Conversa Health, a company centered around providing personalized patient-doctor communication, announced today that it has closed a $2.5 million seed round with angel investors. In addition to the funding, Daniel Dean has been named chief technology officer and a Medical Advisory Board has been established.
The money will go towards further development of Conversa’s Digital Checkup service. The company’s mission is to provide digitally connected patient care to enhance and go far beyond what is traditionally provided with limited visit-based care.
“Patient relationship management is an exciting new category of health care solutions that addresses patient engagement and population health management,” said West Shell III in a press release, Conversa’s co-founder and CEO. “With this funding, the addition of Daniel Dean to our talented team and the formation of our Medical Advisory Board, we’re on the way to leading the charge in this newly defined space.”
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Dean will lead Convera’s engineers to further build the company’s user base.
As the press release states:
Dean was the CIO for Health Share of Oregon, one of the nation’s largest Coordinated Care Organizations (CCOs) administering physical, mental and dental benefits for the Medicaid population. He also helped pioneer electronic health records (EHRs) at MedicaLogic/GE, and has held product and technology leadership positions at Responsys, WebMD and Press Ganey. With considerable experience in EHRs, system interoperability and technology implementations for complex health systems, Dean consistently delivers effective clinical solutions that meet the needs of both patients and their care providers.
Conversa’s newly formed Medical Advisory Board, under the leadership of Chief Medical Officer Dr. Danny Sands, a practicing primary care physician at Beth Israel Deaconess, will create clinical content for the company’s Digital Checkup platform. New advisory board members include Dr. Joseph P. Kannam, a cardiologist at Beth Israel Deaconess, and Dr. Lyle Mitzner, an endocrinology specialist at the Joslin Diabetes Center. All three distinguished physicians hold academic appointments at Harvard Medical School.
“The real measure of success in this fast-changing digital health market is how well you can understand complex customer dynamics and execute,” Conversa board member Peter L. Levin said, according to a the press release. Levin is also CEO of Amida and the former CTO of the Veteran’s Administration, where he led development of the Blue Button initiative to provide consumers with direct access to their health data. “Getting data to flow securely, accurately and dynamically across clinical systems, and knowing how to align the interests of disparate stakeholders at the table are critical. This team brings proven know-how from their years in both large, complex organizations and innovative digital health startups.”
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