Nomad Health, a nearly one year-old healthcare staffing startup, has developed a way to automate the process of collecting applications, including licensing and credentialing information. The New York City-based business sees an opportunity to match clinicians with healthcare facilities looking to fill short-term clinical vacancies and cut out brokers in favor of greater billing transparency and lower commissions. Alexi Nazem, Nomad Health co-founder and CEO, also views telemedicine as the next frontier for its service.
Nazem said in a phone interview that the startup would use the more than $4 million from a Series A round that it closed this week to ramp up its marketing and sales teams, with plans to add seven more staffers over the next six to nine months for a total of 12. First Round Capital and RRE Ventures led the round and .406 Ventures also participated. The company has raised about $5.3 million to date. It received seed funding from angel investor Kevin Ryan, who co-founded Business Insider, and serves as Nomad Health’s chairman. Ryan also took part in the Series A. First Round Capital also invested in Nomad prior to the latest financing round, Nazem said.
“Our core product is a marketplace that allows doctors to search for jobs and clinics to search for doctors,” Nazem said.
An algorithm matches the needs of hospitals with the most qualified clinicians based on licensing, dates available, specialty, and location, among other things. Nazem emphasized that it’s the job of each institution to verify the information.
“We are trying to return control back to the people responsible for hiring,” Nazem said. “We think adding brokers to the conversation is only adding to inefficiencies and expenses —they charge a 40 percent to 60 percent commission. We charge a 15 percent commission and we’re totally transparent.”
The company began a beta test of its service just a few months ago and its hospital clients are based in the Northeast, such as St. Luke’s Hospital. When asked about the market opportunity for its service in telemedicine, Nazem said he sees a lot of potential.
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.
“We expect to get involved in telemedicine. We think it will be a really exciting area for us. Telemedicine is a force multiplier — doctors can see more patients in more places in more settings. None of our current clients are telemedicine providers, but they will be soon. It is right on our roadmap.”
Although CredSimple complements what Nomad Health does, Nazem said the closest comparison to its company is a UK-based business called Network Locum.
Prior to Nomad, Nazem said he was a practicing physician in internal medicine. He also worked for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and on the 100,000 lives campaign to reduce morbidity and mortality in healthcare.
The company’s home for the next 12 months is Grand Central Tech. The two year-old incubator provides free shared workspace and networking opportunities for startups without requiring companies to give up equity. Out of 1,000 businesses, Nomad Health was one of 19 to secure a spot. The chairman for Grand Central Tech is Michael Milstein, a member of the billionaire real estate family.
