This morning DEARhealth, a startup offering artificial intelligence-enabled disease management software, announced that it landed $6.8 million in Series A funding. The new influx of cash was provided by Philips Health Technology Ventures, Vesalius Bio capital lll and Health Innovations.
This news comes just weeks after the startup announced that it is teaming up with pharma giant UCB on a new initiative aimed at predicting health outcomes for patients with epilepsy.
WHAT THEY DO
Started as a spinout of the University of California, Los Angeles, the technology uses AI to help clinicians come up with a care plan for patients. The platform is able to integrate with EHR systems and pinpoint subpopulations for specific care.
While the company got its start focusing on inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), it has since expanded into multiple chronic care conditions including liver disease, ovarian cancer and chronic kidney disease. Following its latest announcement with UCB, it will be piloting its technology for epilepsy care.
“This technology will ensure that specific subpopulations within epilepsy will all receive the specific care needed for their specific situation,” the UCB and DEARhealth wrote in a joint email Q&A to MobiHealthNews when the partnership was announced. “For example, a pregnant woman, who may need more labs, will get a standard set of monthly care irrespective of the physician they see. Physicians can then alter the pathway to address any additional needs. The patient platform enables the physician or care coordinator to push out specific information and capture instant feedback to monitor progress enabling early intervention.”
WHAT ITS FOR
The new money will be used to help expand its service in Europe and open its European headquarters in Amsterdam. According to a statement, the company will also continue to scale its tech for more provider organizations.
MARKET SNAPSHOT
Clinical decision support tools have been on the rise in recent years. For example Innovaccer, which landed $35 million in Series B funding in January, makes a unified health data integration platform called InData. It allows providers to see a full view of a patient's data, both inside and outside of their network.
Additionally, in 2017 analytics and clinical support startup Health Catalyst introduced a new product that combines clinical data repository and health information exchange into a single platform.
ON THE RECORD
“We view DEARhealth as an ideal fit within our venture strategy, where we aim to partner with and invest in promising digital health companies complementary to Philips strategic initiatives,” Rich Wilmot, head of Philips Health Technology Ventures, said in a statement. “DEARhealth’s strong potential to accelerate transformation in chronic care towards better outcomes and experiences for patients aligns perfectly, and we look forward to working together to transform care delivery and help the company reach its full potential.”
