Span specialises in treating and preventing lifestyle conditions and their symptoms. Some of the most common indicators are sugar cravings, brain fog, increased body fat and blood sugar, fatigue and anxiety.

According to ‘The Personal and Economic well-being in Great Britain’ survey released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), almost half have reported high anxiety since lockdown.

Employees deserve more than a 9-minute check-up

As businesses are preparing to get up and running again, employees with weakened immune systems due to lifestyle conditions will be more at risk - leading to a reduction in productivity. For the business, this could even result in direct costs related to absenteeism and presenteeism. Stress, anxiety and depression alone represented 14.3 million working days ‘lost’ in 2019.   

1 in 3 of UK employees has a long term health condition. Through the Span app, employers can assist employees with lifestyle conditions to better manage their health, as well as respond to anxiety potentially arising from COVID-19-related concerns.

Each member of staff will have their own account with access to personalised nutrition and mental wellbeing plans, and same-day consultations with nutritionists, clinicians and psychologists to offer support whenever and wherever they need it. Users can also order blood tests and see the results on the app - all in one place.

“As opposed to the average 9 minute check-up that the NHS is tied to, we are in a position where we can take time to educate and offer more ‘time-consuming’ care, particularly focusing on nutrition and mental wellness. As a result, we can avoid using prescriptions as quick but temporary fixes, which is often the case with long-term physical and mental disorders. We address the issue at the root cause,” said Adam Bataineh, NHS Medical Doctor and Chief Medical Officer at Span. 

Businesses to save thousands every year

Since August 2018, Span has helped more than 10,000 people with its continuous support based on clinical evidence. 

“Span’s care model has allowed 90% of our members to alleviate their primary symptoms, with some reversing their diabetes and now on the way to remission - drastically reducing a key risk factor for Coronavirus,” said Bataineh.

“The next step on our journey is to empower businesses to deliver outstanding employee wellness and save thousands on lifestyle-condition-related absences. Combined costs from worklessness and sickness absence amount to approximately £100bn annually. Our platform is more relevant than ever during the pandemic and aims to help employers minimise such costs by reducing high risk factors, preserving mental wellness in the face of anxiety, and providing home blood tests to screen for risk factors and antibodies so that employees may recover quickly and in a sustainable way,” said Patrick Samy, CEO and Founder of Span. 

The company has already secured pilots with Huckletree and The Family. And the platform and consultation offering are being rolled out free to NHS workers.

Collaboration with NHS Innovation

Span is a London-based startup which has been focusing on helping individuals since 2018. The platform is approved for safe commissioning by NHS England to help address specific diseases such as PCOS and type 2 diabetes. The company has also been working in collaboration with NHS Innovation and discussing potential pilots with NHS North Essex and North West London. 

“3 months after starting, my dad’s diabetes medication had gone down twice. The team at Span are attentive, caring, and there every step of the way. Joining is definitely the best decision I made in 2019,” said Dav, who has been on the Span journey with his father suffering from diabetes. 

To be able to scale-up and offer support to employers across England, the startup will be launching its first crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs later in June.

Span is backed by some of Europe’s biggest angel investors: Tiny VC, The Family, partners at Entrepreneur First and Co-founders of Amazon Alexa, Criteo, and Clue.