Sami Inkinen’s shift from tech to medicine led to Virta Health’s pioneering approach, combining nutrition science, remote monitoring, and personalised coaching to transform diabetes management and challenge traditional care models.
Sami Inkinen built a career in technology before turning his attention to medicine, and that shift was driven in part by his own health scare. After a pre-diabetes diagnosis, the co-founder and chief executive of Virta Health set out to challenge the long-held view that type 2 diabetes can only be managed, not reversed. On the ICR podcast, Inkinen discussed how that experience helped shape the company’s mission and why he believed a different model of care was possible.
Before Virta, Inkinen co-founded Trulia, where he served as chief operating officer and president through the company’s listing and later sale to Zillow. Virta’s profile says he also worked at Microsoft and McKinsey. The company’s leader has long paired his business life with public demonstrations of his interest in metabolic health: he and his wife once rowed from California to Hawaii in an unsupported 2,750-mile journey intended to draw attention to the harms of sugar.
Virta says its treatment model combines nutrition science, remote monitoring and one-to-one coaching to help patients reverse type 2 diabetes and other metabolic conditions. The company has reported one-year trial data showing 60% of patients reversed type 2 diabetes, while 94% reduced or stopped insulin use and 83% stayed in the trial. It has also said patients saw improvements in blood pressure, inflammation, cardiovascular markers, insulin resistance and weight. In Virta’s telling, the approach is intended to tackle the root of metabolic disease rather than simply manage symptoms.
The company has since widened its offering beyond diabetes to include pre-diabetes reversal, obesity treatment and provider-led diabetes management. Virta says it now works across all 50 states and pitches employers, health plans and government agencies on a single virtual clinic model. The broader ambition, according to Virta, is to address a cluster of related conditions that it says affects more than half of U.S. adults and carries heavy health and cost burdens.
Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical judgment, advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
