In September 2022, John Hancock became the first life insurance carrier to make Galleri, an innovative multi-cancer early detection test from the healthcare-technology company GRAIL, available to a pilot group of customers. Galleri uses a simple blood draw to screen for more than 50 types of cancer, most of which lack recommended screening tests. It can also help determine where in the body cancer may be located and then guide diagnostic follow up.
The pilot was available to a group of approximately 8,000 customers participating in the John Hancock Vitality Program, which combines life insurance with a technology-enabled program that offers education, support, incentives, and rewards designed to help and encourage customers to live healthier lives. John Hancock Vitality is available with the company’s life insurance policies and covers a broad spectrum of activities — including exercise, nutrition, sleep and mindfulness — rewarding customers for the steps they take to stay healthy.
This groundbreaking collaboration with GRAIL was introduced to our top distribution partners during John Hancock’s Insurance Summit last June, during which we shared a video message from Josh Ofman, President and Chief Medical Officer at GRAIL. The pilot was also previewed internally at our June town hall event, where John Hancock’s more than 3,000 employees were invited to tune in virtually and in person. As a fast-follow cascade of the September announcement, GRAIL and John Hancock teamed up for an on-site activation at the 2022 InsureTech Connect conference that took place in Las Vegas. Brooks Tingle, President and CEO of John Hancock, joined GRAIL on the main stage for a keynote address, and GRAIL held an on-site blood test activation at the conference throughout the day.
We saw successful customer uptake during the pilot, which exceeded our expectations in terms of the number of tests requested, validating our hypothesis that our customers want access to this level of insight into their health. Based on these encouraging results, John Hancock expanded access to the Galleri test to eligible life insurance customers participating in the John Hancock Vitality Program in February 2023.
The expansion is built on our powerful position in the industry and ability to bring together carriers, distributors, reinsurers, and innovative technology partners. For John Hancock, it marks another major progress point against our mission to help customers live longer, healthier, better lives. In making this breakthrough screening technology available, we are empowering customers to take proactive steps to better understand and make more informed choices about their health.
It was always our intention to grow beyond the pilot phase and the expansion enabled this vision to come to life, while allowing for other potential expansions for the future. Today, we continue to explore deeper integration into the Vitality platform and look to expand the partnership over time to include a focus on cancer education, screening, and detection.
