The notion of wellness has undergone significant transformations over time. Historically, wellness was predominantly centered around physical health, encompassing nutrition, exercise, and disease prevention. In the mid-20th century, the emergence of the holistic wellness movement expanded the concept to include mental, emotional, and social well-being, promoting a more interconnected and comprehensive approach to health.
Fast forward to the digital age, and a transformative phase in the evolution of wellness unfolds with the ascent of digital wellness tracking. This includes wearable devices, mobile apps, and e-health test kits allowing users to access their health parameters more conveniently and effectively. These new health platforms enable precise patient monitoring, while electronic health records streamline data management.
Nevertheless, the challenge persists as millions of Americans grapple with chronic diseases. Out of 38.4 million adults with diabetes, 29.7 million have been diagnosed, and 8.7 million remain undiagnosed. A substantial six in ten Americans face at least one chronic disease, including heart disease, stroke, cancer, or diabetes. These conditions not only rank as leading causes of death and disability but also drive considerable healthcare costs. Access to biometric health screenings could prevent a significant portion of these costs, providing patients with essential data, insights, and early indicators of potential health issues.
Reperio Health, headquartered in Portland, Oregon, was established in 2020 to remove the difficulties in obtaining crucial health data. They provide biometric screenings that can be done both at home and on-site, with immediate results, allowing individuals to be more proactive in managing their health.
“Getting the care and services we need is really complicated, not easy, and definitely not fun,” says Travis Rush, Co-founder and CEO of Reperio. “When being asked to do a health screening, you shouldn’t have to get time off work, figure out how to make an appointment, arrange for pet or childcare, find transportation to get to the appointment, spend 45 minutes in a waiting room with other sick people, wait a week or two for results, log into a portal to see those results, and then schedule a follow-up appointment to review what they mean,” states he.
Bringing Comprehensive Wellness to Your Homes
Beyond mere inconvenience, a considerable portion of healthcare primarily addresses individuals when sick, rather than facilitating access to preventive services that could avert such conditions. Consequently, patients endure unnecessary suffering, and the healthcare industry bears the financial burden of allocating resources to address issues that might have been preventable. At Reperio, Travis and his team advocate for a reimagining of healthcare, envisioning a proactive system, that prioritizes prevention, and ultimately leads to improved outcomes for both patients and the industry.
Reperio emerged as an easy-to-access solution to alleviate strain and inefficiency within the healthcare system while providing convenient screening solutions for consumers, employers, and providers. Reperio’s wellness kit allows individuals to easily measure their blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose, and more from the comfort of their own homes, providing instant results. However, the innovation potential is boundless. “Leveraging our patented screening technology, we can seamlessly integrate any Bluetooth-connected medical device into a screening kit, paving the way for additional offerings such as STI kits, A1C testing, and beyond,” Travis shares.
Empowered by cutting-edge healthcare technology, the Reperio biometric screening revolutionizes health monitoring by enabling users to measure crucial indicators of chronic diseases, such as hypertension and prediabetes. With a seamless and stress-free at-home experience, Reperio’s Bluetooth-connected blood pressure cuff automates the process, ensuring user convenience. The integration of other biometric data, including waist and height measurements, enhances the kit’s capability, offering valuable insights into overall health.
Going beyond, Reperio simplifies health management further by allowing users to effortlessly measure total cholesterol, HDL, LDL, glucose, and triglycerides through a straightforward finger prick. This comprehensive and user-friendly solution marks a significant stride in proactive health monitoring, empowering individuals to take control of various health indicators effortlessly.
Fostering Positive Community Outcomes
Travis’s journey with Reperio traces back to Gold Beach, Oregon, sparked by a significant question posed by his father when he was just six years old. At the time, the question seemed absurd to young Travis, but it resonated deeply. Driving to school, his father asked, “How do you want the world to talk about you?” It was a question that stuck with Travis, shaping his perspective on making a positive impact.
Among the various lessons imparted during his upbringing, this inquiry became a guiding principle: “How do we do the right thing to make the world better?” Travis believes that every decision a company makes should be rooted in this fundamental question. While acknowledging the cliché, his aspiration is clear — to leave the world in a better state than when he entered it.
“At Reperio, one of our very top priorities, and coincidentally the first core value on the wall of our headquarters, is: that we are passionate about our customers. Because if you focus on how to make people’s lives better, your business will evolve on its own,” Travis states.
