Elevate Ventures’ IEDC awarded Curvo Labs, a startup based in Evansville, Indiana, and San Diego, California, $50,000. The idea? Use regularly refreshed hospital purchasing data to provide an “on-ramp” for medical device companies, then use the offers those companies make to drive down costs for hospitals. In theory, this would create sales efficiency for medical device companies and allow hospitals and surgical centers to stop overpaying for physician preference items. CEO Andy Perry said for medical device companies alone, a 20 percent savings was a “very reasonable target.”
Currently, Perry said, medical device companies may use as much as two to three times the money they spend to manufacture a device to sell it, while hospitals are “at the mercy of device companies having a robust field of sales people.” This makes innovative products and new devices slower to get into the hand of a surgeon or clinician to benefit patients, he said.
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Munck Wilson Mandala Partner Greg Howison shared his perspective on some of the legal ramifications around AI, IP, connected devices and the data they generate, in response to emailed questions.
“We want to unlock those opportunities on both sides using big data,” he said. Coming from a background in healthcare supply chain management, he said the goal is to harness that data to win the healthcare value equation. “It’s a win-win.”
IEDC funds Hoosier startups. Perry said Indiana makes sense for three reasons: “access to customers, access to capital and access to talent.”
“And for all of those reasons, it’s been a good place so far for us to hang our hat.”
As for investors, Perry said rather than the dollar amount, though important, it’s the people that matter most.
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At the Abarca Forward conference earlier this year, George Van Antwerp, managing director at Deloitte, discussed how social determinants of health and a personalized member experience can improve medication adherence and health outcomes.
“We started long ago just building relationships, getting good advice from people who knew what they were talking about,” he said. “We just closed the first part of our seed round and it’s really been a process for us of wanting to line up with the right people.
“We want to get all the right voices in the dialogue. That’s a capital stack and an advisory stack of hospital, medical device and IT executive leadership.”
Curvo currently has contracts out with hospitals, surgery centers and medical device companies. Curvo is designed to sit alongside current systems, so Perry said there’s no switching cost.
CEO Steve Suhrheinrich, a former Naval officer, has a background in startup sales and finance. He and Perry are friends who share an enjoyment of intellectual debate and, Perry said, a common vision for Curvo: “We really think that we can be the platform on both sides that takes cost out for everybody.”
