Baltimore, Maryland-based Protenus, the company famously behind monthly Breach Barometers, is expanding its capabilities.
As part of a new effort, the organization will use its analytics platform to shed light on other problems in the world of healthcare. One example includes detecting suspected employee theft of prescription opiates.
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By making use of artificial intelligence, Protenus will be able to highlight when inappropriate activity is happening. It will also assist in noticing when health systems, payers and health information exchanges are at heightened risk for trouble.
Through this new initiative, Protenus cofounder Robert Lord will serve as president. He will lead a team of engineers, data scientists and others to find ways of applying the Protenus platform to other healthcare issues.
Nick Culbertson, another Protenus cofounder, will serve as CEO of the company.
“At our core, we are a workflow analytics company — our solution understands how patient data is virtually accessed and used during normal clinical and administrative workflows,” Culbertson said in a statement. “We’re excited to work with our customers to apply our predictive analytics to proactively identify the many other types of anomalies that create unnecessary risk or waste for healthcare organizations.”
Lord agreed, noting that Protenus’ mission is the same as it was when the company was founded. “This new markets initiative represents an exciting step forward for Protenus, and we look forward to working with our world-class customers, partners and investors who continue to join us in our mission,” he said in a statement.
Each month, Protenus releases a Breach Barometer based on data provided by DataBreaches.net.
The latest barometer found the number of breaches in the healthcare world is remaining constant. In the month of May alone, there were 37 healthcare breach incidents either disclosed to HHS or the media. Of the 29 incidents for which Protenus had data, 255,108 patient records were impacted. Additionally, Protenus found that in May, it took an average of 441 days for organizations to find out a breach occurred.
A startup, Protenus came through DreamIt’s 2014 Baltimore class. In early 2016, the company raised $4 million in a Series A round led by Arthur Ventures. Protenus also had support from TEDCO, DreamIt Ventures, Cognosante, LionBird Venture Capital and the Baltimore Angels.
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