We haven’t fixed the healthcare system

The state of men’s health is in a bad way

Despite having arguably the best healthcare system in the world, Australia is falling behind when it comes to looking after men.

The rate of obesity in Australian men is now the second highest in the world. We’re catching up to the US, and fast. Type II diabetes is on the rise, even though it’s preventable. And heart disease is now our biggest killer. [1]

Despite improved awareness, depression and anxiety are increasing in prevalence, and often off the back of our penchant for gambling, drinking, and risk-taking behaviour.

And then there’s the black dog in the room nobody wants to talk about: Australian men are three times more likely to die by suicide than Aussie women.[2]

At age 25, male deaths are more than twice as common as female deaths, and more likely in disadvantaged and remote communities. [3]

Despite this, men are less likely to see a doctor at all ages. [4]

It’s okay to read these numbers and get a bit angry. We as a nation should be doing better. We should demand it.

Pilot is about demanding better. 

We have more knowledge via the internet, we have the government funding, we have the compassion.

And yet something wasn’t connecting. This is why we took a punt on Pilot.

Here at Pilot, we’re not just health practitioners. We’re nurses. We’re designers. We’re engineers, pharmacists, logistics coordinators, lawyers, copywriters, brothers, uncles, sons, and dads.

We haven’t fixed the system. But we’re building a better one; one that puts you in control.

Pilot’s founders – Benny, Tim, Alexey and Charlie – understood the problems with the system from the patient’s perspective. They had male friends who had taken their own lives, and immediate male family on anti-depressants or undergoing cancer treatment.

So who's to blame?

We’ve all heard that “men don’t look after themselves” or “men just need to open up more”.

We’re calling bullshit.

Blaming the problem on men being “lazy” just isn’t good enough. Not today.

Nobody wants to live with ongoing health issues, and nobody willfully ignores their health either.

But if ignoring the little things is easier than finding and receiving great care, then maybe it’s how Australia has offered men medical care that’s historically been the issue.

We started Pilot because we wanted to buck this trend.

The first version of the Pilot platform went live in June 2019

No more snake oil

When we launched Pilot, we wanted to do something radically different for men’s healthcare.

We were sick of asking “why is it like this?” We didn’t know exactly how we were going to make change when we started, but we realised there was no point waiting for somebody else to do it.

So we set out to build a service we’d like to use.

Pilot has attracted some of Australia’s top specialists and GPs to the mission

Sidestepping Dr Google and unwarranted advice from Instagram “experts”, we went straight to trusted science and enlisted the help of some of Australia’s leading health care specialists, like Dr. Russell Knudsen, and Dr. Matthew Vickers. 

With their knowledge, Pilot has been able to design safe and effective treatment protocols for erectile dysfunction, hair loss, weight loss and much more.

We also hired some of the smartest software developers in the country to build out the system that made accessing legitimate treatments from GPs and pharmacists easy.

We’re about action

Some organisations are just happy raising awareness. Not us. Talk is cheap – it’s action that really matters.

Since 2019 we’ve helped treat over 100k+ Australian men, but this is just the beginning.

We’re on a multi-decade journey as we build deeper digital healthcare, driven by science and data.

To good health,
Team Pilot

[1] – Adair, T., Lopez, A.D. The role of overweight and obesity in adverse cardiovascular disease mortality trends: an analysis of multiple cause of death data from Australia and the USA. BMC Med 18, 199 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-020-01666-y

[2] – Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Australia's health 2016. Canberra, Australia: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare; 2016 Available from: https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-health/australias-health-2016/contents/summary.

[3] – RACGP, 2016 Curriculum, MH16 - Men’s health contextual unit https://www.racgp.org.au/education/education-providers/curriculum/2016-curriculum/contextual-units/populations/mh16-men%E2%80%99s-health

[4] – Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Australia's health 2016. Canberra, Australia: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare; 2016 Available from: https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-health/australias-health-2016/contents/summary.