Reducing barriers to PREP and STI treatment

Access to care directly through digital platforms such as Grindr and Tinder

Born out of the Stanford Impact Accelerator Lab, Anton Health is reimagining STI prevention by embedding free, verified testing directly into Grindr—transforming routine screening into a visible trust signal that normalizes care, reduces stigma, and drives real-world public health impact.

Background

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) remain among the most prevalent and costly public health challenges in the United States, affecting roughly one in five Americans annually and generating an estimated $16 billion in healthcare costs. Despite strong evidence and clear CDC guidance recommending quarterly screening for high‑risk populations, testing rates remain suboptimal, with one-third of men who have sex with men (MSM), a high-risk group for STIs, not having screening in the past 3 years. Studies show that increased screening for STIs, including in MSM, significantly reduce disease prevalence. This gap reflects not a failure of medicine but a failure of how and where care is delivered.

For many gay and bisexual men, STI care requires disclosure in settings that feel judgment‑laden and disconnected from how sexual relationships are actually formed. This misalignment leads to anticipatory avoidance and delayed testing, even when perceived risk is high. At the same time, MSM dating environments operate with low baseline trust, yet offer no credible way to verify recent testing or responsible behavior.

Proposal

Anton Health proposes a stigma‑aware, trust‑based model for sexual health that embeds testing and prevention directly into the digital environments, such as Grindr, where sexual relationships are initiated. Through sexual health verification on Grindr, individuals who complete testing can opt to display a time‑bound verification badge, transforming recent testing into a visible trust signal. As verified status becomes socially preferred, routine testing is normalized and adoption accelerates through network effects.

Anchored in safety‑net partnerships and compliance‑first infrastructure, this pilot tests whether trust‑based digital signaling, paired with FQHC delivery and equitable access mechanisms such as 340B, can materially increase testing frequency, reduce transmission, and establish a replicable framework for delivering preventive care to stigmatized populations.

This pilot aims to address the concerns gay and bisexual people have with trust in the health care system and results of recent testing by integrating clinical testing and verification into digital spaces where trust decisions are made, while delivering care through safety‑net‑aligned infrastructure capable of reaching patients across geography and insurance status.

Anton operates as a healthcare infrastructure platform embedded in sexual relationship apps such as Grindr, rather than a direct care silo.

Participants complete digital intake, receive testing kits by mail, and engage with licensed clinicians via telehealth for treatment and prevention, all through Grindr. Upon negative results, participants may opt to link verification to their Grindr profile. Badges expire automatically based on CDC‑recommended testing intervals, reinforcing regular retesting. No clinical data are shared with Grindr beyond verification status.

The platform integrates:

At‑home NAAT‑based STI testing kits with laboratory partners
Telehealth visits for evaluation, counseling, and prescribing
Pharmacy synchronization for doorstep medication delivery
FQHC and safety‑net provider integration to ensure compliance, continuity, and 340B eligibility
Secure verification pipeline enabling participants to publish a time‑bound “Verified by Anton” badge on Grindr following negative test results

The pilot will evaluate multiple care and reimbursement pathways, including:

340B‑enabled access for uninsured participants
Insurance‑based reimbursement for insured participants

Outcomes will be stratified by insurance status, geography, and demographics to assess equity impact. While 340B is not assumed to be the final model, the pilot treats it as a core hypothesis: whether safety‑net economics can be used proactively to subsidize access while trust‑based digital signaling drives demand.

Anton Health has conducted over 60 qualitative interviews with gay and bisexual men across urban and rural settings. Participants consistently reported anxiety following unprotected sex, frustration with delayed or inconvenient testing, and a strong interest in being able to verify their sexual health status to potential partners.

Interviewees explicitly described partner filtering behavior on dating apps and expressed willingness to preferentially engage with partners who could demonstrate recent testing. Many indicated that the lack of a credible verification mechanism forces reliance on trust or disclosure that is often unreliable. These findings support the hypothesis that verified testing badges can meaningfully alter sexual decision‑making and normalize routine testing.

Aim 1: Increase the frequency and timeliness of STI testing among high‑risk populations by delivering free, discreet, at‑home testing integrated with telehealth‑based clinical follow‑up.

Aim 2: Leverage sexual health verification on Grindr as a behavioral intervention, testing whether verified testing status functions as a trust signal that shifts partner selection norms and drives sustained increases in routine testing.

Aim 3: Evaluate whether a compliance‑first digital care model—anchored in partnerships with Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) and leveraging safety‑net mechanisms such as the 340B program—can equitably expand access across insurance status, geography, and demographic groups while maintaining regulatory integrity.

Our Role

Months 1–3: Finalize legal and compliance framework; complete verification architecture; execute Grindr and safety‑net partnership agreements.

Months 4–6: Launch pilot; enable verification badges; enroll initial cohort; begin measurement of testing frequency and verification adoption.

Months 7–9: Analyze behavioral effects of verification (partner filtering, retesting cadence); iterate workflows; assess 340B versus insurance pathways.

Months 10–12: Final analysis; dissemination of findings; define expansion criteria for additional geographies and platforms.

Team and Collaborations

Gleb Vizitiv, CEO – Background in healthcare M&A and public‑market investing, with experience analyzing health‑tech scalability and regulatory risk. Leads strategy, partnerships, and operations.

Dr. Roche Kapoor, MD, CMO – Community hospitalist with experience serving rural and underinsured populations, and prior healthcare public policy research focused on HIV. Oversees clinical protocols, compliance, and quality of care.
Stanford Graduate School of Business – Supporting business model development

Dr. Jared Garrison-Jakel, MD – Family Physician, Director of Addiction and Homeless Services, West County Health Center. Connection to harm reduction, support for communities disproportionately affected by STIs, community connection for pilot co-design and feedback.

Dr. Steve Bromer, MD - Family Physician and HIV Specialist, UCSF Associate Professor. Experience in health care systems design.

Face-to-Face – Community-based organization with origins in the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, dedicated to non-judgmental HIV/STI screening in Sonoma County. Face-to-Face offers content expertise and connection to community co-design and feedback.