Purpose driven

Welcome to the future. Edison is a health and ‘life extension’ company riding the emerging precision medicine wave. Its founders Jay Harrison and Rich Tangney are excited to be on the cusp of a healthcare revolution.

There is a famous quote by Thomas Edison on the wall of Edison’s Parnell clinic. It states: “The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patient in the care of the human frame, in diet and in the cause and prevention of disease.”

No surprises then for where Jay Harrison and Rich Tangney found the inspiration for the name of their precision medicine business. That quote, although from an entirely different era, still sums up nicely what this business start-up is all about.

As Jay points out, the genesis for Edison is a simple story, but one timed so perfectly.

“The CEO of a telco infrastructure company, who happened to be a friend of ours, was frustrated with his ‘executive medical’ service provider. The service was very ordinary and didn’t provide an actual solution to the problems it was identifying. Each year the company execs would get an annual medical check and the same vanilla report, with no direction on how to improve their health issues. 

“Our friend was very clear about what he wanted. He wanted the medical and a ‘playbook’ of sorts – an instruction manual on how his team could improve their health,” explains Jay. 

“As timing has it, I had just been to a genetics conference in Australia and was excited and inspired about an emerging movement – a new frontier called ‘precision health’. 

“So, I drafted a proposal for the first version of what was to become the Edison protocol. A protocol that used genetic, biomarker, biometric and clinical insights to direct a targeted, precision health plan.

“Rich and I rolled this exciting new proposition in our heads for a few days and then decided we would stop all our other projects and focus on Edison. And here we are today.”

Jay and Rich, who first met around seven years ago, are an interesting combination. 

Jay is a qualified sports scientist by qualification and spent the past 20 years in the health and wellness space – more recently in health technology. Rich was a mine clearance diver in the New Zealand Navy for more than a decade before pivoting to start his entrepreneurial journey into the health space by launching New Zealand’s most successful online juice delivery company. 

“We have a good mix of creative, technical and commercial skillsets and have been lucky in finding great people aligned and committed to a collective vision,” says Jay.

To date Edison has been self-funded. “We’ve been collectively committed to getting our product right whilst organically growing our client base,” explains Rich.

“We are also in the process of finalising a large New Zealand-based strategic partnership which will provide distribution to a large percentage of the New Zealand corporate market.

“And we are preparing for our first capital raise with a goal to build out our genomics programme, our technology, a second large-format clinic, as well as scale up our team.”

The Parnell clinic comprises management, medical, clinical, employee health and support teams.

There’s also a ‘future cities’ expansion plan in the pipeline.

An emerging market

Essentially Edison exists to help its clients live as long as they possibly can, as well as they can.

Its current tool is precision health, but the landscape is evolving quickly, explains Jay.

“We are investing huge amounts of time and resources into understanding how our field will evolve over the coming years and are dialling in on genetics and artificial intelligence to help our clients live better, longer. 

“We are on the cusp of a human health revolution,” he adds. “Progress in the fields of genetics, technology and life-sciences has created a phenomenal opportunity for companies like Edison to shape the future of healthcare. We view this convergence as one of the greatest contributing factors to our success to date.”

Both Jay and Rich say the reaction to their precision health service has been extremely positive. “While there was an expectation that traditional general medical practitioners would query the service, the reality is that the majority of those who have spoken with us are extremely interested in collaborating,” says Jay. 

“We also work closely with a leading cardiologist who is a strong advocate, and has helped Edison become one of only six clinics in the world to use advanced ECG in a clinical setting.” (Advanced ECG breaks down your heart’s electrical tracing into hundreds of 3D measurements, resulting in a highly personalised cardiac fingerprint.)

Rich explains that Edison has three typical health-conscious client groups:

• Executives looking for performance and optimisation.

• Early adopters – those who want to take a proactive approach to their health, well-being and performance.

• High net worth individuals – those focused on longevity and quality of life.

“One of the most satisfying aspects of our service is that Eureka moment when clients make the connection between the results of their testing and something that’s been concerning them health-wise,” he says.

Focused on a passion

Opportunity management has proved an ongoing challenge for the two founders – but they have adopted a relentless focus to ensure product-market fit. 

“It seems every day new opportunities are put on our table. This requires some discipline to stay focused on the job at hand,” explains Jay. “The landscape is so exciting, so keeping focused and grounded is important to our long-term success.”

Rich says they are both fortunate to be working in an industry that feeds their purpose of helping others – “and equally as fortunate to be working in such an exciting, innovative and growing health tech industry”. 

They both firmly believe the precision health and medicine space is rapidly evolving and precision medicine will soon be the new standard in healthcare. 

“Our mission is to democratise precision health and make it accessible to all,” says Jay.

“We want people to view Edison as a vehicle that can help them realise their greatest potential; the potential that a long and healthy life can give them.”