If you’ve ever had a loved one in the hospital, you might know the feeling of panic once they go home. Suddenly you become their nurse, trying to stay on top of that person’s care. Is their blood pressure ok? Is that swelling normal? Do they need to be readmitted? For most people, that prospect is overwhelming.
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One Hoboken, New Jersey-based startup wants to step into that process and has just raised $10 million from an investor who believes the company’s product has merit.
The startup, Health Recovery Solutions, has developed software to help reduce readmissions via remote patient monitoring and video visits. The company has just raised that $10 million in a “growth round” from Edison Partners out of Princeton, N.J. The financing brings the company’s total venture and equity raised to $17.5 million, according to its Crunchbase profile.
CEO Jarrett Bauer developed the idea for the company in 2011 as a 24-year-old graduate student at Johns Hopkins University when his grandmother was readmitted to the hospital for heart failure.
“So I convinced two friends to start the company and write all the software,” Bauer said. Not only is the company’s goal to help improve patient outcomes, but also to help hospitals protect themselves from being penalized for having a patient readmitted.
Health Recovery Solutions claims its platform, which includes software, predictive analytics and hardware/bluetooth devices, is cutting down on 30-day readmissions to healthcare facilities, especially those related to chronic illness, by as much as 80 percent.
Today, 140 medical centers including Penn Medicine, John Hopkins Medicine, WellCare and Henry Ford Health System use Health Recovery Solutions, and the company has monitored about 100,000 patients to date, according to Bauer.
“We’re using this $10 million for further product growth and also to help us reach our 1 million patient goal,” he told Crunchbase News. “We’ll be investing heavily in product development and in account managers so we can meet demand.”
Bauer expects the company to nearly double its revenue this year to $11 million compared to $6.3 million at the end of last year. Health Recovery Solutions, which has landed on the Inc 5000 list multiple times, currently employs 85 people with plans to double that over the next two years.
I asked Bauer how his startup does remote patient monitoring better than the slew of other companies in the space. To him, it lies in the fact that it’s cloud-based.
“A lot of remote monitoring companies tend to be more hardware-centric and then move into telemonitoring,” he said. “We were software-focused in the beginning and I believe that makes us more nimble. We have software and tablets to engage patients, many of whom are elderly, and apps for family members.”
While Edison has invested in a number of healthtech companies, including Lincor, Purple Lab and TrialScope, among others, its backing of Health Recovery Solutions marks its first telehealth investment.
Gregg Michaelson, operating partner at Edison Partners, said his firm believes the company’s patient monitoring platform “solves a critical problem in healthcare.”
“Hospital readmission rates are significantly higher than they could be because many recently discharged patients are not provided with the proper education to improve their condition or tools for clinicians to keep track of their progress,” he wrote via email. “The company provides a clear ROI to its customers healthcare systems and home health agencies—as well as to patients.”
Health Recovery Solutions is one of many telemedicine companies ranging in category from urgent care to fertility to cannabis that have landed significant capital over the past few years, as Savannah Dowling reported in March.
Take a look at some notable companies that have raised since the beginning of 2017:
Illustration: Li-Anne Dias
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