Healthcare services · Virtual care for type 2 diabetes
LifestyleRx
A Canadian virtual clinic that pairs physicians and dietitians with patients who have type 2 diabetes, aiming for drug free remission through diet, sleep, movement and stress change rather than medication alone. It has grown from a US insurance pitch at Y Combinator into a program covered by three provincial health plans.
The pitch: reversal, not management
LifestyleRx sells itself against a category it says has failed. “The market is full of employer-facing diabetes management apps that haven’t worked,” the company wrote in its 2023 Y Combinator launch post. “Lots of apps reduce diabetes costs by ~5%. We aim for 95%.”
The mechanism is a structured, physician led program built around six lifestyle behaviours: what and when to eat, sleep, light exercise, and stress management, delivered over 12 weeks of virtual group sessions plus one on one physician visits at the start, middle and end. The company calls this the “4+2 Diabetes Reversal Strategy.” No calorie counting, no named diet brand, according to the company site.
The word “reversal” does real work in the pitch. Diabetes Care Community, a partner site that recommends the program, describes the outcome of the process as “achieving blood sugar levels in the non-diabetic range without the need for certain medications”, what it calls remission, while cautioning that the program “is not a cure” and that “the underlying susceptibility remains”.
Four founders, one shared history
LifestyleRx was started in 2022 by four people who had worked together before. BetaKit, covering the company’s Y Combinator Summer 2023 cohort, described them as “four former healthtech founders who have previously built and exited electronic medical records businesses in Canada: Brendan Byrne (chief medical officer), Jack Hilliard (COO), Jason Kerkvliet (CEO), and Daniel Pfingstgraef (CTO).”
Byrne is a licensed family physician. A directory listing him as Dr. Brendan Jude Oliver Byrne, practicing in Surrey, BC, states he is “registered with The College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia (CPSBC)” and completed his “MD CM (McGill University, 1990).” LifestyleRx’s own team page lists him as CMO and as one of the physicians who delivers the program directly.
Kerkvliet is described elsewhere as a Princeton graduate and a former EMR founder. Pfingstgraef is described as having built his first EMR system as a teenager for his parents’ audiology practice. Those details come from a single secondary write up, not an interview, and could not be independently confirmed here.
The founders say the mission is personal. From the launch post: “We’re united by our passion for helping diabetic patients as we all have close family who are diabetic.”
From US billing pitch to Canadian provincial coverage
The company’s story has a visible turn. Its 2023 Y Combinator pitch was built around the US health system: “bill fee-for-service, accept patient referrals, be covered for everyone with insurance”, with 2,000 patients and 500 more added monthly at that time, and a plan to profit inside US insurance reimbursement.
By 2026 the company’s primary site, lifestylerx.io, describes a different structure: a “Better Health” program, still 12 weeks and physician led, but now explicitly covered through Canadian provincial health cards, “free with your provincial health card, covered through MSP in BC, Alberta Health, and OHIP in Ontario”, delivered by “over 196 Canadian family physicians and specialists”. A separate site, lifestylerx.com, still runs a parallel “Diabetes Reversal Program (US)” that lists physicians in Missouri and Washington state and describes coverage through US health insurance. Which of the two now represents the larger share of the business is not disclosed.
In November 2023, LifeLabs, described in its own release as “Canada’s leading provider of laboratory diagnostic information” and owned by OMERS Infrastructure, announced a partnership to refer prediabetic and Type 2 diabetic patients into the LifestyleRx program. LifeLabs’ senior vice president Lawrence Mahan said the tie up would let the company “offer Canadians a more personalized approach in making informed decisions about their health”. The same release quotes a LifestyleRx mission statement: “By 2030, our mission is to deliver 2 million diabetic remissions, save the healthcare system $12 billion annually, and give 6 million years of quality life back to patients.”
Scale and staffing
LifestyleRx’s team page lists a large roster of contracted clinicians across British Columbia, Ontario and Alberta, plus dietitians, counsellors and physiotherapists. Tracxn, a private data aggregator, put headcount at 61 as of July 2026 and total funding at $500,000 in one round, consistent with Y Combinator’s standard batch investment rather than a separately announced venture round. No other funding announcement or press release describing an outside round was found.
