Closely held Ilant Health is leading a paradigm shift in how obesity and cardiometabolic conditions are treated—offering a holistic, personalized, and value-based approach that gives individuals access to multidisciplinary healthcare teams from the comfort of their home.
“As a society, we’re getting obesity all wrong—we’re not creating the right experience or thinking about treatment the right way. Our mission is to change that with continuous, personalized support by matching members with the right healthcare team and treatment approach at the right time,” Elina Onitskansky, co-founder and CEO of Ilant, says in an interview with BioTuesdays.
Ms. Onitskanky explains that Ilant partners with employers and government healthcare payers to provide their members with affordable customized healthcare ranging from intense behavioral therapy to prescribed medications or bariatric surgery. “I have always believed that we need affordability to drive access to quality care and make programs actually work for both payers and people living with obesity.”
Approximately 75% of U.S. adults are considered overweight or obese, burdening the healthcare system by nearly $173 billion annually. It’s estimated that about 260 million Americans will be overweight or obese by 2050.
“Most efforts in this space miss the mark on experience, access, quality, and affordability,” she adds. “Ilant was built on a default of high-quality, non-judgmental, value-based care that combines patient outcomes with financial sustainability.”
Ilant’s model blends advanced analytics, clinical expertise, and lived experience to match individuals with the right treatment—what Ms. Onitskanky refers to as “de-averaging” care. Central to this model is a three-pronged strategy: 1) engage the right member; 2) identify the right treatment; and 3) align with the right support team.
The company’s AI-powered precision claims analytics engine, called Rapid Returns, uses machine learning to predict who has obesity, assess severity, recommend the most effective treatment, and forecast outcomes.
“This data-driven approach helps us proactively engage the people most in need—those often invisible to the traditional healthcare system,” she says.
Focused on breaking the cycle of stigma and underdiagnosis, Ms. Onitskanky suggests people living with obesity often avoid the healthcare system due to shame and stigma, compounded by systemic gaps.
“The healthcare system doesn’t treat obesity as a disease. Doctors aren’t trained in it. Insurers don’t incentivize coding for it. As a result, obesity is massively underdiagnosed in Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial claims,” she notes.
Ilant’s clinical decision support algorithm factors in comorbidities like hypertension and diabetes to personalize care plans.
“There’s a pervasive belief that if everyone just does X, we’ll solve obesity—but this isn’t a one-size-fits-all issue,” Ms. Onitskansky asserts. “Even game-changing medications like GLP-1s only tell part of the story. It’s about understanding how treatments affect an individual’s biomarkers, not just average weight loss.”
Beyond medication, Ilant employs a holistic model, incorporating social determinants of health in care planning, such as food access, nutrition literacy, physical activity, time availability, and social support.
“The ‘right support’ is both having the right care team and delivering that support at crucial moments,” Ms. Onitskansky says.
Each Ilant member is supported by a physician—trained in obesity medicine—a registered dietician, and a mental health clinician. This integrated team addresses physical and psychological factors, often overlooked in conventional care.
To build trust, Ilant has created a unique role—the peer navigator. This person with lived experience of obesity acts as a care concierge. “They help members navigate the program and establish a trusted connection. That empathy is critical,” she adds.
The company’s proprietary app complements this team-based care by allowing members to track progress, meet with clinicians, access resources, and flag when they may need more support.
Obesity care isn’t linear. Life happens—holidays, stress, plateaus,” Ms. Onitskansky points out. “Our technology enables us to detect when members are struggling so we can step in at the right time. That’s often the difference between long-term success and disengagement.”
Ms. Onitskansky emphasizes that many Ilant members come to the program without a primary care physician due to negative past experiences with weight bias. “We’re discovering serious conditions that have gone untreated. People are often blamed for their health issues instead of receiving appropriate care,” she says.
Ilant prescribes GLP-1s and other anti-obesity medications but goes further by evaluating each person’s full medical picture—including switching off weight-inducing medications when appropriate.
Ms. Onitskansky says she sees immense opportunity in the next wave of therapies including new drugs and novel approaches to combatting obesity.
One such innovation is BioRestorative’s (NASDAQ: BRTX) allogeneic, off-the-shelf brown adipose-derived stem cell (BADSC) technology which is designed to boost metabolism and promote weight loss while mitigating muscle loss and cardiovascular risk, two of the most pressing concerns associated with GLP-1 therapies.
“I am very excited about these advances, which will enable us to match treatments to individuals more precisely—based on their unique biomarkers. That means better outcomes and the ability to identify ‘super-responders,’” Ms. Onitskansky says.
She adds that despite growing awareness of the burgeoning obesity crisis, many communities continue applying the same outdated solutions. “We’ve been saying ‘eat less, move more’ for 30 years. Meanwhile, obesity, prediabetes, and diabetes rates have skyrocketed,” she says. “If we’re serious about reversing this trend, we have to do things differently—not just clinically, but socially and structurally.”
Ilant believes health equity must be at the core of any scalable solution. “Most Americans access healthcare through employers or government programs like Medicare and Medicaid,” Ms. Onitskansky says. “So we work directly with employers and health plans to make our program affordable and accessible—not just for those who can pay out of pocket.”
She highlights that Ilant’s treatment model is designed for long-term impact. Typically, a member will undergo nine to twelve months of intense intervention to reset biomarkers such as weight, A1C, LDL, and blood pressure. Another twelve months are devoted to stabilizing the member, followed by an ongoing maintenance program and continued support.
“Unlike many digital health platforms, we don’t believe in dial-a-doc care,” Ms. Onitskansky clarifies. “Trust is the missing link in healthcare. Our members stay with the same care team throughout their journey. That continuity builds a relationship—and that’s where real change happens.”
Looking forward, she says Ilant aims to be a pioneer in personalized, biomarker-driven obesity care. “Having recently launched several new accounts, we are all very excited about our unique position in the obesity and cardiometabolic space,” she says.
“With potentially 20 to 30 effective new obesity treatment options in the future—the world is going to need a very analytically biometric personalized approach to match treatments to individuals for optimized outcomes and value. And we are leading the charge for this care.”
• • • • •
To connect with Ilant Health or any other companies featured on BioTuesdays, send us an email at editor@biotuesdays.com.
