PatientPing has raised $31.6 million from investors on both coasts to speed up adoption of its software that helps doctors track when their patients get admitted to or released from the hospital.
The Series B funding round was led by Boston-based Leerink Transformation Partners and Andreessen Horowitz, the Silicon Valley venture firm that has backed the likes of Facebook, Airbnb, and Skype. Boston-based PatientPing previously raised $9.6 million from GV, the venture capital arm of Google’s parent company; Fidelity affiliate F-Prime Capital; First Round Capital; and SV Angel.
PatientPing’s software sends instant notifications (“pings”) to doctors and other healthcare providers whenever their patients are admitted, discharged, or transferred to or from a hospital or clinic. The three-year-old company says it does this regardless of the electronic medical records system being used or the patient’s care provider network, thus helping to cut through typical administrative barriers. PatientPing’s technology enables sharing of information across hospitals and clinics, such as a history of the patient’s clinical visits and contact information for the person’s primary care doctor.
“For example, if a patient lands in a hospital in Florida when their primary care team is at home in Massachusetts, we’re making it seamless for those providers to work together so the patient gets the best possible care,” PatientPing founder and CEO Jay Desai said in a press release.
The problem crops up more often than you might think—PatientPing said the average Medicare patient receives care from seven different doctors across four unaffiliated practices each year. Making it easier for those care providers to coordinate with one another and share information can increase efficiency, improve patient care, and reduce costs, PatientPing argues.
The company’s products are currently used by more than 15,000 healthcare providers in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.
PatientPing said it plans to use the new funding to expand to more states, further develop its products, and more than double the size of its staff. The company currently employs about 50 people, the Boston Globe reported.
