PatientBond
Name: PatientBond
Location: Elmhurst, Illinois
Money Raised: $800,000
The Product
PatientBond’s “patient behavior change technology” is a platform for automating patient communications (email, text, Interactive Voice Response), which uses a proprietary psychographic segmentation model to classify patients according to their “health personalities” and customizes messaging to resonate more effectively. Psychographics pertain to patients’ attitudes, values, personalities and lifestyles, and are a key to understanding (and appealing to) their priorities and motivations to activate desired behavior change. Each communication includes patient response mechanisms for two-way engagement, and a dashboard allows healthcare providers to easily monitor patient responses. PatientBond is cloud-based and works seamlessly with any EMR/EHR.
The Impact
Seven month into a pilot with a New England hospital system, readmissions for a form of spinal surgery have been reduced to 0 from 6 percent. Patients have been 85 percent compliant responding to nine waves of pre- and post-surgery communications. At TriHealth in Cincinnati, the psychographic model is being used by health coaches to help patients with diabetes and musculoskeletal issues achieve their health goals. 83 percent of participants progressed against their health goals with a +90 percent change in mean goals completed. At a health system focused on Medicaid and Hispanic populations, missed appointments were reduced 22 percent.
Each readmission for the form of spinal surgery at the New England hospital system costs $15,000 – $35,000. Reducing readmissions to zero represents a significant cost savings. Moreover, before PatientBond was employed, this hospital system had three nurses assigned to post-discharge follow-up. Patientbond’s automated communications and dashboard monitoring patient response alerts allowed the hospital system to reassign two nurses for a savings of 2 FTEs, and the remaining nurse only has to spend an hour a day following up with patients expressing recovery issues. This represents a 20 to 1 payout for the hospital system.
Customers or Pilots
Massachusetts General Hospital (Cambridge, MA), TriHealth (Cincinnati, OH) Immediate MD (Urgent Care Clinics in Chicago, IL). A health system in Nevada focused on Medicaid, Hispanic and underserved population. PatientBond is about to start a congestive heart failure pilot at a hospital system across 19 states.
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.
Revenue Model
For initiatives involving a defined time period and work flow (e.g., 30 day readmission), PatientBond charges $4 – $5 per patient. For ongoing initiatives (e.g., chronic care, medication adherence), PatientBond charges a per patient/per month fee (depending on scope and scale) of $0.18 to $0.50 per patient per month. An enterprise license for unlimited use across multiple applications is $1.50 per patient per month.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVcgpdFJUPw&feature=youtu.be