What is proven, and what is still claimed
| Evidence | What the record shows | Source type |
|---|---|---|
| Remission rate, Canadian pitch | 2023 Y Combinator materials state 2,000 patients enrolled with 46% reaching “the A1C range for diabetic remission”. No cohort definition, follow up period, dropout rate or statistical methodology is given. | Company-stated |
| Outcome figures, US site | lifestylerx.com states “91% of patients reduce their A1c”, an “average A1c change” of 1.38, and “44% achieve A1c under 6.5%”. These figures differ from the 46% remission figure quoted for the Canadian program and are not dated or sourced to a published dataset. | Differs across company sites |
| Independent benchmark: DiRECT trial | This UK randomised controlled trial, published in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology, found 36% of its intervention group in remission at 2 years, falling to 27% at 5 years. It used a supervised total diet replacement (825 to 853 kcal a day for 12 to 20 weeks), a more intensive protocol than a 12 week group program. | Public record |
| Peer-reviewed publication or registered trial | No PubMed listing, ClinicalTrials.gov registration, or peer-reviewed outcomes paper for LifestyleRx’s own patient cohort was found as of Sep 25, 2026. | Not found |
| Physician licensure, Canada | Chief Medical Officer Dr. Brendan Byrne is listed in an independent physician directory as registered with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia, practicing family medicine in Surrey, BC, near the company’s White Rock base. | Independent |
| Physician licensure, US site | lifestylerx.com names Dr. John Abraham (Missouri) and Dr. Carina Hopen (Washington) as program physicians. Their state medical board registrations were not independently verified for this page. | Not verified |
| SEC filings | A search of SEC EDGAR’s full text search system for the company name and the names of the CEO and CTO returned zero results as of Sep 25, 2026. No Form D or other federal securities filing was found. | Public record |
Read plainly: LifestyleRx runs a real, physician staffed program with a named medical leader who holds a verifiable Canadian license, and a real, named lab partner in LifeLabs. Its outcome numbers, the 46% remission figure most quoted and the differing 91%/44% figures on its US site, are self-reported, undated, and not tied to a published study or registered trial. The word “reversal” is used deliberately and, per its partner site, distinguished from a cure. The best independent benchmark, the DiRECT trial, reports lower and steeply declining remission rates using a more intensive, supervised protocol than LifestyleRx describes.
What to watch
- Whether LifestyleRx publishes a peer-reviewed outcomes study or registers a clinical trial for its own patient cohort.
- Reconciliation of the differing remission and A1C figures quoted on its Canadian and US sites.
- Confirmation of licensure for the physicians named on the US site.
- Any SEC Form D, none of which exists as of this writing despite Tracxn recording $500,000 in funding.
In their words
“We’re united by our passion for helping diabetic patients as we all have close family who are diabetic.”
LifestyleRx founders, Y Combinator launch post, 2023 · Company
“A focus on diabetes reversal, where sustained drug-free remission is the goal. Lots of apps reduce diabetes costs by ~5%. We aim for 95%.”
LifestyleRx founders, Y Combinator launch post, 2023 · Company
“Today we have 2,000 patients in our program, and we deliver 46% of them into the A1C range for diabetic remission”
LifestyleRx founders, Y Combinator launch post, 2023 · Company
“LifestyleRX, which hopes to generate better results than existing employer-facing diabetes management apps, currently has 2,000 patients participating in its program and LifestyleRX claims to be adding 500 more every month.”
Josh Scott, BetaKit, Sep 6, 2023 · Independent
“We’re excited to collaborate with LifestyleRx to expand our services and offer Canadians a more personalized approach in making informed decisions about their health”
Lawrence Mahan, Senior Vice President of Commercial, Business and Consumer Markets, LifeLabs, Nov 7, 2023 · Partner statement
“The first step to Type 2 diabetes remission is to become aware that it is possible.”
Jason Kerkvliet and Dr. Brendan Byrne, LifestyleRx co-founders, LifeLabs release, Nov 7, 2023 · Company
“The outcome of that process may be achieving blood sugar levels in the non-diabetic range without the need for certain medications”
Diabetes Care Community, program description page, 2026 · Partner site
“It was an eye opener for me when I was told there was a possibility of my diabetes going into remission!”
Susan G., patient testimonial, LifeLabs release, Nov 7, 2023 · Company-provided testimonial
Related companies
Sources
- CompanyLifestyleRx: Virtual Care for Type 2 Diabetes Reversal
- CompanyLaunch YC: LifestyleRx, Virtual care for Type 2 Diabetes reversal
- IndependentMeet the Y Combinator Summer 2023 cohort startups with Canadian connections
- CompanyLifestyleRx homepage, Better Health programs
- CompanyOur Team
- CompanyFor Physicians and PCPs
- CompanyLifeLabs and LifestyleRx Diabetes Reversal Program
- CompanyDiabetes Reversal Program (US)
- Partner siteLifestyleRx type 2 diabetes reversal program
- Independent reportType 2 diabetes and prediabetes can be reversed with personalized lifestyle education and support from LifestyleRx and LifeLabs
- IndependentDr. Brendan Jude Oliver Byrne, Family Doctor listing
- Data aggregatorLifestyleRx company profile
- Secondary write-upLifestyleRx: Type 2 Diabetes Reversal Platform
- Public record5-year follow-up of the randomised Diabetes Remission Clinical Trial (DiRECT)
- Public recordSEC EDGAR full text search, Form D and general search
Profile researched and written by Healthcare Discovery. Last updated September 29, 2026.
