March 14, 2017

By Norm Volsky, Director of Mobile HIT

As an Executive Search Consultant in the Healthcare IT space, it is my job to be able to identify emerging technology companies that are poised for significant growth. I do research daily and during my discussions with industry thought leaders, I make it a point to ask them what companies in the space they find intriguing and unique. I feel it is my job as a member of this industry to share this knowledge/information with my network so that you could be exposed to these companies too. Below are companies I have had my eye on all year that I met up with in person at HIMSS to learn more about their story and vision.

Envera Health: Managed Services company helping healthcare systems unify their interactions with consumers to improve engagement. They offer providers CRM-enabled call center support that enables a 360-degree view of consumers to allow seamless communications and connectivity for scheduling, care coordination and post discharge communication. Envera has been in business for a little over a year and already has over 125 employees.

Healthfinch: Practice Automation and Pre-Visit planning solution that helps healthcare organizations automate, delegate, and simplify routine busywork so its clinicians can spend more time treating patients. It saves providers, on average, 30 minutes per day. It helps increase staff efficiency at least 4X, resulting in faster turnarounds on patient requests. Average implementation is 3-5 days in athenaClinicals, and approximately 30 in Epic and Allscripts TouchWorks.

Proskriptive: Analytics and Data Science company utilizing vendor agnostic machine learning. Proskriptive can give their hospital customers actionable data using a turnkey solution that helps them reduce length of stay, reduce readmissions and increase coding accuracy, among many other things.

Validic: Health Data Platform that enables access and integration to patient-generated data from mHealth apps, devices and wearables. They have connected to over 400 clinical and consumer-grade health devices. Released Vital Snap solution last year which uses OCR technology from smart phones to digitize data from Glucometers, Blood Pressure meters, Weight scales, heart rate monitors, pulse oximeters, and thermometers.

CareSync: Chronic Disease Management/Care Coordination solution with over 100,000 patients using their solution/service. Their goal is to allow collaboration between every stakeholder in the care continuum and help get the right information to the right care team member at the right time. In helping their patients navigate their way through the Health System, they improve the quality of care and patient experience drastically. CareSync recently launched a new product named Scribe that allows a physician to record a conversation with a patient HIPAA compliantly on his or her Apple Watch. They have 97% customer retention rate which is nearly unheard of.

LifeMed ID: Patient Identification solution at the point of registration. Once a patient is identified accurately, he or she can travel throughout the continuum of care seamlessly. In the current healthcare landscape, identifying and validating patients at the point of check-in is more important than ever. LifeMed reduces fraud and duplicate patient records while at the same time improving collections and patient safety in an area of Healthcare IT that has been largely unaddressed.

Vivify Health: Remote Patient Monitoring Platform helping move the industry toward value-based care. Helping its patients manage their chronic disease, Vivify is one of the leaders in mobile population health management. In 2016, Vivify not only signed UPMC as a customer, but the health system also participated in their recent $17M Series B investment round. Vivify, along with Iron Bow Technologies were awarded a $258M telehealth contract by the VA in 2017.

Jellyfish Health: Patient Experience platform designed to reduce wait times and improve patient satisfaction. Their mobile app allows patients to see available appointments and estimated wait times, then schedule and confirm – all from the convenience of their mobile device.   By increasing patient satisfaction, the provider groups are able to keep their patients (on average, practices turn over 25% of their patients per year). The tool helps drive revenue by increasing patient traffic, reducing staff interruptions, streamlining physician schedules, and improving patient throughput. At HIMSS, Jellyfish launched a new product named Bloom that helps customers recruit and enroll patients in health and wellness campaigns.

Propeller Health: FDA-cleared asthma and COPD management vendor that helps patients and physicians better manage chronic respiratory conditions. They make digital products that have therapeutic benefit. Propeller Health won the 2016 Innovation in Remote Healthcare Award at the ATA conference. In late 2016 Propeller also got another FDA clearance for its Smart Inhaler.

Healthloop: “Patient Experience” company in regards to its high-touch, cloud-based, episodic patient engagement platform. The goal was to develop technology that had the ability to deliver empathetic instructions. Healthloop sends educational content to the patient to not only answer any questions that the patient currently has, but more importantly to anticipate questions he or she might have in the future, with instructions in care plans. This empowers the patient and makes him or her confident with what to do for the best outcome. Their solution results in a 35% decrease in complications and 30% reduction in readmissions.

Intelligent InSites: Real-Time Operational Intelligence vendor that focuses on RTLS/RFID, Asset Management, Workflow Management, Environmental Monitoring, Patient Safety and Infection Control. Having both a mobile and desktop platform, Intelligent InSites provides its customers with second to none analytics and dashboards to improve financial and operational efficiency, quality, regulatory compliance and patient satisfaction. InSites helps its hospital customers improve their operating margin, bed occupancy rate, asset utilization rate, patient satisfaction and physician performance while reducing hospital incidents time to service and length of stay. InSites was recently picked to be part of HCA’s Hospital of the Future program in which it picked some of the most cutting edge technology companies in all of HIT to participate.

