As the niche markets in telemedicine have grown, telepsychiatry in particular has attracted interest as a way to make behavioral health more accessible and easier to deliver from private practices to organizations with licensed, clinical social workers, psychologists and psychiatrists. Chattanooga, Tennessee-based WeCounsel has raised a $3.5 million Series A round to support virtual interactions and clinical workflow management, according to a company statement.
Longmeadow Capital Partners led the round and Point Judith Capital and CVH Holdings also took part as well.
In a phone interview with WeCounsel CEO and Founder Harrison Tyner, he said the company got started in 2011 and started working with clients in 2013. In addition to private practices, it lends its software services to EAP providers, behavioral clinics, specialty care providers, higher education, and various reseller networks.
Tyner acknowledged to growing number of companies in this space and explained how it stands out. “We are a more mature, established platform with sophisticated features geared toward mental health providers from duel video interoperability, claims and eligibility checks, to custom assessments and role-driven administrative organization management. It is rare to see that level of comprehensive virtual workflow capability in one place.”
“Our end goal and vision is an end-to-end solution from on boarding patients to [post-discharge follow-up] care at home. We do see bigger players like Teladoc and AmericanWell in telepsychiatry, but it’s a different business model from ours — it’s direct to consumer. In our minds there are two different players — the technology providers and the service providers. We work alongside service providers and that’s where partnerships make a lot of sense.”
It is using the funding to ramp up its sales and marketing team and is doubling capacity on the development and support side, Tyner said.
Tyner added that one of its competitive advantages is that it can address a wide variety of use cases. “Some may want a facilitated check-in at bedside and others may want care at home.”
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.
“There are a ton of use cases being played with right now… You are throwing something against the wall and seeing what sticks. I think there are a lot of stakeholders and entities that try to figure this out. As people in the mainstream turn on to telemedicine, we will see more sophistication.”
Photo: Bigstock Photos
