Awell CEO Thomas Vande Casteele

Startups

Awell Raises $5M to Bring CareOps to Healthcare

Nobody thinks about their patients and clinical workflows more than actual care teams, but many of these teams are still using a mix of spreadsheets and Google Docs to track their processes because they haven’t had any better tools. Awell just raised $5M in seed funding to give them those tools.

Awell is a low-code editor that lets providers design clinical workflows and patient journeys that embed into their existing tech stack. Picture drag-and-drop building blocks tied together with if-this-then-that logic that you can use to create your ideal workflow. Those blocks could be: 

• Care Pathways – PROMs, risk scores, engagement, etc.
• Triage – Questionnaires, calculations, messages
• Onboarding – Eligibility checks, symptom assessments, reminders

By using a single platform for a variety of tasks, Awell prevents providers from having to combine multiple tools or stitch different solutions together with custom code.

• Virtual-first providers use the platform to automate their workflows while retaining control of the end-user experience, with Awell’s APIs doing the heavy lifting on the back end. 

• Traditional providers and tech-enabled services companies use the platform for a similar reason, to swap their PDFs and text-based guidelines for dynamic workflows. 

Although the self-service route has its drawbacks (providers have a lot on their plates and even no-code development might be intimidating), Awell makes a strong case that healthcare could be about to witness its own version of the DevOps transformation that redefined the software industry.

• This shift, aptly coined as CareOps, involves introducing the same agile development framework that trades fragmented teams and lengthy deployment cycles for integrated dev/care teams and quicker software releases. (Plenty more on CareOps here).

• The promise of that methodology goes hand-in-hand with Awell’s mission: break down the silos between clinicians and engineers so that everyone can participate in the creation of care processes that ultimately deliver better patient outcomes.

The Takeaway

It’s hard to imagine that the software industry ever managed to get itself tangled in more fragmented practices and inefficiencies than healthcare, but if improving workflows was the cure, a no-code automation platform seems like a great place to start. Awell now has $5M to help kick off the CareOps movement, and it just might make it happen if it can convince enough providers to roll up their sleeves and automate some manual work.

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The Wire

• Amazon Prime Healthcare? It was only a matter of time after Amazon picked up One Medical before we wrote this story: Insider’s reporting that primary care services are on the table as a Prime membership inclusion as Amazon looks into overhauling the service. On one hand, One Medical would likely raise the cost of Prime and risk losing some current users. On the other, it’s a major addition that could attract newcomers and help Amazon avoid watering down the Prime brand by launching too many individual services.

• Oracle Debuts Gen AI EHR Features: Oracle’s annual conference brought the unveiling of “the new Oracle Health EHR platform,” which it says will carry a modernized interface and more intuitive processes. Although it was funny to see “cutting-edge AI technology” and “patients can upload a picture of their driver’s license and have that information automatically populate in the EHR” mentioned in the same breath, Oracle also announced a new Clinical Digital Assistant that lets providers interact with the EHR using only voice commands.

• Different Costs Online vs. Phone: An investigation published in JAMA Internal Medicine compared the online costs to the over-the-phone costs for several medical services at 60 top-ranked US hospitals, and let’s just say it wasn’t a good look for the providers. Only 22 of the 60 hospitals were able to provide costs for childbirth both online and by telephone (not a great sign for transparency compliance), and just 10 of those quoted two costs that were within 25% of each other. Nine hospitals even had internal differences of over 50%.

• Zocdoc Announces Practice Solutions: Zocdoc is taking a big leap from hosting doctor reviews to helping them run their front office, announcing a complementary suite of tools to help reach, manage, and retain patients. The new platform can manage patient intake, handle scheduling, and host virtual visits, plus it’s open access for any providers that want to use it. That said, the product roadmap includes new support features and patient-provider messaging, and it would be shocking if those features didn’t bring in some revenue.

• Transparency Violation Spike: CMS is picking up the pace on fining hospitals for transparency violations, knocking 14 different organizations within the past couple of months. In 2022, a grand total of just two violations were issued for the entire year. Although hospitals have had nearly three years for compliance, 6 of the 14 hospitals in the recent round of violations have fewer than 100 beds (many are critical access hospitals already in a tough spot operationally), and only two had over 500 beds. We’ll definitely be keeping an eye on whether that ratio starts to shift.

• Vivante Closes $31M for GI Care: Vivante Health closed a $31M Series B round (total raised now $47M) to expand the reach of its GIThrive gastrointestinal health platform that allows patients to track their symptoms and receive AI-driven personalized care plans that dynamically adjust to their needs. Users also have access to a coordinated GI care team through Vivante’s network of gastroenterologists, dietitians, and coaches.

• Nursing Facilities Don’t Meet New Standards: A KFF analysis revealed that less than 1 in 5 nursing facilities currently meet the new staffing standard proposed by the Biden administration, meaning that over 80% could soon need to hire from a nursing talent pool that isn’t exactly overflowing. CMS is now seeking comments on alternatives to the proposed rule that would require nursing facilities to provide each resident with a minimum of 33 minutes of care from a RN every day (+2.5 hours from a nurse aide), as well as have an RN on site at all times.

• HealthEM.AI + WellBe: HealthEM.AI is partnering with WellBe Senior Medical (not to be confused with the Wellbe that Orbita just acquired) to help the at-home senior care provider participate in value-based contracts. WellBe is leveraging HealthEM.AI to integrate payor and clinical data into a single patient record spanning all service lines and locations, as well as its machine learning models that refine targeting for patient and population interventions.

• Remote Care Coverage Lacking: Medicare is leading the way in virtual care coverage, with a new AMA report showing that private payors and Medicaid are trailing by a significant margin. Medicare and MA plans are both reimbursing physicians for RPM, remote therapeutic monitoring, digital evaluation / management, and provider-to-provider consults. By contrast, Medicaid only covers RPM in 34 states (even fewer for the other areas), and the 16 private payors named in the report were all over the map between complete digital health coverage and zero support.

• Atrium Virtual Primary Care: Atrium Health is making the patient-friendly move to start offering 24/7 primary care services for patients in North and South Carolina. The system said that it’s hoping to engage more patients who don’t live close to one of its locations or who are too busy to visit during the day. Virtual appointments can be made for anything from preventative care and chronic conditions to mental health screenings and 2 a.m. check ups.

• Wellysis ECG Patch Comes to the US: Samsung spinoff Wellysis announced the FDA clearance of its S-Patch Ex wearable device, expanding to its 15th country globally after gaining its CE Mark in 2021. Weighing-in at just 9 grams, the single-lead S-Patch Ex records patients’ ECG and heart rates in home and clinical settings for up to 72 hours. The patch syncs with a range of devices that patients use to input symptoms, and then transfers the data to a portal used by monitoring clinicians.

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