Meet a Solver: Reza Yavari, Beyond Care

Big news: Solve just launched our next challenges asking for solutions on (1) Youth, Skills, and the Workforce of the Future, (2) Brain Health, (3) Sustainable Urban Communities, and (4) Women and Technology. 

Think you're ready to become a Solver, one of the incredible people, entrepreneurs, innovators, or teams solving these challenges? Here's how you can find out:

Leading up to our next submission deadline on August 1, we're going to release one profile a week on our current Solver teams and their solutions to big global problems. 

Read their stories. Find out more about them. And see if you think you can make the cut. 

Today, get ready to meet Dr. Reza Yavari and his solution: Beyond Care. 

REZA YAVARI'S STORY 

Q: Tell us your story: How did you first become interested in the work you do?
I have been an endocrinologist for 25 years. I became interested in metabolic disorders such as obesity and diabetes early on in my career. Over the last decade, I have focused my efforts on creating and delivering lifestyle change interventions aimed at diabetes prevention and management, as well as weight loss.

Q: Did you have a turning point moment that inspired you to think differently about your work?
As the diabetes and obesity epidemics are increasingly impacting our healthcare sector, lack of trained medical professionals and delivery sites is becoming more and more acute. I have been searching for scalable, affordable—and recently mobile—approaches to use the internet for the delivery of effective lifestyle change interventions.

Q: Tell us about your background—professionally, personally, or as a team.
I am a Yale trained endocrinologist with diverse advanced education in sciences and humanities. I am a scientist entrepreneur as well as a compassionate physician caring for a variety of communities in the last 30 years.

SOLUTION TEAM: BEYOND CARE

Q: What is the problem you’re trying to solve?
Prevention and management of diabetes and obesity worldwide.

Q: How are you trying to solve it?
Providing a scalable, affordable, and clinically validated digital coaching platform for lifestyle change aimed at diabetes and obesity.

Q: What is unique about your solution?
A novel, clinically tested, and validated mobile solution for end users worldwide.

Q: What’s the biggest challenge or barrier your solution faces?
Once clinically implemented at a large scale the main challenge will be to adapt our approach to diverse populations with different cultures.

Q: Tell us a story! Who will your solution impact? 
Tens of millions of people facing diabetes and/or battling obesity do not have access to healthcare providers and lack sufficient knowledge and other resources for self-coaching and lifestyle change. These individuals would include those living in rural areas of the United States such as farmers to people living in overpopulated cities in developing countries or even inner cities in the US where there are many socioeconomic barriers to good medical care.

BECOMING A SOLVER

Q: What do you think the Solve community can uniquely bring to solving your challenge?
A team of experts and financial resources. This is a chance to be part of a community and together be able to have a positive impact on the health of the planet.

Q: What’s the challenge that you think Solve should take on next?
How to clean our environment from chemicals that cause disease such as BPA.