As the co-founder and CEO of Reperio Health, Travis is passionate about revolutionizing the healthcare industry. His commitment lies in delivering accessible, affordable, and personalized healthcare solutions to individuals across the board. Before founding Reperio, Travis created Sightbox, an all-encompassing vision care solution that caught the attention of Johnson & Johnson, leading to its acquisition in 2017.
Thriving in Entrepreneurship
Travis brings a wealth of experience spanning over 25 years as a web application development expert. Alongside his ventures at Sightbox and Reperio, he owned and successfully sold Rushweb Solutions, a company that specialized in website development, search engine optimization (SEO), and dedicated hosting services. Travis’s commitment to fostering entrepreneurship is evident in his two-year tenure as a board member of the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network, during which he dedicated time to mentor and support aspiring entrepreneurs in the region—a passion he continues whenever he finds the opportunity.
Travis is also the founder and owner of Lucky Lab Studios, a recording studio and record label. Through this venture, he continues to indulge in his lifelong passion for music and creativity. “I have a passion for songwriting. I also sing and play the piano and love performing my music on stage in front of a live crowd,” he shares.
"The challenge is figuring out how to balance caring for your big idea, your family, and your friends equally."
Travis’s Leadership Formula
“Someone once told me, that there are two ways to lead, through fear or example. I’ve chosen the latter. I work hard and try to instill fearlessness in my team,” Travis shares. Here are three consistent leadership traits observed in Travis. Firstly, he has never terminated anyone for attempting something new, even if it failed. Instead, he emphasizes understanding the reasons behind the failure and encourages individuals to strategize for success in subsequent attempts.
Secondly, Travis is unwavering in challenging the conventional ‘this-is-just-how-we-do-it’ norms prevalent in healthcare. He urges continuous questioning of established practices, emphasizing that a long-standing tradition does not inherently mean it is the optimal approach. Always seeking to understand the rationale behind established methods, he prompts the question, “Why do you do it that way?”
Lastly, Travis firmly believes that the word “no” doesn’t signify impossibility; rather, it indicates a need to engage with the right stakeholders. He encourages finding alternative paths around obstacles, whether by engaging different individuals within an organization or forming external partnerships to approach challenges from different angles. Despite potential complexities, he maintains that there is always a viable path forward.
Pushing Boundaries
For Travis, the allure lies in navigating the unknown. He finds discomfort in situations that are too comfortable; an easy path raises suspicions about why it hasn’t been explored before. Consequently, as soon as things start feeling comfortable, he instinctively seeks out new challenges, introducing barriers that continuously test both him and his team. This penchant for seeking challenges is a point of pride, with Travis actively searching for the next obstacle to conquer.
In the process of building something new, Travis often withholds information from his team to avoid overwhelming them, as he constantly grapples with the myriad thoughts swirling in his mind. “The long-term idea is always way bigger than what I’m willing to share out loud at the beginning because I think people will think I’m crazy or unrealistic if I share the entire idea with them. So, I find myself only releasing parts of the plan as they seem necessary at the moment,” states he.
For Travis, maintaining personal relationships has often been the casualty of possessing an entrepreneurial spirit. Comparing building a company to having a baby, he highlights the arduous journey of nurturing an idea from inception, teaching it to sustain itself, generate income, and eventually thrive independently. “The challenge is figuring out how to balance caring for your big idea, your family, and your friends equally. And more importantly, without overlap,” he feels.
“I find that for me it requires the ability to compartmentalize life so that I can maintain some sort of emotional separation. I’ve been running my own business my entire adult life and I still mess it up and accidentally let things spill over into those other buckets at times. It’s a constant challenge that I don’t think ever gets easier,” shares Travis.
Looking Ahead
Travis has committed to his wife that Reperio Health will be the final venture he builds from the ground up. This idea resonates with him, and he envisions transitioning to a different role once he believes that the company has achieved stability and can navigate the business landscape independently. His plan involves assuming a board seat and offering early-stage advice to multiple entrepreneurs embarking on their initial startup journeys. Travis sees this as an appealing way to gradually step back from the intense day-to-day operations, yet remain actively involved in the entrepreneurial game, providing guidance and sharing his wealth of experience.
For now, however, Travis remains committed to revolutionizing home healthcare across the globe forever by leveraging technology. His company has strategically pursued pending patents in 26 countries, underscoring its dedication to innovation and safeguarding its pioneering creations. “I believe faster, easy-to-access preventive care is the solution, and Reperio is that solution,” concludes Travis Rush.
