Moving patients from one care setting to another is one of healthcare’s riskiest and most fragmented moments. Each transition involves multiple handoffs between different providers and systems — with every one of these introducing opportunities for information to be lost, delayed or misinterpreted.
This week, a Boston-based startup aiming to address this problem raised millions of dollars in seed capital.
Cascala Health closed a $8.6 million seed financing round, taking its fundraising total to $11.23 million. The round was co‑led by Flare Capital Partners and Eniac Ventures, with participation from Digital Health Venture Partners, Omega Healthcare Investors, Tau Ventures and Ziegler Link-age Fund.
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The startup, which was founded about a year ago, uses AI to improve care transitions by enabling easier information flow and staff communication. Its platform flags risks in real time and helps care teams act before they turn into emergencies.
By identifying risks early, the platform can help reduce unnecessary hospital readmissions, noted Cascala CEO Matt Murphy. He also highlighted personalized interventions can lead to better recovery and satisfaction rates.
“Patients, caregivers, providers and risk-bearing organizations are kept informed of the patient’s condition, risks, and requirements, ensuring everyone is aligned in delivering optimal care,” Murphy said.
Cascala’s technology pulls together patient data from different sources, such as hospital records, lab results and clinicians’ care notes, and instantly turns it into an easy-to-read summary, he explained.
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He added that the platform provides explainable, auditable outputs so clinicians can trust the recommendations. It also emphasizes collaboration with physicians and aims to keep them in control by supporting the care plan they deem appropriate.
Overall, the startup seeks to fix the critical pain points in care transitions on behalf of accountable care organizations, risk-bearing providers and health plans, Murphy noted.
He pointed out that achieving this will lower the total cost of care for risk-bearing organizations. Preventing readmissions and complications avoids expensive hospital stays and emergency care, which are the biggest drivers of spending during care transitions.
In Murphy’s eyes, some of Cascala’s main competitors include companies like Wellsky and Optum, which offer post-acute coordination tools, as well as companies like Innovaccer and Health Catalyst, which provide broader population health data platforms. He believes Cascala differentiates itself from the competition because it was built from the ground up for care transitions rather than broad data management.
“It uses clinically responsible, AI-driven reasoning to generate actionable, context-aware insights — not just dashboards,” Murphy stated.
He also mentioned there are also some EHR-native tools that aid better care transitions, but these are limited to their own ecosystems.
Cascala currently serves more than 1,000 acute and post-acute facilities, which care for more than 300,000 patients.
Photo: Alvaro Gonzalez, Getty Images