The complex question of how to reduce hospital re-admission rates is an issue most hospitals have been wrestling with. An Affordable Care Act provision penalizing hospitals that have a higher than average re-admission rate for certain conditions has spurred several companies to develop a solution. That’s where healthcare IT startup ArioTech believes it can help.
ArioTech is one of three early stage companies pitching at the Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania’s annual Ben Franklin Venture Idol tonight. Another is LifeAire Systems. In the style of American Idol, a team of investor panelists rather than music critics will hear a pitch from the companies and share their critiques. The audience will vote for a winner, who will receive a company investment.
It is seeking to raise $500,000 to fund a pilot program for congestive heart failure patients with a group of Northeast hospitals starting in December. The pilot is using its Mobile Medical Digital Assistant for congestive heart failure patients. It also plans to use the investment to start sales and marketing based on successful outcomes.
Its mMDA platform combines healthcare IT, telehealth and patient monitoring. It can tailor hospital and disease-specific content and protocols to patients’ needs and their physicians’ treatment plans, according to a company statement. The platform is designed to be integrated with existing electronic medical records. The setup allows medical providers to monitor patients on one dashboard. It also provides two-way video communication between a patient and his or her medical providers.
Ultimately it wants to raise $2.8 million to rapidly grow the company and is open to doing that in one tranche, CEO Nigel Gardner said in an e-mailed statement.
The company sees scope for its platform not only to reduce readmission rates, but also to lower home care service costs and to automate patient monitoring and data collection from patients in an outpatient or home care setting to facilitate earlier interventions.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
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