Healthrageous, a new personalized health technology company, has landed $6 million in financing to bring to market technologies developed at the Boston-based Center for Connected Health, a division of Partners Healthcare.
North Bridge Venture Partners in Boston and San Mateo, Calif, took the lead on the financing, along with investment partners Egan Managed Capital in Boston and Long River Ventures, Amherst, Mass.
The money will be used to commercialize a health technology platform that provides personalized, interactive, motivational self-management tools that 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.
Healthrageous technologies were 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, which is affiliated with Harvard Medical School, is known internationally for the design and development of mobile health and telemedicine solutions.
Healthrageous' launch builds on more than three years of product development, testing and piloting at major corporations. Beta customers included large employers such as EMC Corp., 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," said Healthrageous CEO Rick Lee. "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," Lee added. "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."
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," said Joseph Kvedar, MD, founder and director of the Center for Connected Health. "At the center, we are firm believers that, given the right tools and the right information, individuals can be their own best care providers."
Lists of Healthrageous executives and borad members are on the next page.
In a 2008 randomized clinical trial, 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 percent of employees who received the blood pressure cuff and coaching intervention achieved improvement in their blood pressure; 54.9 percent improved their hypertensive state to a controlled state; and 28.7 percent 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 turnkey basis for deployment under their own brand or under the company's Healthrageous brand.
Board members
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. Joseph Kvedar, MD, founder and director of the Center for Connected Health is also expected to join the board.
"This is an entrepreneurial management team with a novel yet scientifically validated approach that we believe will make a tremendous difference in helping people stay healthy, while delivering value for customers, employers, employees, and investors," noted Geary.
"Healthrageous brings together the right mix of technology expertise, consumer marketing, clinical leadership and business savvy to effectively address the urgent need to engage individuals in the management of their health by leveraging technology," added Egan. "We look forward to helping the company with strategic guidance and the resources they need to help fill this need in the marketplace."
Leadership team
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.
