ImageMoverMD, a Madison, WI-based startup trying to modernize the processes for capturing and managing medical images, said Friday it pulled in a $4 million venture investment led by Bain Capital Ventures, Cultivation Capital, and previous backer HealthX Ventures.
The startup said it plans to use the new cash to expand the capabilities of its software products and to scoop up more customers. Its current client roster includes Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, according to a press release.
ImageMoverMD has developed software applications that allow doctors, nurses, and other users to securely share images they’ve captured using their own smartphones—such as patients’ wounds, rashes, and other conditions—and do so in a way that doesn’t violate patient privacy laws. Security is a major concern among leaders at hospitals and clinics worldwide; some consider having someone’s health data to be more valuable than having the person’s credit card information. Moreover, violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), a law that regulates the use, disclosure, and transmission of protected patient health information, can result in fines or even jail time.
In addition, ImageMoverMD has developed Web-based software that hospital staff members can use to move images from CDs and DVDs onto the systems their organizations use to archive images. Medical images might be stored on discs, say, if a patient undergoes a magnetic resonance imaging procedure at one hospital and then gets referred to a specialist at a different hospital. At many hospitals, workers given the task of transferring the images from discs to a database must do so using special software at dedicated computers. The ImageMoverMD software aims to make that image transfer process much more efficient.
“The amount of frustration and wasted time that dealing with medical images on CDs is still causing patients and [healthcare] providers in 2019 is crazy,” ImageMoverMD CEO Darcey Nett said in a prepared statement. “We’re excited to announce that we now offer our uploader to health systems for free to help in the first step of making CDs a thing of the past, while allowing providers to try out some of our other solutions and see the other ways that medical imaging can improve.”
Nett joined the company in November 2017 as part of a series of leadership changes aimed at ramping up revenues. ImageMoverMD, which was originally called WITS(MD), was launched in 2013 by Gary Wendt and Richard Bruce, two radiologists at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics.
Part of the company’s pitch is the “tight integration” between its software and clients’ electronic health records systems and picture archiving and communication systems.
“Medical images play an increasingly important role in data-driven care, but legacy medical imaging systems are not well suited to leverage patient data or automatically integrate with electronic health records,” Bain Capital Ventures partner Yumin Choi said in a prepared statement. “We are thrilled to partner with Darcey and the rest of the team at ImageMover as they work to bring interoperability to medical imaging and improve patient care.”
