Lumiata, a health IT company that enlists predictive analytics tool to zero in on individuals at risk for developing any of a handful of chronic conditions and projecting the trajectory of their risk over time, has raised a $10 million Series B round led by Intel Capital, according to a company statement.
In a phone interview with Chief Commercial Officer Anthony Jones, he said the company planned to use the funding to grow staff numbers by 50 percent from 40 to the more than 60, particularly on the product development side. Some of it will also go towards building out data science capabilities.
“There’s a large and growing appetite for predictive analytics capabilities than the market has right now,” Jones said.
Existing investors including Blue Cross Blue Shield Venture Partners, Sandbox Industries, and Khosla Ventures fully participated in the round.
Lumiata contends that 30 percent of healthcare providers are currently in risk-sharing agreements, but stated that figure is expected to at least double by 2020, according to its statement.
Jones said that it has about 10 sets of paying customers and another 10 that are using its technology in proof-of-concept pilot programs, although some of these are still paying for access to the technology.
Its core predictive analytics product is Risk Matrix. “It takes a large population of health plan members or patients, takes all their data points and for each individual maps out how their risk of disease is changing over time,” said Jones. “The value that delivers to customers is significant. If you are a health plan managing a large Medicare Advantage plan, it’s the difference between losing an enormous amount of money [and saving it].”
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.
He added: “The ability to be very precise is a win-win for everyone.”
Independence Blue Cross is one of the customers for this product, he noted.
He broke down its three largest groups of customers. Topping the list are large health plans, since payers are taking the majority of risk. Second are accountable care organizations, represented by groups such as Universal American. The third group is other digital health companies such as telemedicine business, Intellivisit — it works with hospitals to help triage people in the community.
Among its competitors are Verisk Health, Optum Health, and Inovalon, which acquired Avalere Health in a $140 million deal. Avalere creates business intelligence tools for the pharmaceutical and life sciences industries.
Jones said that what sets it apart is health plans need for higher precision tools that help them assess and manage risk for individuals rather than broader populations. Although he would not rule out acquisitions, Jones said it is exploring strategic partnerships with other health IT companies.
The Lumiata Medical Graph is comprised of more than 260 million data points, 4TB of structured and unstructured medical knowledge and 35,000 hours of physician review, according to a company statement. The graph utilizes a variety of data types ranging from claims and EHR data to laboratory results and sensor readings, developed against an expanding data repository of more than 60 million patient lives.
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