Redesign Health, the upstart behind a slew of telehealth apps, health care fintech companies, and comprehensive care platforms, announced on Tuesday it raised $65 million in fresh funding, according to Fast Company. Catalyst Health led the round, bringing total funding to $315 according to Crunchbase data.
The New York-based startup was founded in 2018 with the goal of being a hub to create health care companies from within. It’s somewhere between an incubator and a venture capital firm, except the folks within Redesign Health are making all the decisions about any offshoots that spin out of it.
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Many of Redesign’s 20-and-counting companies use comprehensive care to treat acute problems. There’s Calibrate, a metabolism and weight-loss company that pairs medication with lifestyle coaching and a “curriculum” designed to improve sleep, exercise and mental health. There’s also Motto, which offers patients dealing with rheumatoid arthritis a team of rheumatologists and dieticians as well as an app that tracks food intake and flare ups. Lastly, there’s Proper, an oncology company that provides sleep coaching and sleep-aiding supplements.
Clinically speaking, this is what health care is supposed to be. Your doctor, psychiatrist and specialist (or whatever specialist you see) are supposed to triage symptom management to lead to better care. However, a 2015 report indicated that specialists had a hard time reaching their patients’ general practitioners, and as a result patients did not follow their advice. In general, it’s hard for doctors to access the health records a patient has procured over their life, leading to conflicting advice from different physicians.
The comprehensive care craze
The widespread adoption of telehealth makes it easier to support the ecosystems that Redesign Health is pursuing—companies that are able to provide multiple specialists to tackle a singular health issue.
Last year, an eating disorder treatment startup called Within Health launched with the promise of providing patients a team of dieticians, therapists, psychiatrists and meal plans to tackle eating disorders such as binge eating disorder, orthorexia and night eating syndrome. Polygon, which screens children and adults for learning disabilities, also provides treatment through in-house therapists and works with schools to create accommodating learning programs. Polygon has raised $4.2 million in seed funding, per Crunchbase data.
These types of startups provide a one-stop shop for patients who don’t want to wrangle appointments and payments for multiple siloed specialists.
But there are a couple downsides to this model. A lot of early-stage startups in this space don’t yet accept insurance, and patients dealing with multiple chronic issues may be overwhelmed by juggling a slew of providers.
Illustration: Dom Guzman
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