BOSTON, June 9 — Healthrageous, Inc., a personalized health technology company, announced that it has completed a $6 million Series A financing led by North Bridge Venture Partners (Boston, MA/San Mateo, CA) along with investment partners Egan Managed Capital (Boston, MA) and Long River Ventures (Amherst, MA). Proceeds will be used to commercialize a proven health technology platform that provides personalized, interactive, motivational self-management tools which help individuals shed unhealthy habits, improve their adherence to medical advice, and embrace healthy lifestyles.
Healthrageous combines wireless biometric sensors, smart phones, individualized coaching, incentive programs and social network support in a real-time, interactive, feedback-rich experience that keeps individuals involved and motivated to achieve their personal health and wellness goals.
The system was developed and tested at the Center for Connected Health, a division of Partners HealthCare, founded by Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital. The Center, located in Boston and affiliated with Harvard Medical School, is an internationally-recognized leader in the design and development of mobile health and telemedicine solutions. Healthrageous’ launch builds on three plus years of successful product development, testing and piloting at major corporations. Beta customers included large employers such as EMC Corporation, where the success of the initial pilot led EMC to initiate the integration of remote monitoring with Personal Health Records currently available to U.S. based employees and their family members.
“To date, the solutions have enjoyed highly-visible industry attention,” ssaid Rick Lee, CEO, Healthrageous Inc. “Our core platform demonstrates clinical effectiveness and a strong value proposition by improving health outcomes, reducing healthcare costs and creating a measurable return on investment for our customers. Our key focus is supporting healthy lifestyles. More than half of all chronic medical conditions develop as a result of unhealthy behaviors. These conditions represent hundreds of billions of dollars in avoidable healthcare costs annually.”
Bill Geary, North Bridge Venture Partners, Jack Egan, Egan Managed Capital, and Will Cowen, Long River Ventures, have joined the company’s Board of Directors. It is expected that Dr. Joe Kvedar, Founder and Director of the Center for Connected Health at Partners Healthcare and thought leader in the health technology field, will also join the Board of Directors.
Healthrageous’ technology platform is designed to interface with most major manufacturers of biometric sensors and telemedicine devices, smart phone operating systems, popular social network media, leading direct-to-consumer outbound telephonic call systems, and emerging Web-based personal health record (PHR) systems.
“It is exciting to find new ways to empower patients to be more involved in measuring, managing and improving their health outcomes and quality of life while, at the same time, better utilizing our healthcare resources,” added Dr. Kvedar. “At the Center, we are firm believers that, given the right tools and the right information, individuals can be their own best care providers.”
In a 2008 randomized clinical trial, according to a Partners news statement, the Center for Connected Health validated its model to improve clinical outcomes associated with hypertension, using a wireless blood pressure cuff and automated behavior coaching. The results were statistically significant. 69.2% of employees who received the blood pressure cuff and coaching intervention achieved improvement in their blood pressure; 54.9% improved their hypertensive state to a controlled state; and 28.7% achieved a clinically significant decline in diastolic blood pressure, which can reduce the risk of stroke. Similar studies have also been conducted in weight management and diabetes.
The Company’s target customers are large employers, health plans and insurers, specialty care and disease management companies, provider health systems, pharmaceutical makers and clinical trial sponsors, pharmacy benefit managers, device makers and consumer wellness retail and fitness brands. Customers may license Healthrageous’ core platform to design their own custom solution, or may purchase Healthrageous’ solutions off-the-shelf on a turn-key basis for deployment under their own brand or under the company’s Healthrageous brand.
The Healthrageous leadership team includes Rick Lee, CEO, a veteran healthcare executive specializing in specialty managed care, most recently president of Employer Solutions at Magellan Health Services, Inc.; Doug McClure, Chief Technology Officer, who oversaw technology research and platform development for remote monitoring and patient self-management at the Center for Connected Health; Mary Beth Chalk, Chief Strategy Officer, an innovative healthcare strategist with multi-industry experience in consumer marketing and data-driven decision support systems, who previously served as a director of Business Development for Pfizer Health Solutions; and Kevin Naughton, Chief Financial Officer, who was previously head of finance at three venture-backed health IT start-up companies.
About the Company
Launched in 2010, Healthrageous, Inc. systems are based on technologies developed at the Center for Connected Health, a division of Partners HealthCare, founded by Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, teaching affiliates of Harvard Medical School. Healthrageous, Inc. is headquartered in Massachusetts.
