Episode 176 | Apr 16, 2026

Building a Better Model for Healthcare, With Dr. Innocent Clement

How can healthcare truly address the root causes of chronic disease instead of just managing symptoms? This week on Health Coach Talk, Dr. Sandi welcomes Dr. Innocent Clement, founder and CEO of Ciba Health, to explore a precision care model that is transforming chronic disease management. Together, they discuss how a collaborative, data-driven approach featuring physicians, dietitians, behavioral health specialists, and health coaches is creating better outcomes, stronger engagement, and more accessible care for patients with complex conditions.

“So you build a model that is centered around the patient that leverages the multidisciplinary care team, the technology, the data to deliver a whole-person personalized care model. The goal is to get to the root causes, leverage this biomarker testing, and hopefully reverse or put the condition into remission.”

Dr. Innocent Clement

Dr. Innocent’s work is rooted in frustration with the traditional healthcare system, where care is often fragmented, reactive, and impersonal. Patients are left navigating multiple providers, repeating their stories, and trying to make sense of siloed recommendations that rarely address underlying causes. In contrast, Ciba Health’s model brings the care team together around shared data and a whole-person view of the patient. Through advanced biomarker testing, wearable technology, AI-supported insights, and coordinated care pathways, this approach is designed to personalize treatment, improve efficiency, and help patients move toward remission or reversal of chronic conditions. Dr. Innocent’s journey into building this model was shaped by his own experience treating patients with high-acuity chronic illness and seeing firsthand how deeply the current system was failing both patients and providers. Since launching Ciba Health in 2020, he has focused on building a scalable, outcomes-driven system that combines clinical care, public health, and technology in service of a better patient experience.

For health coaches, this episode offers an especially meaningful look at what becomes possible when coaching is fully integrated into care delivery. At Ciba Health, coaches are central to the model, helping patients establish goals, stay engaged, navigate behavior change, and feel seen and supported throughout their care journey. Their role strengthens trust, improves communication across the care team, and helps translate clinical recommendations into sustainable daily action. This conversation speaks directly to the growing value of health coaching in modern healthcare and to the opportunity for coaches to help shape a more personalized, collaborative future of medicine.

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Transcript

Dr. Sandi: We hear so much about the broken traditional chronic care models, but today I want to share with you somebody who is creating a different model, one that works, because it is a collaborative care team model. It includes board-certified doctors, it includes dietitians, it includes psychiatrists as necessary, and it includes health coaches.

I got to know Dr. Innocent Clement a number of years ago when Ciba Health was just getting started, and he has been very committed to health coaches from the get-go. This is a wonderful practice that I think needs to be the standard of care for chronic disease management. So he is getting wonderful successes. Diseases are being reversed, need for medication is declining. And this is a practice that is available because it’s affordable, and I believe it needs to be the future of medicine.

So let me tell you about Dr. Innocent Clement. He is a physician, an entrepreneur, and the founder and CEO of Ciba Health. He brings together clinical training, public health, and business experience to build scalable outcomes-driven care models. He has spent the past five years leading Ciba Health’s growth into a precision care platform that serves employers, payers, and health systems. I know that you are going to be inspired by my conversation with Dr. Innocent. And if you are a health coach listening, take note. He is strongly in favor of healthcare through health coaches and a big supporter of FMCA, and we are grateful for collaborating with him.

So I’d like to introduce you to our community, Dr. Innocent. You have been doing some wonderful, wonderful things, and so I’m excited to talk to you today.

Dr. Innocent: Thank you so much, Sandra, for, again, your time and really to connect with me this morning, and I’m happy to always connect with the community and share learnings, insights, and how we are also changing the paradigm from how patient with high acuity, polyclinic condition have been helped manage today, the frustration, and how Ciba is changing the narratives around access, better outcome, better engagement. And so I’m excited to have the conversation.

Dr. Sandi: Tell us about this notion of precision care. What would that actually look like in practice, and how would it differ from the traditional care model?

