Intake Health, a health technology company with cutting edge health monitoring research funded by both the National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institute of Health (NIH), has made waves across sports in North America since officially launching it’s InFlow hydration testing solution in August 2022.
In summer 2023 as pre-season camp was kicking off for professional and collegiate football teams, their InFlow solution went viral after being highlighted on NFL Network covering from the Jacksonville Jaguars’ innovative new training facility. Within a day, the exposure on social media had reached several million views and was featured on Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, SportsCenter and more. As it turns out, many within the professional and collegiate team-sport ranks already knew about the impact InFlow was making in sports.
“The NFL Network exposure was exciting, and has helped propel us into nearly half of all NFL locker rooms within our first year of selling. I’ve heard that rate of new technology adoption isn’t common in this market which I believe speaks to the strong value we’re adding for staff and athletes,” said Michael Bender, CEO of Intake Health.
The InFlow technology uses an innovative design for automating hydration testing and integrates it into an athlete’s daily routine to provide instant, objective feedback and guidance directly to the athlete. Part of Intake Health’s core mission is improving health spans to give people the time they need to do what is important for their health and allow for a better life. Research grants won from the NIH and NSF helped Intake Health further pioneer their technology, which will include a toilet version. Beyond that, Bender sees opportunity in areas well beyond just pro-sports, adding “while we have seen similar InFlow adoption rates in the NBA, MLB, MLS, and NHL in a short time, university athletics has been where staff report some of the biggest positive impacts. InFlow reinforces staff’s athlete education programming to build and refine athletes’ day-to-day high-performance behaviors.”
During InFlow’s first full year on the market, the University of Colorado Men’s Basketball team were among the first adopters to fully unleash daily InFlow testing during tough stretches of off-season training. Dana Bielinski, MS, RD, Performance Technology and Research Dietitian at University of Colorado, believes that beyond highlighting awareness of the increased risk of dehydration at altitude in Boulder, InFlow has helped drive home key points on hydration and recovery that sometimes staff struggle to reach athletes with. “Even one session has an impact on hydration status. Athletes hear from us all of the time, but for them to actually see it firsthand for themselves- that reinforcement was huge,” says Bielinkski.
With the NCAA and NBA basketball seasons kicking off shortly, Bender expects the Intake Health team will remain busy. “We speak to teams across all sports using our InFlow solution on a daily basis. Hearing their story and experiences has been, and will continue to be, a guiding light and our top priority in this marketplace. Our customers want passive, impactful technology that fits into existing workflows and saves time, so that is what we deliver on. . Those efforts have allowed InFlow to literally become part of their locker room, high performance ecosystem, and daily routine.”
Intake Health has also made impacts internationally, as a number of top professional soccer clubs in the UK and Europe have adopted InFlow for their stadiums and training grounds. Beyond pro sports the InFlow technology is in use in facilities supporting military, first responders, as well as industrial health and safety settings around the world. Their global reach will undoubtedly stretch further as Intake Health is set to be featured at the Sports Tech Summit this November at Citi Field in New York among a key group of international sports tech and software innovators.
