- Leading healthcare automation company Bright.md announced it raised $8 million in funding and Karen Page is joining the board
Bright.md, a leading healthcare automation company, announced it closed $8 million in Series C funding co-led by B Capital and Seven Peaks Ventures. This round of funding brings the company’s current capital raised to $20.5 million across all rounds.
This round of funding comes on the heels of the company stepping up the deployment of its flagship SmartExam capacity-boosting care-delivery platform in hospitals and healthcare systems across the United States and Canada.
“Health systems are strained for resources as patients with COVID-19 symptoms and concerns overwhelm their offices and emergency departments. To aid them in this time of critical need – and support important shelter-in-place and social-distancing protocols – we’re aggressively expediting Bright.md’s market expansion,” said Ray Costantini, M.D., co-founder and CEO of Bright.md. “Our investors, including Seven Peaks Ventures and B Capital, continue to emphatically support our purpose of making healthy happen faster by increasing clinical capacity through our technology, and, whenever possible, keeping patients out of critical care settings.”
With this round of funding, Bright.md will be expanding the footprint and function of its AI-powered and virtual-care platform SmartExam. And the funding will be used for expanding to new markets and increasing headcount to bolster those efforts.
Bright.md has added COVID-19 evaluation to SmartExam’s existing modules within a week of the first reported U.S. case in January 2020. And since then, the company has supported care for over 37,000 patients with COVID-19-like symptoms thus identifying more than 1,200 in need of additional evaluation and testing.
And Bright.md’s software helped one healthcare system evaluate, diagnose, and treat over 4,500 patients with COVID-19-like symptoms in only three days, using fewer than 10 FTEs of clinician capacity. As a comparison, they would have only been able to care for 600 in person or via video visits. Over the last month alone, Bright.md’s COVID-19 related care automation has freed more than 750,000 minutes of valuable provider time.
As clinicians fight a front-line battle against a global pandemic and address the fears of an onslaught of “COVID-19 concerned” patients, they still must find ways to treat everyday issues like earaches, pink eye and urinary tract infections.
Bright.md’s SmartExam, works like a virtual physician’s assistant. And the AI-powered platform automates 90% of a primary or urgent care visit, boosting provider efficiency 15x and increasing capacity to treat hundreds of patients in a single provider shift. And healthcare systems use SmartExam to deliver treatment for hundreds of conditions like flu, pediatrics, dermatology, muscular-skeletal, and behavioral health issues.
Bright.md’s platform enables providers to rapidly diagnose and treat patients with low-acuity conditions thus escalating those with more serious conditions to a higher level of care by intelligently and automatically combining patient-intake data, interview information, electronic health records, and clinical-workflow integration.
“While COVID-19 care is critical now, patients continue to face other conditions and need treatment,” explained Dr. Costantini. “Understandably, many people will not want to risk leaving home and being exposed to COVID-19. We want to make SmartExam available to every health system nationwide and around the world, because that means we are freeing their providers to treat the sickest patients without neglecting the rest. With this funding and team, and incredibly supportive investors, we’re even better equipped to do so.”
Bright.md is working with a number of the largest health systems in the country that provide care to tens of millions of patients across more than half of the United States and Canada. And they are building a clearinghouse of insight into the state of low-acuity conditions.
Plus the company tracks seasonal health, demographic and population health trends such as COVID-19 screenings and escalations. By learning from this data, Bright.md can apply best practices for constantly improving workflow, patient care and the patient experience.
Over 90% of patients who have used SmartExam intend to use the platform again. And SmartExam has reduced low-acuity exams from a 20-minute in-person visit — which requires travel and waiting room time — to a 90-second virtual visit that can be conducted from anywhere.
“In this market, great companies will continue to get funded,” explained Dino Vendetti, managing partner at Seven Peaks Ventures. “Three of the top five not-for-profit health systems in the U.S. use SmartExam for patients seeking convenient urgent and primary care online, and there’s plenty of room for growth. We expect these numbers will continue to skyrocket. COVID-19 has turned the spotlight on how effective technology can be in helping providers efficiently deliver high-quality care. This is the future of healthcare delivery, and Bright.md has proven its approach is the most efficient and scalable.”
Bright.md also revealed that B Capital General Partner Karen Page has joined its board of directors. Page is bringing strong leadership and operating expertise to the board with past executive roles at Box and Apple.
“The Bright.md team continues to find new ways to help its health system partners provide highly responsive care,” stated Page. “When coronavirus struck in January, Bright.md responded immediately with a new, free, comprehensive COVID-19 screening tool based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines. The company’s keen, nimble ability to adapt to the needs of health systems has helped them deliver an excellent patient experience and increased provider efficiency. That truly sets Bright.md apart from anything else in the market.”
