Instacart Health Launches Provider Tools
On March 24, San Francisco-headquartered Instacart announced through a press release that it has launched a suite of digital tools for providers. The digital tools aim to enhance collaborative care, promote healthy choices, and deliver foods to patients and families. The announcement is in collaboration with the White House initiative to help end hunger and reduce diet-related diseases by 2030.
The press release states that “It is widely accepted that nutrition is critical to health but today over 30 million people in the U.S. live in food-insecure households—including as many as 9 million children. Studies have shown that nearly 46 percent of adults and 56 percent of children in the U.S. have an overall poor-quality diet, and unhealthy diets account for more than $50 billion in U.S. healthcare costs.”
Instacart Health’s new provider products include:
- Fresh Funds – providers give patients “Fresh Funds”—Instacart stipends—to directly purchase foods on Instacart
- Care Carts – providers can send custom grocery deliveries using “Care Carts”
The new products, according to the release, can be used with additional provider tools on Instacart including virtual storefronts, shoppable recipes, and lists for nutrition.
The release adds that Boston Children’s Hospital will be one of the first health systems to use Instacart Health provider products. The health system will create new food as medicine programs for its patients.
“Additionally, Instacart also today announced four new studies with leading academic institutions and health systems including Mount Sinai Hospital; the University of Kentucky; the University at Buffalo; and the Stanford Cancer Institute, Food for Health Equity Lab at Stanford Medicine, and the University of California, San Francisco’s Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center to examine the impact of nutrition security interventions and food-as-medicine programs on different patient groups, including patients who live in low-income and food-insecure households,” the release notes.
John Brownstein, Ph.D., chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital was quoted in the release saying that “At Boston Children’s Hospital, we’re committed to pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in pediatric health and addressing our patient health needs holistically. Together with Instacart Health, we are excited to explore this technology further to help our providers deliver programs serving patients and families with specific dietary needs. Food and nutrition programs are essential to disease treatment and prevention.”
In September of 2022, we reported that Instacart announced Instacart Health. At that time, the new initiative aims to increase nutrition security, make health choices simpler for consumers, and expand the role food plays in improving health outcomes. The initiative was launched in coordination with the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health.
