Totali Inc., a mobile health startup based in Houston, is setting its sites on soon-to-be new mothers with its app, Totally Pregnant, which it says can help hospitals stay competitive for pregnant patients.
The app, available on both iOS and Android smartphones and tablets, uses three primary criteria to personalize content for expectant mothers: location, including a list of local classes and event; timeline, featuring week of pregnancy; and specific interests, such as natural birth or other preferences and health-related questions.
The app’s features seek to offer a one-stop shop, of sorts, on a mobile device. It includes fetus in 3D, a weekly and monthly guide for pregnant women, experts who can answer questions, video channels and information on the best local healthcare and local businesses geared toward pregnant women. It also includes tips on nutrition, shopping and classes.
With the app, the company said hospitals can push the right services toward the patient and help the hospital attract patients, pointing to a recent case study with Clalit Health, the largest provider in Israel with eight hospitals and more than 500 primary care clinics across the country.
Totali, founded in 2012 with a seed investment of $1.5 million, developed an app specifically for Clalit, renamed to 40weeks, and the health system started using it that same year to “drive engagement with future moms and to gain a competitive advantage.”
In a year’s time, Totally Pregnant said there was 70 percent growth in future moms “arriving from competing health providers” to Clalit.
The startup is now hoping to take the app to hospitals in the U.S. It’s headquarters are in Houston, but the company traces its roots to an office in Israel, where founder and CEO Niv Adi is based. The 20-person company also just inked a partnership with Lamaze International, a nonprofit that promotes healthy and safe births and is an accredited childbirth education certification program. Through the partnership, Totally Pregnant will refer its thousands of users to Lamaze online classes through its desktop site and the Totally Pregnant app.
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.
Using the app, Clalit in Israel captured 92 percent of all iPhone users, the company said. Among the 54,000 iPhone users, 54 percent were “active users” who used the app once a week. Another 25 percent were daily users. The average time per session was nearly 14 minutes and 25,000 videos were watched every month, the company said. And 1,250 questions a month were asked of the its doctors.
Totally Pregnant hopes to replicate that sort of success with American hospitals. The company also said is close to a Series A round that will help it expand, though specifics are still in the works.