Saturn Care:  CDMP (Chronic Disease Management Program) that enables primary care teams to better engage patients in clinical and behavioral aspects of chronic disease management. CDMP allows the care team to be in control and educate patients properly, specifically geared towards diabetes. Saturn Care boasts 97% patient engagement and 100% doctor satisfaction. In a major NIH-funded randomized controlled study their solution has allowed their patients to decrease their A1C by 1%.

DSHI: Physician-led clinical content and technology with AI driven workflows (50 conditions) for CCM, Post Discharge Follow-up and patient education.  They have hospitals and other healthcare organizations, including the VA, who use these to more effectively identify patients at risk where an early intervention can avoid an unnecessary readmission. These workflows can be implemented in a variety of ways, including: direct to the patient in a web app, chatbot, IVR, voice assisted device (Alexa and Google Home), or integrated with CRM or care coordination software that the care team to use in outbound calls.  Regardless of the method, key metrics (including readmission risk and disease control score) and valuable data are auto-generated for the provider as well as a care plan and education for the patient.

PreparedHealth: Building a social network that rallies the large spectrum of healthcare providers in and around the home, helping them work together to more-timely identify interventions, manage transitions and communicate upstream.

Phynd: Provider Data Management vendor that is helping its hospital customers improve clinical outcomes and decrease delay in collections. By improving the accuracy of physician data, Phynd helps its customers drive more referrals and minimize compliance risk.

PokitDok: API platform that helps enable other software platforms to gather information easier. This solution allows its customers to do transactions easier and have access to powerful data. PokitDok has built an operating system behind the business of healthcare. Their API’s enable a one-click purchase which could be described as a PayPal for healthcare. PokitDok has forged ahead and built all of this technology upon blockchain technology called DokChain.

Wellsoft: Emergency Department Information System vendor that has won Best in KLAS 6 years in a row. Wellsoft helps its customers optimize efficiency and patient throughput which include Hospital Emergency Departments and freestanding ED’s.

Solera Network: Chronic Disease Management Marketplace that points patients, payers and physicians in the right direction when the treatment options seem endless. Solera helps patient identify the best program for them, enables easy reimbursement and regular reporting to all of the stakeholders. Last month, Solera achieved HITRUST CSF Certification.

SwervePay Health delivers the convenience patients seek in their day-to-day lives by presenting frictionless payments via text with no mobile app to download or username and password to remember.  Patients have the ability to pay their co-pay or balances via text before, during or after their appointment. They simply respond to a text message.

Orb Health: Intelligent Care Collaboration platform that has EMR connectivity and workflow tools. Helps Health Systems and PCP practices maximize patient engagement, reimbursement, and value-based care collaboration. Currently managing over 100,000 patients.

SocialWellth: Focused on Prescriptive Digital Health by providing access to over 100,000 apps and helping Providers, Employers and Payers prescribe the appropriate apps to the consumer based on their condition. Helps facilitate communication between consumers and their healthcare sponsors at the point of care. SocialWellth is launching a new intelligent curation and mobile security threat prevention solution to increase consumer confidence.

i2i Pop Health: The 2016 Best in KLAS award winner for Population Health Management. i2i boasts a 99% customer retention rate and a 25% reduction in avoidable inpatient admissions. Helping Providers and Payers manage over $20M lives.

Welldoc: Founded by an endocrinologist, Welldoc has a built a mobile platform to transform the treatment of chronic disease. While specifically focusing on Type 2 Diabetes, they were able to help their patients drop their A1C by an average of 1.9% in two clinical trials by supporting their day to day management of their condition. Welldoc sends patient generated data to their physicians so they can make more informed decisions in a space where there is no uniform care plan for all Type 2 Diabetes patients.

Wellbe offers a cloud-based platform that facilitates connected care between patients and providers across an episode such as a total joint replacement, empowering patients as active participants, and giving providers the ability to efficiently coordinate care. Wellbe Connected Care enables high-performing health systems throughout the U.S. to transform care delivery by improving patients’ experiences, satisfaction, and outcomes while reducing costs. With these smart patient workflows, customers improve results such as LOS, skilled nursing facility utilization, and readmissions.

Pieces Technologies: Predictive Analytics software vendor that helps improve patient outcomes and reduce hospital costs. The founder is a physician who, with his team, built a better solution for case management using its Iris solution and Decision Support.

This was my fifth HIMSS show and I always come back amazed at how passionate and innovative this industry is as a whole. All of the companies above are helping drive change towards value based care and I feel so lucky to be able work in this industry every day.

The next trade show I am planning on attending is ATA in Orlando…if you are interested in having your company highlighted in my next blog, please let me know.

Norm Volsky
Director of Mobile HIT
Direct Recruiters, Inc.
440-996-0059
nv*****@di**************.com