On June 2, 2009, Founder Dr. Kate Hersov put into motion an idea that would one day become the world-renowned medical education company known today as Jumo Health. During her time working with pediatric patients, Dr. Hersov recognized there was a lack of understandable information about health conditions written for children and their parents. So she set out to build a company that would use comic books to help kids better understand their medical conditions and cope with fear that is commonly associated with a diagnosis. 

 

 

Purpose Driven Growth

The company may have started with the iconic MediKidz comic book line, but it had its sights set much higher! In 2016, Kevin Aniskovich joined the company as the new CEO and set out to expand its offerings in order to serve a larger, more diverse audience. The company immediately underwent a rebrand, formally introducing itself to the market as Jumo Health in January 2017. Jumo Health saw exponential growth as it developed new digital and video offerings, and expanded its print solutions to address widespread deficiencies in health literacy. With its new, comprehensive suite of visually engaging solutions, Jumo Health was well positioned to help patients of all ages and ethnicities better understand their medical journey through storytelling. 

In 2018, after a year of investigation and pilot programs, Jumo Health started to focus exclusively on clinical trials – and specifically, the unmet needs surrounding pediatric clinical research. It was clear that the unique challenges sponsors were facing regarding patient recruitment, the informed consent/assent process, participant retention, and protocol compliance could all be tied to a lack of health literacy among participants. In fact, 50% of adults are unable to read above an 6th grade level, yet most of the recruitment materials and informed consent/assent documents provided to patients were written at a 12th grade level and above. 

Not only were these materials written with unnecessary legal and medical jargon, but they did not reflect the value supporting visuals play when presenting complex information in ways recipients can understand and act upon.  This is where Jumo Health sought to make its mark – to provide evidence-based information in engaging ways that people of all ages and all backgrounds could relate to and follow a series of actionable steps.

Today, Jumo Health is powered by passionate team members representing all aspects of medical editorial, visual design, video production, developers, and various sales and operations professionals. 

Bridging the Health Literacy Gap

Jumo Health has always customized educational resources to serve diverse populations. In March 2023, as a natural expansion of its core services, Jumo Health launched its health equity service line which included recruitment services for people of color in clinical trials.  To help their clients respond to the new FDA guidance around creating a “Race and Ethnicity Diversity Plan”, Jumo Health leveraged its curriculum-based approach and also partnered with various community organizations to amass a national network of more than 2,000 churches that serve a predominately black constituency. This approach, first deployed and tested for its work for COVID-19 clinical trials, leverages church leadership and the broader community to rebuild the trust that was previously eroded. Jumo Health’s access to traditionally underserved communities together with  its foundation of culturally-informed educational materials has effectively established grassroots relationships, established trust, and driven recruitment into clinical trials for its customers.

With every evolution of the company, its purpose has remained the same: to help people make informed decisions about their health by developing engaging, easy-to-understand, evidence-based, educational materials for all people regardless of age, ethnicity, or education level.

A Legacy of Transforming Patient Education

With her drive and determination, Dr. Hersov’s initial idea to help children better understand health and disease through comic books has become a leading medical communications company known around the globe for creating award-winning work that bridges the health literacy gap for patients through our work with more than 80 pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. The story of Jumo Health is one of collective commitment, tenacity, and a shared passion for transforming patient education. 

“I began this journey at my kitchen table with a mix of naïve enthusiasm and a lot of reckless optimism! Little did I know that Jumo Health would grow into the powerhouse it is today.  From those early days of sketching out ideas, we’ve become a wonderful global force, with over 80 talented individuals across 4 continents, all dedicated to making a real difference in the lives of millions,” Dr. Hersov recently said. 

Looking back, it’s easy to see why Jumo Health has become such a tight-knit family. Every single employee is working together for a common purpose: to make clinical trials more accessible and help often-underserved patients feel seen, heard, validated, and understood with every educational material we create. 

In 15 Years, Jumo Health Has: 

• Partnered with 180 advocacy groups and community organizations to better understand the patient communities we serve.  
• Supported the clinical efforts of more than 85 companies (and counting!) 
• Supported over 335 clinical trials and 135 other healthcare projects.
• Designed materials for over 200 health topics.
• Developed over 1,500 websites. 
• Produced 400 videos.
• Localized thousands of educational materials into over 120 languages across 80 countries.
• Amassed a network of over 2,000 churches in support of our health equity offering
• Won 20 awards including two Telly Awards, MM&M Clinical Trial Marketing Award, SCOPE Patient Engagement Award, and two Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Company Awards