Reachify Rolls Out Healthtech Software for Patient Communications

[Updated 3/28/18 12:15 am. See below.] A healthtech startup founded by two doctors who set out in 2013 to improve the overall management of their respective medical practices is emerging from beta mode Wednesday to offer fellow physicians an office software suite.

Reachify, founded in 2015 and based in San Diego, targets medical groups with software-as-a-service (SaaS) that consolidates phone, e-mail, social media, and other electronic communications into a centralized hub and collaborative workplace. The company says its Web-based technology is secure and compliant with federal standards for protecting sensitive patient data.

In a statement, Reachify says its technology was developed to address many of the issues highlighted in a 2016 study published by the Journal of Medical Practice Management.  According to the study, only 4 percent of the complaints found in more than 35,000 online patient reviews focused explicitly on their medical treatment. The other 96 percent complained about poor customer service arising from such issues as inadequate communications, wait times, and disorganized operations.

Reachify says its technology enables patients to connect with medical practices through their preferred method of communication, whether that is Facebook messenger, Fax, or phone call. The company’s technology intelligently routes messages, so, for example, a prospective patient inquiry sent from a medical group’s website is routed to the receptionist while a patient’s e-mail question regarding test results is routed to their physician.

“Better communication leads to more satisfied patients, greater patient retention, higher referral rates and increased revenue,” Reachify CEO Greg Spillane explained in today’s statement. Internal operations also improve because Reachify enables staffers to communicate and collaborate with each other more easily, the company says.

[Updated to include Vishal Verma as investor] Founders Erik Stark, an orthopedic surgeon, and Richard Balikian, a plastic surgeon, provided much of the $2 million in early funding themselves, according to a spokeswoman for the company. Reachify’s chairman and biggest investor is Vishal Verma, the owner and medical director of San Diego’s Revive Salon and Spa, and the CEO of NucleusHealth, a medical image management company not to be confused with Health Nucleus, the concierge medical service provided by San Diego-based Human Longevity Inc.

Reachify has been testing its technology in recent years with at a number of medical groups in north San Diego County, including Balikian Facial Plastic Surgery, as well as Revive Salon and Spa.

Author: Bruce V. Bigelow

In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here. Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.