New start-up Fitsurance wants to improve sustainable employability and quality of life of employees

Fitsurance, the latest start-up from Demonstrator Lab, wants to improve the quality of life of employees. They focus on sustainable employability, increasing work productivity and general well-being of employees. They aim to reduce sick-leaves and absenteeism among the workforce of any employer. This implies a radical shift from the current thinking of a curative way of healthcare system towards a more preventive approach. They want to fundamentally change the way people think about their health.

Healthier employees

“Movement is an incredibly strong remedy for all kinds of diseases,” says Stef Beijk, one of the initiators of Fitsurance, and research master student of Human Movement Sciences. “People are made for an environment that requires a lot of action from us. Now we live in cities, with food all around us, and we sit for hours in a day. Research shows that people who are vigorously physically active twice a week and exercise harder also report less sick than people who don’t.”

That is why Beijk and his colleagues want to get people moving with their company Fitsurance. “We want to make people healthier. Not cure an illness, but prevent illnesses. Prevention is better than curing.” The idea is to do that through the employer: health parameters of employees will be tested and then given consult accordingly.” People often want to live healthier, but don’t know where to start,” Beijk thinks. “If you can give them personal advice, financed via the employer, the threshold of participation in these kinds of programs might be lower for the employees.”

Body Mass Index (BMI) not the most important parameter

The core business of Fitsurance lies in their health parameter testing (e.g., blood pressure, blood sugar, total lipid profile, endurance, hand grip strength, body composition and daily physical activities) and giving personalized consults on physical activity and diet to their clients. All these parameters combined give an overview of someone’s overall health state and thereby indicate the chances to get diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and predict all cause mortality in the future.

About Fitsurance

Fitsurance is a startup from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, incubated in the Demonstrator-lab. Sauvik Das Gupta, a current PhD candidate in the Department of Human Movement Sciences has recently started Fitsurance along with Stef Beijk, Moritz Eggelbusch and Tommie Koppens, Master’s students at the department. Fitsurance was recently awarded the NWO take-off grant (Phase-1) from the Ministry of Economic affairs and Education of the Government of Netherlands, allowing them to carry out a feasibility study on their concept for 6 months.

For more information do check out their website at www.fitsurance.nl and www.demonstratorlab.nl/cases/fitsurance/ or contact them directly at info@fitsurance.nl.

About Demonstrator Lab

Demonstrator Lab is a facility for students and researchers where bright ideas are transformed into tangible customer added value. Fitsurance is the 5th company that emerged from Demonstrator Lab since the start in January 2017.