Fitness company CrossFit, known for its high-intensity group workouts, has launched CrossFit Precision Care to provide customers with online personalized medicine, according to Time Oct. 19.
CrossFit CEO Eric Rooza told Time that traditional primary healthcare "takes time and takes money," and thus the company created CrossFit Precision to solve the problem of inadequate primary care. "That people deserve better than today's primary care model is an honest statement," said Mr. Roza.
The subscription-based program will provide customers with primary care through telemedicine, as well as preventive medicine and access to health coaches. Patients will be able to have customized nutrition, fitness and health plans developed by health professionals.
The program was developed alongside Wild Health, a personalized medicine startup. When members sign up for their $100 monthly subscription, they will fill out surveys about their health and goals and undergo medical examinations like blood and DNA tests. They will then be matched with a physician and health coach to develop personalized plans. CrossFit Precision has not yet launched, but it is accepting members in eight states to join its waiting list.
Others are not sold that CrossFit Precision will create the types of changes needed in primary care. Anupam Jena, MD, PhD, a Harvard Medical School healthcare policy professor, told Time that the fit and affluent audience of CrossFit will inevitably be the target market for Precision.
"I don't know that that's the place where we have a primary care problem," he said.
Instead, policy changes to the existing primary care system, enabling nurses and physicians to work independently and increasing minimum insurance reimbursements could help improve the field, Evan Cole, PhD, professor of health at University of Pittsburgh, argues.