Dr. Innocent: It’s an excellent question, Sandra. I mean, one of the reasons why I started Ciba in 2020 was also as a result of my own frustration with managing patients with high acuity, polyclinic condition today. They are frustrated with how care is delivered, how they access care, and that led me to begin to think about a new model that is really completely innovating and changing how we deliver care. We call it precision care model.

So, precision care for us is really leveraging data about this individual. The data would include your labs. Obviously, the labs that we test at Ciba is well above and beyond what’s been done at the traditional settings today. Our labs allow us, based on our protocol, to really do a deeper dive into the root causes of this condition.

And so once we leverage the biomarker testing that we put together as a custom panel to do a deeper dive into this individual, we have a better understanding on the root causes of the condition. We have a better understanding how to support the individual, really to optimize their health, to really ensure that we’re delivering a truly personalized whole person care model for every patient. Hence why it’s called precision care model.

And precision care model leverages not just the data alone. It looks at how do we leverage technology, the cutting-edge technology today that create efficiency and allow us to automate a lot of work that we do, but also the multidisciplinary care team. So the multidisciplinary care team include a doctor, which is board-certified, include a dietitian, include a health coach, and as well as behavioral therapists. Also, they include what we call the psychiatrist as needed.

So you build a model that is centered around the patient that leverages the multidisciplinary care team, the technology, the data to deliver a whole-person personalized care model. So this is what we define as precision care. The goal is to get to the root causes, leverage this biomarker testing, and hopefully reverse or put the condition into remission.

Dr. Sandi: This is just such a cutting-edge model. I’ve followed you since you started Ciba Health. And when we talk about the dream team, a multidisciplinary team, because that is the way care can be personalized. And we’ve lost that so much because even from the time Ciba started, it’s gotten worse in a traditional model. What are some of the things that you are seeing in terms of the issues going on with the traditional healthcare model?

Dr. Innocent: There’s a lot of frustration, right? Even providers are frustrated. I mean, this is not how care should be delivered. But unfortunately, in leadership, you can’t make all these decisions to change what need to be changed. And so the system is broken. We all know that. And even though I hate to use that word broken, but 100% it’s broken. The care today that is delivered is so siloed. A patient with maybe autoimmune, GI issues would have to connect with multiple providers, right?

I mean, and the challenge is those providers also don’t share that data real-time. Either the patient would have to book an appointment with maybe a dietician, book an appointment with a health coach separately, because the traditional model did not have all that as part of the care model. So if a patient needs to see a dietician, then obviously, either the provider will give them a list and say, “Hey, here’s a list. Go book an appointment with this dietician. They can help you with the diet plan. You need a health coach that will help you with behavioral changes that can handhold you and support you. You need to find one,” right? It’s not part of the care model.

And the patients are frustrated. So you’re managing multiple providers, and data is so siloed. Each of these provider that you’re visiting don’t have a way to share that data real-time. That also led to… If you look at Ciba today, from 2020, the number of clients have increased significantly to about 107. It’s a small company where we are today. It shows the adoption of this new care model, a model that has proven to deliver better outcome, better engagement, and deliver this truly personalized model where providers are working collaboratively. The doctor, the dietician, the health coaches, the behavioral therapists, the psychiatrists, the specialists are all sharing data on one platform on how they can better manage and optimize the patient’s health.

So once you’re able to establish that, that helps you to really continue to impact the current gaps that we see in the current care model today.

Dr. Sandi: It’s such a good model. And just anecdotally, as well as there’s been some research showing that for the doctors, it eliminates burnout because doctors are so burdened today. And when you have a multidisciplinary care team, it is wonderful for the doctors and certainly for the patients because, as we’ve said, they’re getting that personalized care.

