Bryan Stacy Talks About the Development of his Sexual Health App Biem
Courtesy of Bryan Stacy
When was the last time you got tested? Even with sex positivity at the forefront of our cultural lexicon, and more forms of contraception available then ever before, the question can be a little awkward. Unfortunately, diagnoses of certain STDs in America are at an all-time recorded high (over two million new cases of these three STDs in 2016 alone), which means it still isn't being asked enough. Luckily, as the kids say... there's an app for that.
Biem App, founded in 2016 by Bryan Stacy, is the first of its kind to address both the stigma of that fateful question and the millennial desire for instant access to information. Hailed as the worlds first "virtual sexual health service", Biem allows its users to speak directly with doctors, set up at home or in-office testing, and get results in a simple and compassionate interface. Add in the option to share your status with potential partners, and you've got an app tailor made for its market. We caught up with Bryan to discuss his inspiration for the app, its features, and what's coming up for the Biem team.
NSFW When did you first become involved with the sexual wellness field? What inspired the app?
Bryan Talking about sex growing up was a no-no. So when a sexual health issue popped up for me, I did what many people do, I ignored it. I ignored it because I was scared. I rationalized that it would go away. I waited three months before getting checked out, and I was diagnosed with both testicular cancer and chlamydia on the same day. There was no ignoring it anymore. No more avoiding awkward conversations the rest of my life.
NSFW What features did you know you wanted on the app from the get-go? Which evolved in development?
Bryan After hearing hundreds of sexual health stories we noticed that people who proactively get tested and have no issues with discussing sexual health with a potential partner, seemed to live healthier, happier lives, make better decisions and generally more excited about sex! These were sexually confident people!
So our purpose at Biem is to develop sexual confidence, and that starts with health. There were two barriers our app had to solve:
- If people don’t get tested, they will never have a conversation with a partner about their sexual health.
- The sexual conversation between partners is usually avoided because it’s awkward, and most people don’t know how to bring it up.
In the first version of our app, we had to make testing easy, judgement-free, and give people a simple way to understand their results and share them with others. These are the tools to sexual confidence! To accomplish this we needed the best sexual healthcare medical providers in the world to video chat with our app users to answer questions, provide medical care, order prescriptions (like PrEP), and order tests. Our users report feeling more conscious, comfortable, and confident after their video sessions with our medical providers.
NSFW How did you go about assembling your team?
Bryan Our co-founders include myself (digital strategy), Dr. Art Rastinehad (Urologist) and Dr. Natalie Brito (Psychologist). We’ve assembled the rest of the team with people who are just as passionate about sexual health. Many of them have their own sexual health stories, and want this problem solved. The skill sets vary, but everyone know how they contribute towards Biem’s mission. We get a lot of people that contact us and say “I want to work with you.” Those that become part of the Biem Team come with their own perspective on what they’d like to do and how that will move the mission forward.
NSFW What are your favorite features on the app?
Bryan Ease of use & judgement-free care. Users can video chat with a doctor from the comfort of their home, and get the personalized care they need including tests, prescriptions (i.e. PrEP, UTI meds, etc.) and answers to sexual health questions.
Show verified STD results to partners. 95% of the time when our users show their test results to a sexual partner, the partner reciprocates in some way. Instead of asking a partner they’ve last been tested, now we can verify test, date, and result in one easy to read screen. Biem Connect. Often times a partner doesn’t have the Biem app, and can’t prove they’ve been tested. That’s why we created the Biem connect feature. Two partners can connect in the app, and for a six month period they will be notified (anonymously) if one of their partners test positive for an STD.
NSFW A lot of our current social culture is immediacy-driven, do you see that as one of Biems main points of appeal?
Bryan Absolutely. When it comes to STD questions, users want answers NOW. We can see patients today and start getting them results the following day. A new version of the app is coming out in April, and we’ve really focused on how we can give users more value immediately. In this app they’ll be able to find relevant content, and eventually chat with medical providers when they have specific questions.
NSFW How do you think app users benefit from its features over traditional office visits?
Bryan Every day I hear stories from people about their experiences at traditional doctors’ offices. They feel judged. They have to negotiate for specific tests and prescriptions. They feel more anxious when the leave than when they got there. In most cases (ER’s, Urgent Care Centers, etc.) the doctors aren’t sexual health experts. This doesn’t mean they are bad doctors, it just means that they haven’t dealt with all the emotional complexities that come up when talking about sex, culture and health. And just the mental effort to find a doctor’s office, set up an appointment, get to the location and wait in a waiting room…it seems so 20 years ago.
NSFW How do you see the app growing down the line?
Bryan Sexual confidence is our mission, and there are a lot of aspects to creating sexual confidence through health. That includes additional medial services (i.e. erectile dysfunction, testosterone/estrogen blood tests, birth control), user communication features, nutrtion suggestions, skill development and mindfulness techniques that help us better connect with our partners and speak our truth. We recently launched a private facebook group that talks about all these aspects that create sexual confidence and soon you’ll see the tools in Biem to make all of that a reality. In the very near future, showing your STD results will be the norm instead of the exception, and people will expect to know their partners sexual health status before having mind blowing sex. Good bye post-sex anxiety, hello sexual confidence!
