Navigating Cancer, an online cancer support site, received a $2.3 million investment to hire developers and integrate its patient portal with EMR vendors.
Company name: Navigating Cancer.
Industry: digital health.
Location: Seattle, Washington.
Solution/product: An online portal to help cancer patients prepare for doctor visits, fill out common medical forms, stay organized during treatment and track how they’re feeling. It’s also an interactive community for cancer survivors.
Money raised: $2.25 million in debt, which brings the company’s total raised to more than $5 million.
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.
How it will be used: The company will add developers to its 14-person team and continue adding onto the portal. Marketing director Brendon Smyth said the team is now working on giving patients electronic access to their health information by integrating with EMR vendors and building features to make the release of health information seamless and useful for patients.
Investors: Western Technology Investment. Previous investors include Rustic Canyon Partners.
Management team: Co-founder and CEO Gena Cook was previously vice president of sales and marketing at McKesson Specialty Care Solutions and Oncology Therapeutic Network after a 12-year tenure at Bristol-Myers Squibb. Co-founder Michael Graff, a software developer, has worked for Ancestry.com and Microsoft.
Market opportunity: The National Cancer Institute estimates that about 12 million Americans have or have had cancer, with about 1.6 million new cases diagnosed each year (PDF). A number of online companies are devoted to providing tools for these patients including social networking sites like MyHealthTeams and PatientsLikeMe, along with sites like Avva Health and Onc Charts. Navigating Cancer says it’s already being used by more than 500 oncology providers across the country.
[All Color Support photo from BigStock]