It reminds me, so many, many years ago, we’re talking early ’70s, I was a special education teacher. And that’s what we did. We had a multidisciplinary team. We’d have an extensive evaluation, let’s say, for learning disabilities. And then there was a social worker, and a physical therapist, and occupational therapist, and teachers. And they really got the care that they needed because of that multidisciplinary team. And we’d have staffings where each person would share their perspective.

So this is just such a good model. What is your plan for, or I should say, in terms of what are some of the things you have noted so far in terms of patient success stories?

Dr. Innocent: Well, our solution has to be evidence-based. We must have data that supports and back that, right? So we collect extensive data, data from user experience, net promoter score, patient symptoms, you know, how they measure the symptoms using the validated questionnaire.

But the most important thing in the shift today, we’ve seen how AI is also completely changing how we deliver care, how members access care. It also really create efficiency for the care team, which means providers now don’t have to do a lot of some of this admin work that you do, like the notes taking and summarization of patient visit. And also really create what we call the risk stratification model.

So, as a member comes in, during the intake process, they go through a very comprehensive questionnaire. That questionnaire allow us to create a risk stratification and a care pathway and assign a dedicated care team for each member. And this dedicated care team, what the technology does for them really helps them to be efficient. It allow them to really focus on delivering care, allow the admin work, note taking, analyzing that data is really taken over by the technology, where it aggregates all that data, summarize that data, create a structure for you, highlight and flag areas where you need to focus on so that you can look at that. And based on that information, you’re now able to support the patient as needed.

The other element there, what it does for them is also, when you talk about personalization, we collect three main data buckets today. One of the data buckets we collect is data from the lab testing, data from connected devices, the wearables that we send to the patients, right, which include Fitbit, Oura ring, scale, blood pressure monitoring curve, and all that, so that we can collect comprehensive biometric data and layer that data with the biomarker testing that we do, existing lab that the patient would have, and as well as really looking at a comprehensive questionnaire. So we create this comprehensive model that is geared towards empowering the patient, one, two, delivering better outcome, three, allowing the care team to be proactive rather than reactive, right?

Today, a lot of care model is reactionary, but what we’re building today is to really leverage technology and create a model that is proactive, a model that empowers patient, a model that create efficiency for our care team so that they can focus on what they know how to do best, a model that create data efficiency structure, all that is involved in managing this patient and ability to share that data with providers outside of our own network or outside of our platform.

So when you do that, you create a model now that has shown that this is what healthcare should be today. And because of all this that we’ve done in the past, I would say this will be our sixth year, we’ve seen incredible patient outcome from reversing their condition, from really eliminating medications, and from patient who have been told in the past that, “You will live with this condition for the rest of your life.” And seeing that that condition can be reversed, that has changed the way patient look at care.

And obviously, Ciba cannot do it all alone, right? So we need to begin to see other vendors adopting this model so that we can support our patient population. You saw what’s going on with the current healthcare at a policy level. There’s a huge change now happening at CMMI, which is Center for Medicaid Innovation, or CMS, as well as the HHS. There’s a lot happening today. They are all thinking about whole-person care model that leverages multidisciplinary care team to deliver care.

Dr. Sandi: It is such a comprehensive, state-of-the-art model. How do you successfully integrate health coaches into this care model?

Dr. Innocent: Health coaches plays a huge, huge, important role in all we do and how we deliver care, because they serve like the quarterback, right? So they are the first line of contact for every patient. They have access to a dashboard where they identify patient who are at risk of disengaging or are struggling.

So they really reach out to this patient, and these health coaches really help to provide that care coordination and work with the patient, the doctor, the dietician, with everybody who is involved in delivering care. So they play a huge role in how we deliver care, how we support our patients, and how we stratify the patient, move them into specific buckets. So for us, we call it the high-touch, the moderate-touch, the low-touch.

Each level, the health coach plays a huge role there in supporting the patient, but also supporting the care team, because they are all involved. They share data in real-time. They understand the patient more because they have interaction with them a lot more. And so they’re involved every step of the way.

