Health IT, Startups

Bivarus raises $2M to add staff for patient-centered analytics, roll out data visualization engine

New investor Hatteras Venture Partners and existing investor Excelerate Health Ventures co-led the round.

Bivarus, a health IT company that analyzes patient-generated data to help healthcare providers figure out what they need to do to improve, has raised a $2 million funding round. In a phone interview, CEO Dave Levin said the funds will support the addition of software engineer and marketing staff as it prepares to roll out a data visualization engine in early summer and a predictive analytics program later this year.

It follows a $1.9 million fundraise last year.

New investor Hatteras Venture Partners and existing investor Excelerate Health Ventures co-led the round. In addition to local investors, Bivarus attracted new institutional investors beyond Research Triangle Park, such as NueCura Partners and Boston Millennia Partners.

In response to customer demand, it has worked on services in the past 12 months to give them more relevant, reliable, targeted information based on patient generated data. By the end of June, it anticipates launching a visualization engine to make it easier for customers to compare performance of individuals and their business across different measures and time periods. For larger customers, they’ll be able to better understand which of their clinics are performing the strongest and why.

Predictive analytics is also an area where the company is expanding. Its customers want to understand what are the strongest predictors of what matters to them, how they can easily interpret that information and draw conclusions from those insights.

“We are still very focused on how we can solicit and incorporate insights from patients into improving organizations we are working with from a hospital service line to an oncology practice,” Levin said.

He added that the way its analytics engine is structured, if clients don’t see the improvements they expect, they can tweak it so they can get a better sense of what, if any, changes they need to make.

Asked if he could offer some examples of any easy wins companies have been able to generate from Bivarus, Levin referenced one example in which a practice received poor scores on convenience and access. It turned out that staff were taking the parking spots closest to the entrance, inconveniencing its patients. Once that changed, patient feedback scores improved.

Another customer, telemedicine business RelyMD uses its analytics software to assess whether customers saved money using its service.

Levin said it’s very interested in becoming part of the government-mandated Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems, or CAHPS, program. The program from the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is a public-private initiative that requires institutions to conduct patient surveys, collect the information and report it on a regular basis. “Our customers have said to us, ‘We would love for you to offer that service.'” It started around 2002 with hospital in-patients, but emergency rooms are now being mandated to participate, as well as large physician practices, and ambulatory centers.

Levin views it as a catalyst to get organizations to think about the relationship
positive experience leads to positive outcomes.

Electronic health record marketplaces, such as those with Allscripts and athenahealth, also figure in to its strategy to add new customers, said Levin.

Photo: Flickr

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