EXCLUSIVE:
Memora Health wants to automate patient discharges and follow-ups through its SMS-based virtual assistant so as to relieve care teams of certain administrative hassles. The Mountain View, California-based startup launched out of stealth today and will be graduating from Y Combinator’s (YC) Winter 2018 batch this March.
“A lot of patients who are elderly are texting their families,” said Memora Health cofounder and CEO Manav Sevak, in an email to VentureBeat. “We found that using SMS could get them the right post-care information without having to go to the hospital each time.”
Sevak argues that patients have often been readmitted to the hospital because they didn’t know how to manage their condition at home. He and his cofounders, Nisarg Patel and Kunaal Naik, created Felix, software that caters to these patients’ needs and answers questions like “I ran out of strips for my glucose meter, where can I buy some?” or “Can you give me a prescription refill?”
Felix also sends patients reminders about picking up a prescription, taking medication on time, and keeping their weight and blood sugar level in check.
Above: Example of an SMS chat with Felix
Although Felix sounds an awful lot like a chatbot, Sevak says they are not characterizing it as such.
“Our software is more aligned as an efficiency/optimization software given how comprehensive it is in automating and improving follow-ups,” he said.
The three cofounders have varied backgrounds that include biochemistry, computer science, and dentistry.
Memora Health says it currently has more than 1,500 patients using its follow-up service. Conditions vary from chronic diseases like congestive heart failure and autoimmune diseases to post-surgery care.
The startup says it is working with three hospitals and 10 private practises, which pay Memora Health a fee and per-patient cost for the service. When patients leave the hospital or care center, they are onboarded to the Memora Health platform. The service is free to patients.
To personalize the follow-up with relevant questions, Sevak says his team has accesses to the patient’s electronic medical records (EMR). The system can then emulate the hospital’s existing follow-up workflow through a HIPAA-compliant SMS service.
To date, Memora Health has raised a total of $155,000 from YC, Rough Draft Ventures, and Contrary Capital, and has also received a series of grants.
Founded in June 2016, the startup currently has six employees.
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