When you’re setting up the devices for each patient, because we send a toolkit to the patient, which include, I talked about earlier on, the smart scale that measure the weight, BMI, blood pressure monitoring curve that collect blood pressure data. We send them Fitbit, also CGM.

So the health coaches would help them, one, establish a goal. What are they looking to achieve today? What’s been difficult for them in the past? How can we work with them collaboratively to support them to be part of this care model and establish goals earlier on with the patient? What they can do. What they cannot do. What sort of food can they eat? What sort of food that they cannot eat. All that, right?

So you collect a lot of behavioral data, a lot of information upfront, and that information get feed into the data stream. And that allow our technology to take that data as well, to personalize the patient journey. But every step of the way, the health coaches are a part of the Ciba model that supports the patient, that support the care team, that also really ensure that the data and all the care team are working in sync, really, delivering care.

Dr. Sandi: Well, I love this model. And that’s how we originally connected when you first started. And it is just so wonderful to hear that coaches are an integral part of the care team. And when I was writing my latest book, “Your Health Coach Will See You Now,” there was a lot of research into the power of health coaching. And time and time again, study after study, I just saw another one recently, it’s self-efficacy.

And so I think when people are able to have the sense that they’re the CEOs of their health, they can take charge of their health, that changes on a daily basis, those daily habits do matter, then they’re on the road to reversing these conditions, as you’ve seen, and compliance. We did our own research a few years ago and showed that compliance went up when they had a health coach. So it’s really encouraging to see your support of the coaches.

Dr. Innocent: Absolutely. I mean, once you embed them correctly, to be honest, like you said, really, it drives better engagement, it build trust, it build relationship. It shows that there’s someone that is listening. And it’s so powerful for the patient. A lot of testimonials that we get from our patient today, they talk about, you know, patients that have never seen this sort of model. I’ve never had an opportunity where I have a provider listen to me and try to know me and try to understand how they can support me and try to hold my hands and tell me I am not just a number and I’m not here all by myself.

We’re here to support you, to hold your hands and walk you through this journey, and build a solution that will empower you and you become a captain of your own health. And so, you know, again, the importance of a health coach, it’s not just because they’re there, but really, when you build trust, and you build that relationship, it changes everything. And patients feel heard, and they feel like there’s someone that they can reach out to. It completely changes the entire conversation.

Dr. Sandi: So true. Something we hear frequently, we’re talking about functional integrative medicine practices, is, like, I can’t afford it. It’s steep membership fees, for example. And so if somebody were to come to Ciba, can you talk about your model in terms of the affordability? Is it insurance-based?

Dr. Innocent: Yeah, 100%. And again, like you said, this sort of care model, you know, the perception is it’s so expensive, it’s not affordable for the common person in the street. But for us, what’s a care model if every other person cannot access it? Right? Then the aim is defeated.

So what we’ve done is to democratize access to this sort of model, make it cheaper, make it accessible for everybody today. The care model that Ciba has built today that include the doctor visits, the dietician, the health coaches, the technology, the lab testing that we do, is $2,500 for the entire year as compared to paying $15,000 for a visit.

But also, most importantly, is the standardization and protocol that we’ve built. Every provider, they follow a specific Ciba protocol that we built that also leverages technology, and to make this sort of model accessible, cheaper. But not just cheaper, but really deliver better outcome, really.

So when you deliver better outcome, the cost associated with skyrocketing, you know, chronic conditions, high acuity, complex brain condition that’s going up, there’s a solution that Ciba has built that has democratized access to that sort of care that everybody, irrespective of your background, where you are, is able to access this model. This model can be integrated into insurance company, right? I mean, we’ve mapped out CPT codes around a model that is also covered by insurance.

You know, we work directly with employer that are self-funded, employer that has assumed the risk of providing insurance for their employees who are seeing costs continually to go up really and struggling to manage it. And so Ciba is telling them, “We have a solution that, one, will reduce the cost, that will provide access at a fraction of the cost.

