QMedic

A "smart" medical alert service

Company Information

Website:

www.qmedichealth.com/

Sector:

Medical Devices & Equipment

Location:

Boston, Massachusetts

This is a Title III deal, which means that all investors -- regardless of net worth or income -- can invest.

QMedic is a new type of medical alert service. It routes older adults living at home to the appropriate care services.

The company has already received $4.6 million in funding from the National Institute of Health (NIH).

As the population of older adults rises dramatically over the next decade, the company aims to bring simplicity, connectivity and affordability to care delivery in the home.

Its mission is to reduce unnecessary ER admissions while helping care providers and family members deliver faster, more proactive care to loved ones with complex needs. It envisions QMedic helping older adults around the world live independently in their own homes.

Historically, medical alert services and 911 have routed people to the ER -- regardless of whether or not people needed those services. QMedic is different: it focuses on routing people to nurse triage, behavioral health services, or other care providers or family members that are relevant.

This is better for the person because it gets them the right services at the right time. And it lowers the cost for the care network versus sending the person to the ER.

HOW IT WORKS
When a person presses the button on the QMedic device, the device's base station intelligently routes the call based on the context of the voice call and behavior data.

If a health plan wants the company to route directly to a specific care provider such as a nurse line, it can do that. It can also route to the company's call center, which can relay the call accordingly.

The company is optimized for two-sided risk, which means it can route to the emergency room if needed. On the other hand, if the user is in distress but doesn’t require emergency services, it can route elsewhere. The call center can utilize the dynamic decision trees and scripts that are generated via the company's intelligent software platform to get users to the right services based on need.

If the device detects something awry, like a late wake-up or changes in movement patterns, it can escalate alerts to a 24/7 call center, nurse or family member to perform a wellness check.

Subscribers never need to take off their device to charge it or take a shower. By eliminating downtime, QMedic enables care management teams to proactively track wear compliance and anomalies without burdening the user.

The wearable device has a button with embedded sensing technology. The device has over 2 years of battery life.

Subscribers typically pay $30/month for the service. Some state Medicaid programs reimburse the company $30-$100 for installs/activations, but there is no installation cost for the customer.

At these levels, the company is close to 70% monthly margins.

KEY FACTS
- 70% of ER visits are avoidable.
- 6-to-1 cost savings for health plans using QMedic.
- 100 of its Beta units sold out in 2015.
- 1,000 subscriptions prepaid for next version of the service.
- 2 multi-year regional Medicaid contracts; contracting with 3 private Medicaid health plans.
- Clinical partnerships with Northwestern University Hospital, Robert H. Lurie Cancer Center, and Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.

QMedic has been the recipient of multiple recognitions and awards including: The Future of Medicine Award, TEDMED Innovation, AWS Startup Challenge and The ARRP Startup award.

Team Background

Sombit Mishra - Founder & CEO

Mishra is a data-driven health IT entrepreneur.

He has 10 years of experience in Web/Mobile/health IT strategy, product management, marketing, business development, and user interface design at both startups and large companies.

He previously conceived, designed and launched a telemedicine application in partnership with one of the world's leading hospitals.

He was awarded the Patrick J. McGovern Prize for outstanding contributions to entrepreneurship at MIT; was the recipient of the 2013 TEDMED Innovation Scholarship and Future of Medicine Award from Cleveland Clinic; and has been awarded $3 million in NIH contracts for his work in wearable remote monitoring.

He earned his BA in Economics and History from Northwestern University; his MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); and his Masters in Economics and Political Science from the London School of Economics.

Fahd Albinali - Founder & CTO

As a Research Scientist at the MIT Media Lab and the MIT Department of Architecture, Fahd co-led a joint effort with Stanford to design and develop the first low-cost population-scale long-term health monitoring technology to continuously and objectively measure physical activity type, duration and intensity using wearable sensors and phones.

This groundbreaking work received numerous awards including the prestigious UbiComp 2009 award and continues to be applied in domains such as ubiquitous computing, autism spectrum disorders, robotics, smoking behavior, and medication adherence.

He is part of several NIH national initiatives and efforts, including President Obama’s Precision Medicine Initiative and RADAR, which seek to redefine our healthcare system through provisioning of technology-oriented individualized healthcare.

Formerly, he was a bioinformatics programmer at The University of Arizona, where he studied research problems in perceptual intelligence, ubiquitous computing and the analysis of sensor data.

And as a Research Intern at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, he assisted in the design and implementation of an infrastructure for physical navigation of web resources using cameras and handheld devices.

Fahd earned his Masters and his Bachelor of Science in Computer Science (Magna Cum Laude) from The American University in Cairo; and his PhD in Mobile and Wearable Computing from the University of Arizona.

Dave Nelson - Founder & Director of Business Development

Dave has 10+ years experience in sales and finance. Previously, he was on the Board of Directors of a global health non-profit.

Dave earned his undergraduate degree in Finance from the University of Michigan, and earned his MBA from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)'s Sloan School of Management.

Hari Sundram, MD - Chief Medical Officer

3 successful startup exits.

Practicing physician with expertise in predictive algorithms.

Gail Miller - Care Plan Guru

Former VP of Humana.

30+ years of product development and strategy experience in the healthcare industry.

Co-Investors

National Institutes of Health

An agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the NIH is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research. The NIH both conducts its own scientific research through its Intramural Research Program (IRP) and provides major biomedical research funding to non-NIH research facilities through its Extramural Research Program.

Raising
$100K
Committed
$100K (100%)
Current Valuation
$20 million Cap / % Discount
Min. Investment
$100
Deal Type
Title III
(For all investors)
Offering Type
SAFE
Finance History
  • $500K
    2010-11-01
    Unknown Lead
  • $300K
    2013-04-01
    Unknown Lead
  • $300K
    2015-05-01
    Unknown Lead
  • $3 million
    2013-10-01
    National Institute of Health
  • $1.5 million
    2015-09-01
    National Institute of Health
Notable Investors
  • National Institutes of Health
Learn more on WeFunder