FeelBetter is a company focused on polypharmacy patient management. It has developed an AI-based platform that identifies patients who are at high risk of near-term hospitalization related to polypharmacy issues, recommends changes to medication regimens and other needed clinical interventions, and comprehensively monitors progress at the individual and population health levels.
Pulse 2.0 interviewed FeelBetter CEO and co-founder Liat Primor about the company and its technology.
Liat Primor’s Background
Prior to founding FeelBetter, I held positions as VP of Global Portfolio and Chief of Staff at Teva Pharmaceuticals. I had the privilege to work at Teva in Israel, Europe, and the US, to learn about different healthcare systems, and help bring affordable, generic medications to market.”
Formation Of FeelBetter
How did the idea for the company come together? Primor shared:
“Throughout my tenure at Teva, I observed the complexities patients face with medication management, particularly those with multiple conditions. Eventually, I would go on to experience challenges within the healthcare system firsthand as a mother and caregiver while navigating our family health issues. My personal journey reinforced my commitment to creating solutions that ensure better patient outcomes and simplified healthcare management.”
Favorite Memory
What has been your favorite memory working for the company so far? Primor reflected:
“Whenever we hear a clinical pharmacist share a story about how FeelBetter’s platform saved a patient’s life, it reminds us of the reason we come to work every day.”
Core Products
What are the company’s core products and features? Primor explained: “FeelBetter has defined a new category of technology called Pharmaco-Clinical Intelligence, which leverages AI to combine novel pharmacology and clinical capabilities. Our platform features four core tools:
— Insight pinpoints patients at the highest risk of polypharmacy-related deterioration
— Navigator manages workflows associated with selected patients.
— Action arms clinical pharmacists with an AI-powered, decision-support tool, which recommends needed, timely medication regimen changes.
— Impact monitors patients following clinical interventions at the individual, population, and operational levels.
Challenges Faced
What challenges have you and the team faced in building the company? Primor acknowledged:
“The company was established in 2018. Like many other companies, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted our lives and the health systems we serve. We also faced challenges associated with the economic crisis, which affected health-tech startups globally. Fortunately, we overcame and learned a lot from these challenging times, and as a management team, we are now better equipped to mitigate risks.”
Evolution Of FeelBetter’s Technology
How has the company’s technology evolved since launching? Primor noted:
“A lot! When we started FeelBetter, we focused on the individual patient, assuming that the “system” knew how to allocate resources. As we learned more about the space, we discovered that with the shift to value-based care, population health management needed new solutions. We transitioned to creating an end-to-end platform on both the population and individual health levels. Additionally,, we development new AI algorithms for this field, advancing from ML to AI.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of the company’s most significant milestones? Primor cited:
“There have been quite a few significant milestones on our journey. A few that really stand out include reaching more than 300K patients daily through our platform, publishing the incredible outcomes from a study conducted by Brigham & Women’s Hospital (see a few highlights below), establishing a partnership with Atlantic Health, and expanding our partnership with Israeli-based HMO Leumit.”
Customer Success Stories
After asking Primor about the company’s customer success stories, she highlighted:
Real-world evidence from Leumit, a leading HMO in Israel, which shows that FeelBetter: Reduces hospitalizations: Leumit reported 53% fewer hospital admissions for the patients at the highest risk, in the top 1% of those risk-stratified, and 35% fewer hospital admissions for high-risk patients in the top 2-5% of those risk-stratified, as well as 46% less days spent in hospitals in the FeelBetter intervention population.
— Improves patient outcomes: Leumit reported a64% decrease in CVD patients’ LDL cholesterol levels and 57% decrease in their HbA1c levels
— Increases Capacity: Leumit reported a 5x increase in clinical pharmacist capacity.
A retrospective study on 108,000 patients at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a leading US health system, which demonstrated that FeelBetter effectively:
— Predicts Hospitalizations10x better than current methods used to risk stratify patients likely to be hospitalized within 30-90 days
— Recommends Medication Changes, with 97% of recommendations supporting clinical decision making
— Reduces Costs, generating $2,500 in potential savings per high-risk patient and $4.6M in quarterly savings for the top 5% of high-risk patients
Funding/Revenue
When asking Primor about the company’s funding/revenue details, she revealed:
“The company has raised $11.5 million in funding from grants and investors, led by Triventures with participation from Firstime Ventures, Shoni Health Ventures, Random Forest VC, The Group Ventures, Good Company, and Amazing Angels.
FeelBetter is now seeking series A funding.”
Total Addressable Market
What total addressable market (TAM) size is the company pursuing? Primor assessed that it was valued at $11.5 billion.
Differentiation From the Competition
What differentiates the company from its competition? Primor affirmed:
“We offer an end-to-end solution for the suboptimal medication management problem, from risk-strategizing patients to preventing adverse events so patients can safely stay in their communities.
“FeelBetter Combines both pharmacy and clinical data with AI capabilities and deep clinical expertise to provide a new category of technology called Pharmaco-Clinical Intelligence. We developed it using 20+ years of pharmacy and clinical data, building breakthrough risk stratification algorithms that enable polypharmacy patient management both at the population and individual levels.”
“Our solution goes beyond a single point in time or disease, encompassing both historical and real-time data to evaluate the whole patient and comprehensively convey an individual’s health journey.”
All of our competitors only leverage claims data, while FeelBetter uses both claims and EMR data and easily integrates into an organization’s workflow.”
Future Company Goals
What are some of the company’s future company goals? Primor concluded:
“Our mission is to power a new era of precision population health in which providers, payers, and pharmacies leverage clinical and pharmacy data to proactively apply a whole-patient, value-based approach to care.”
“ To fulfill our mission, we’re expanding our global footprint and planning to partner with more and more U.S.-based health systems.”