Today, when you go to a practitioner outside of Ciba, you’re looking to pay $15,000 to $20,000, which include labs and all that. But with Ciba, you’re only paying a fraction of that, which is $2,500. So $2,500. Let’s say, for instance, a patient with autoimmune disease today. Autoimmune, we know how difficult it is to manage autoimmune. Most of the patient with autoimmune disease, they are on biologics. Biologics can cost an average of $8,000 today.

And with Ciba model, our goal is to do a deeper dive and define why do you want to have this autoimmune condition today? Where is it coming from? And you build a model, a care plan that will help you to put that condition into remission or reversal, which means you will not eliminate medication that you’re currently on. And there’s a cost savings there.

So, for us, we think $2,500, that gives you access to a multidisciplinary care team, the technology, labs, testing, the devices, all this comprehensive care, I think it’s a good deal. And that’s why we call it the democratic… We are democratizing access to a model that has proven to work at a fraction of the cost.

Dr. Sandi: It’s such a great model. And certainly, if we talk about the cost of care, just medications alone, that is something that’s really important to see that this is doable. And what can you share, perhaps any outcomes that may have surprised you since you first started? And what lesson can we take away from what you’ve built at Ciba Health?

Dr. Innocent: Yeah, I would say a little bit different, not even really surprise me because I know that a model works, really, if you engage with what is recommended by the care team. And our goal is not just our providers just provide a recommendation or a care plan. You walk with a patient alongside yourself, you make them feel that they’re in charge, right? Because if you look at the care model today, doctors make all the decisions for them and say, “This is what you need to do,” and just go, right? “Go and implement this, and do this, and it should be fine.”

But the patient feel like no one listen to them. So once you listen to them, you begin to see incredible outcomes. We’ve just actually finished analyzing a cohort data for about 2,453 members. Out of those 2,453 members, 90% symptom improvement. We’ve seen significant elimination with medication, around 85%, an NPA score of about 80%, which is a net promoter score, really, from a patient perspective. We’ve seen reduction with emergency room visits, healthcare utilization.

So this data is currently being validated by a third party that would audit it, and validate, and provide us with a certification. But in the interim, we’ve done our internal analysis, and we’ve seen significant cost saving, close to around $70 million across 2,453 patients. Some with autoimmune, some with GI issues, some with cardiometabolic, obesity issues. Elimination of GLP-1, 85%. Elimination of some of these biologics that we’ve seen that are so expensive, around 85%. We’ve seen symptom improvement by 90% across 2,453 patient. This is significant, right?

We continue to see patient losing 40 pounds of their body weight. I mean, that is sustained. It’s not, you know, you lose the weight, and it comes right back. No, because we figure out why you’re also gaining the weight, putting together a care plan that has a lot of members within the first three months. I mean, some members, within three months of engaging with Ciba, they lose the weight, and it’s sustained over time, and they eliminate medication, which is very exciting.

So for us, we continue to lead with outcome data that supports all the claims we make today. It’s not just about promises, it’s actually delivering value and showing with data that this works and why we should adopt a model like Ciba has today that continue to show value and make impact in the lives of our citizens, as well as members, wherever they are in the world.

Dr. Sandi: You have had such a tremendous impact, and has been recognized and have won multiple awards for your work for this model. Just one clarification for our listeners, is this telehealth primarily? Is this a model that you can be anywhere in the world and you don’t have to go to a physical brick-and-mortar building?

Dr. Innocent: Yeah, 100%. When we talk about democratizing access, is certainly, we want to ensure that we have a model that meets you where you are. So what we’ve done is build 100% virtual model. There’s no brick-and-mortar. And what support us to be able to deliver value here is the connected devices, the technology element that we build, the remote patient merging capabilities, our AI model that’s able to customize how you communicate with patient, identify patients who are at risk, and create a personalized recommendation for them, creating a risk stratification, a care plan.

