MedTech Spotlight: BIOHM Health Launches Interactive Gut Assessment Tool

BIOHM Health, a total microbiome company, is launching an online interactive gut assessment tool.

What Happened: BIOHM Health, founded by Dr. Afif Ghannoum, said it's the first company that addresses the gut’s total microbiome of both bacteria and fungi.

“BIOHM Health started with research,” Ghannoum told Benzinga. “My father, [also] Dr. Ghannoum, was part of hundreds of published studies that pointed to the significance of fungi in the gut. He was concerned that consumers didn't have access to products that factored in the important relationship with fungi, bacteria, and enzymes. So, we made one.”

The company works off the premise that today’s probiotics fail in addressing the role fungi play in digestive health. BIOHM addresses the gut’s total microbiome of both bacteria and fungi.

At GutTesting.com, consumers answer a short series of demographic, health, lifestyle and diet questions to recevieve their Gut Score, or insights on the balance of their gut.

The solution is unique in that it analyzes millions of collected microbiome DNA data points by utilizing artificial intelligence and machine learning, Ghannoum said. 

"It's time for consumers to pop-the-hood so to speak on supplements and personal health," the CEO told Benzinga.

"The evolution of consumer savviness is primed to take this critical next step. In the wellness category there are so many brands that are pros in marketing, but not in health. They're reproducing the same formulations with a prettier label with laser printers that allows for personalization. When we start to monogram our supplement packets, it's time to take a step back and embark on a deeper look at science.”

Why It Matters: This new solution by BIOHM democratizes access to gut information.

“As we entered the market with our BIOHM probiotics, we realized how much supplementation was a guessing game,” the CEO said. “We developed an at-home test kit where consumers could mail back a fecal sample to state-of-the-art processing labs at Case Western University to get a real understanding of what was actually happening in their microbiome.

“Turns out, when you test thousands of microbiomes, you start seeing yields and trends that can be applied to predictive models for personal health. This is where we are today. We started with research, we are generating research, and we have established one of the biggest microbiome datasets in the world. Science feeds our products and our products feed the science. This is the kind of gold standard consumers should be looking for in managing their health."