching integrated with health benefits. At Quest Diagnostics, I helped build the employer channel, specifically around population health. My experiences in virtual care solutions, population health, and data-driven insights all converge at eMed because we support humans with technology that empowers them to improve their health.
Q: What inspires you to be optimistic about the future you are building with eMed?
Wendi Mader: It's the trends. I've been looking at health trends for the last 20 years. The U.S. obesity rate was 32 percent when I started working and today it is more than 40 percent. Something is not working either individually or on a population level. That’s why we focus on population health — we want to change macro trends across the country. Already, we are seeing how the right GLP-1 medications supported by effective technologies and chronic condition management programs can equip people to improve their lives in ways that the industry has just not been able to change, until now.
Q: What should employers, NGOs, and unions, understand about how the population health approach with GLP-1s can play a critical role to support enhancing employee well-being?
Wendi Mader: We are thinking differently about healthcare and convenience by taking a laser-like approachto making GLP-1 access convenient, clinically appropriate, and safe. We're here to see if your employees are eligible for GLP-1s, help them through the onboarding process, and ensure they have access to brand name medications. And we advance employers’ mission to improve health outcomes while driving long-term ROI. With that as our foundation, we support people through their GLP-1 pathway in a clinically-efficient fashion.
Q: How does that approach set eMed apart from other companies that merely offer GLP-1s without supporting programs and technologies?
Wendi Mader: Our clinical approach is the differentiator. We start with a clinical intake that includes a biometric screening and an at-home blood test to identify either chronic conditions or concerns such as pre-diabetes. From there, we capture clinical data to track people through their weight loss and chronic condition journey, and understand what is changing with their cholesterol, what is happening with their hemoglobin A1C and other critical biomarkers through a blood test. With that data, we generate and sustain the behavior change critical to earning long-term ROI. Ultimately, we leverage our technology, program, and clinical data to create a clear picture of how many people we stopped from developing a chronic condition, diabetes for example, who otherwise would have experienced worse outcomes. That's a powerful differentiator.
Q: What is the role of advanced technologies, such as AI and automation, in powering the positive impact eMed can have on health outcomes?
Wendi Mader: The sky’s the limit with technology. Take clinical technology, for example. We use a novel device to draw blood, smartphone tools for monitoring blood pressure, and of course the GLP-1s themselves are a breakthrough. Taking these technologies that are being created out in the wild and pulling them together to be extremely impactful is both unique to eMed and critical to employers and people who take GLP-1s. AI is also important for us because it can make health tasks so much more convenient than what people have traditionally been used to. We’ll be able to use AI when proctoring weekly check-ins and that repeatable process will enable us to help larger populations at scale. That’s just one example of how we can make those cutting-edge technologies even better because of what we're putting behind them.
Q: How do you envision the landscape of GLP-1s, advanced technologies, and chronic care management programs will converge and evolve in the immediate future?
Wendi Mader: I want to see the obesity trend in the U.S. shift meaningfully at a macro level. Employers have long been champions of wellness and wellbeing, but despite those efforts, most initiatives haven’t significantly moved the needle on population health. With the arrival of GLP-1 medications, we now have a powerful tool—and employers are uniquely positioned to lead this transformation, given that the majority of Americans receive healthcare through their workplace. If we can bend the curve on obesity, the impact will extend far beyond lower healthcare costs. We’ll see improvements in quality of life, health span, and national productivity. And by addressing obesity through the lens of health equity and access, we can also unlock positive economic ripple effects. If we do that I believe that policymakers will recognize this opportunity and begin to incentivize employers to offer GLP-1s as part of their benefit strategy.
Note: This interview is the first in a series of conversations with Mader. Future articles will examine the financial implications for employers offering GLP-1s as a health benefit, how improving chronic conditions can make workforces healthier and more productive, what benefits consultants should understand about the future of GLP-1s, and the consequences employers will face for not making GLP-1 available to employees. 