So you were able to balance the human and technology. And doing this, it’s not an easy task at all, right? To take technology and the human and balance that and deliver a care model that is delivering value today. So we believe we don’t necessarily need to have a brick-and-mortar location, but we have partnership, extensive relationship with larger health system. If there’s a need, we can refer in there, they can go in there. So we’ve got Ciba. We position ourself as a virtual-first, which is also a virtual specialist sort of care model. And if a patient need to go in, we’re able to refer them and provide that care coordination to ensure that we send them to a location that is in network, as they may say.

But yes, your question around anywhere in the world, no matter where you are, you’re able to download the Ciba app and go through the process. And you would have access to a care model that’s meant for you, a care model that looks like what healthcare should be today.

Dr. Sandi: Well, I love this model. So what would be, let’s say, your dream for the future of Ciba?

Dr. Innocent: A dream for the future is everybody everywhere should be able to access this model. It should not be limited to those who only have employers who are able to pay for it. Insurers should be able to adopt this model, and really, let’s really continue to democratize access to this model that has proven to work.

Obviously, the U.S. healthcare system today is very challenging, and navigating it on itself, it’s a massive headache. Patients struggle with that. We want a situation where this model will be adopted by all insurance company across the world, within the U.S. And if that is done, which means, you know, for patients, irrespective of where you come from, your background, your environment, your culture, your income shouldn’t be a barrier to access a model like this.

So my dream is to see this model adopted by a lot of these large health insurance company. And that would really allow for access by those who probably wouldn’t be able to pay for a solution like this or don’t have employers to pay for this.

Dr. Sandi: Well, I’m right there with you in any way that we can support you with our health coaches. It’s been a wonderful collaboration. So, Dr. Innocent, where can people find you? Where can they get more information about Ciba Health?

Dr. Innocent: Yeah, it’s easy. You know, it’s cibahealth.com. You know, type that into Google, you can find Ciba. We have social media handles that you can also find Ciba there. But really, it’s straightforward and easy. Type Ciba Health, it’s going to come up, and you click on the link, you can learn more. You can connect with our care team, our sales team to learn more about the model that has proven to deliver value, better outcome, lower cost of care, higher engagement.

And so, yeah, I mean, we’re excited. We’re here, we’re listening, and we welcome the questions. So, anyone who want to learn more, please go to cibahealth.com. And there’s also a number you can call and have a conversation with our customer support. And they’re happy to walk you through the model. And yeah, thank you so much again for this.

Dr. Sandi: Well, thank you for being with us. Thank you for the wonderful work that you are doing to help millions of people create better health.

Dr. Innocent: Yeah, no, thank you so much, because we can’t do this all by ourself, really. I think it’s also important to highlight the important work you’re doing, you know, training those health coaches really to understand how to deliver this sort of care model that has proven to work well. And access to them, support, and the talent is… Obviously, we know how difficult it is now to access talent. But again, thanks to your academy for really continuing to build, you know, train additional health coaches.

I mean, you know, as you know, we’ve expanded into Canada, where we’ll also continue to identify health coaches that want to hire locally to support our members there. I think it’s certainly very exciting. And I really want to say thank you all for all the work that you’re doing. Without you all, I mean, there’s also going to be a talent gap. And then how do we even support this model if we don’t have folks like you doing what you’re doing today?

We’ll continue to leverage the ecosystem, your network, so we’re going to grow and scale this business and find new care team, our care team, to support our clients as they come on board. So thank you for all that work. And I look forward to continue to work with you and your team collaboratively as we continue to change the face of healthcare.

Dr. Sandi: Well, thank you so much for those kind remarks. And it’s just been an honor to know you, to see the growth of Ciba, and to support you by training health coaches, and that’s…

Dr. Innocent: Yeah. Thank you so much, Sandra.

Dr. Sandi: …collaborative model. Thank you.

Dr. Innocent: Yeah. Thank you. Always good to chat with you. Have a good one.