Healthcare Insights
GLP-1 connected support: the signal, the moment and the meaning
I have been discussing how GLP-1 treatment is helping to accelerate connected healthcare with our Medtech lead, Rob Seebold (Senior Research Director).
Rob brings deep expertise in medtech, connected health and consumer experience, while I have become slightly obsessed with understanding the human experience of GLP-1 treatment.
Partnerships between pharma and medtech are beginning to connect medication use with weight, body composition, sleep, activity, recovery and other indicators of everyday health.
That matters because many of the most important moments in a GLP-1 journey happen outside a consultation.
They happen when
- side effects begin to disrupt eating or everyday life
- progress slows and someone questions whether treatment is working
- treatment becomes expensive or difficult to access
- someone reaches their target and starts thinking about what comes next
- they consider spacing doses, tapering or stopping
- weight begins to return, or the fear of regain takes hold
These aren't stages on a linear treatment pathway. They're moments when people interpret what is happening, seek information and make decisions.
Initial analysis from our buzzback GLP-1 Experience Research suggests that the same moment can be experienced very differently depending on someone's responder type (limited, moderate, hyper or plateaued) as well as their age, gender, country and diagnosed health conditions.
A plateau may feel like failure to one person, a natural transition into maintenance to another, and evidence to someone else that other measures of progress are needed.
The next opportunity for GLP-1 technology is to recognise the treatment moment a person is approaching, understand what it means in their particular context and connect them with the most useful support.
Karen
And the experience has to be on par with mainstream consumer technology. People expect an iPhone-like experience or a Netflix-level interface in their health technology. They are not comparing a pharma-supported platform with another healthcare platform; they are comparing it with every digital experience in their lives.
Rob
Connected GLP-1 support therefore needs to do two things:
- 1 Respond to where someone is in their treatment journey, with information relevant to their profile, response and wider health needs.
- 2 Be intuitive, relevant and useful enough for people to keep returning to it.
Connecting the signal, the moment and the meaning
The future of connected GLP-1 support depends on bringing together three layers of understanding.
What is changing in the person's weight, body composition, sleep, activity, recovery, side effects or engagement?
Are they starting treatment, titrating, responding rapidly, progressing steadily, plateauing, reaching a goal or considering maintenance?
How is that particular person interpreting what is happening? What are they worried about, hoping for or beginning to consider doing?
A health signal alone cannot answer those questions.
How pharma and medtech are beginning to connect the journey
We are already seeing compelling examples of pharma working with health-technology companies to create a more continuous ecosystem around GLP-1 treatment.
ŌURA & LillyDirect
ŌURA's GLP-1 Insights feature enables users to log medication doses and side effects alongside trends in weight, sleep, activity, readiness and recovery.¹ There is no data sharing between the companies; the collaboration is designed to make connected support more accessible to LillyDirect users.²
This has the potential to broaden the definition of progress.
Someone whose weight loss has slowed may still see improvements in sleep, activity or recovery. For a rapid responder, the same information could help move attention away from speed alone and towards sustainable health.
Withings Health Solutions & Novo Nordisk Partner Platform
Withings Health Solutions joining the Novo Nordisk Partner Platform is another interesting example, giving digital health companies access to their connected scales and body-composition data they can integrate into their own weight-management programmes.³
Through the platform, companies can explore using Withings' connected scales to incorporate data on weight, fat mass and muscle mass into their services.³
For someone experiencing a plateau, body-composition data may reveal progress not visible on the scales. As someone approaches their target, it could also help shift the conversation towards maintaining muscle.
These partnerships replace snapshots with trends. A single weight measurement tells you where someone is today. Longitudinal data and integration with other health and activity metrics can show direction, variability and relationships between different aspects of health.
Rob
What this means for pharma and medtech
The practical challenge is to turn health signals into personalised support at the right treatment moment.
This has implications for:
- the signals platforms prioritise
- the content and interventions triggered at different moments
- how progress is framed beyond weight alone
- when people are directed towards clinical support
- how connected-health partnerships can extend and personalise support
buzzback Research
buzzback GLP-1 Experience Research
The first phase of our own thought leadership study is a quantitative survey of 300 adults who have taken a GLP-1 (US, UK, Germany).⁴ We are examining how treatment experience differs by responder type (limited, moderate, hyper and plateaued), alongside age, gender, country, user status and diagnosed health conditions.
Early analysis shows that treatment response, burden and confidence do not always align:
Strong response does not mean low treatment burden.
Among hyper responders, 66% said daily life had changed a lot or dramatically, compared with 36% of plateaued responders. Among those adapting to side effects, 54% of hyper responders changed portion size, compared with 28% of moderate responders.
A plateau is not simply a weight outcome — it can become a treatment decision.
Some 43% of plateaued responders had changed dose, compared with 24% of moderate responders.
Younger users are navigating treatment decisions differently.
Only 24% of Gen Z users went first to an HCP for medication decisions, compared with 63% of Gen X. Gen Z users were also more likely to have changed dose: 41%, compared with 23% of Millennials.⁴
Our team are now analysing the moments when treatment decisions begin to form — including side effects, slowing progress, reaching a target, access difficulties, treatment changes and weight regain — and how those moments differ across responder types and wider patient groups.
Sources
- Oura Team. Introducing GLP-1 Insights. Oura, 2026.
- Oura. Oura and LillyDirect collaborate to support people using GLP-1 therapies. Oura, 2026.
- Withings Health Solutions. Withings Health Solutions joins the Novo Nordisk Partner Platform to support connected weight management. Withings, 2026.
- buzzback. GLP-1 Experience Research: Quantitative Survey. Unpublished primary research among 300 adults who have taken a GLP-1 in the US, UK and Germany, 2026.
Karen Douglas
Commerical Director,
Healthcare Europe
If you're exploring new ways to decode real-world patient behaviour, we’d love to connect!
Healthcare Europe:
Karen Douglas, Commercial Director
kdouglas@buzzback.com
Healthcare US:
Jonathan Weiser,
Healthcare Practice Lead
jweiser@buzzback.com
