Clarity Pediatrics
Pediatric Obesity Care Model for Medicaid Families
Childhood obesity affects 26% of children on Medicaid, compared with 11% with private insurance. Healing-centered research turned that disparity into a care model and public blueprint.
- My role
- Portfolio director · Health equity strategy lead
- Timeline
- Oct 2023–Mar 2025 · Research in English and Spanish
- Mar 2025Reimagining Childhood Obesity Care published as a public report and site
- Dec 2025Clarity Pediatrics raised a $14.5M Series A to expand into pediatric obesity care
- Status
- Piloting
- People
- 9 people across IDEO.org and IDEO.com, two organizations with different funding models and ways of working
- Clarity Pediatrics' two co-founders, its CEO and chief medical officer, as day-to-day partners
- Rise Together Ventures as philanthropic funder, and community organizations in San Francisco and Dallas who introduced the families
The challenge
Children on Medicaid live with obesity at more than twice the rate of children with private insurance, yet families are often treated as though the condition reflects a lack of knowledge or effort. Clarity Pediatrics wanted to expand its virtual chronic-care platform into pediatric obesity, but had no research base for designing with the families most affected.
The work needed to be emotionally safe, useful to a startup, and grounded in what Medicaid could actually support.
My contribution
I owned the relationship from the initial introduction through a published care model. I structured a blended commercial and philanthropic funding approach so the team could conduct field research in two cities, then kept health equity and implementation constraints connected throughout the work.
My contribution included:
- Designed healing-centered research with eight Medicaid-enrolled families in the Bay Area and Dallas, conducted in English and Spanish through trusted community partners.
- Framed findings around three places a care model could act: awareness, confidence, and capacity, rather than blaming families for structural barriers.
- Translated the research into a Theory of Change, a family experience map, and ten product and service concepts Clarity could evaluate.
- Advocated for a public report, interactive site, and documentary film so the learning could benefit organizations beyond the core team.
The impact
Families consistently described knowing what they were expected to do while being blocked by cost, work schedules, transportation, access to food, and clinical experiences shaped by judgment. Those findings became the foundation of Clarity’s pediatric obesity direction and a public blueprint for designing care around family realities.
Clarity published the research at research.claritypediatrics.com in March 2025. Later that year, the company raised a $14.5 million Series A to expand its virtual chronic-care platform into pediatric obesity services. Product and service development is now underway, with the pediatric obesity care model being refined and piloted.