Serafina: Hi, I’m Serafina and this is the HealthMakers Show. I’m here with my guest, Kim Bond Evans, Founder of Seremedi. Kim, welcome to the show.

Kim: Thank you, Serafina. Glad to be here.

Serafina: Glad to have you. So, tell me about Seremedi.

Kim: We started, it was interesting how we got started. So, for years, I delivered highly scalable, secure applications to monitor data center networks and application systems. During my mother’s illness, I had an ah-ha moment when I was extremely frustrated after getting a firehose of information that I had to process, and that eureka was: like networks and application systems, human systems share something in common. There’s only three states that they’re in; they’re either stable, they’re getting worse or getting better. Armed with that, that was really kind of the inspiration for starting this company and addressing a healthcare need that was unmet.

Serafina: So, what exactly is the application? Where in the healthcare delivery system is it deployed?

Kim: We are a connected, virtual care platform, and we help healthcare providers address acute care, chronic care, and now moving into smart aging.

Serafina: Interesting. So, who are the beneficiaries of this kind of a system?

Kim: Today, unfortunately, and this is changing rapidly, thank goodness, but many healthcare institutions execute a Blockbuster video in a Netflix world. While that’s fine for trauma care, it really is no longer appropriate for most healthcare services. We don’t really need to go in like people did to check out a video or check in a video onsite anymore. A lot of these services can be delivered outside the hospital, so we are working with hospital systems like UT Health, Oklahoma Medical Center, University of Michigan, and a host of others who are really wanting to move into a more virtualized care model by providing their patients the tools that they need to prepare for procedures and recover at home with confidence. That really, ultimately, is providing better outcomes. It’s minimizing risk and cost.

Serafina: So, you’re really speaking to that paradigm, that shift from care in emergency centers to more at home care.

Kim: At home care when it’s needed. As I said, other than trauma care, as people are preparing for procedures, there’s just a shift in thinking about how do we make sure that patients show up ready to have a surgery. The ones that we’re working with that are really out there on the leading edge are treating patients, in a way, they’re helping patients prepare for surgery almost as if they’re preparing for a race, a marathon. So, there’s a lot of what we call prehabilitation, and there’s information sharing and communication with the patient and the clinical team to make sure they’re executing their plan as they prepare for surgery, making sure that they show up ready to go, minimizing any chance of complications.

Kim: On the other side, we are working with some institutions like UT Health that are, and Memorial Children’s, that are wanting to get babies home quicker, transitioning them from NICU and making sure the parents are prepared to deliver the very complex care at home. Everyone is happy about that outcome because children’s hospitals generally have a waitlist, so you’re optimizing the patient workflow and discharging patients and families, but they still feel connected and cared for and ready to deliver this care at home. Really, we’re seeing quite astonishing outcomes with this being comfortable in that setting, patients are healing, they’re more adherent to their plan and it’s working in the way it should.

Serafina: Great, so we’re talking about outcomes and the personal health, but also massive cost savings. Is that something that helps you make the sell to larger organizations?

Kim: Absolutely. So, the cost savings are realized because patients now are calling in less, freeing staff to deal with more critical care situations. Doctors are now able to triage and place at home rather than patients coming into the ER, and unnecessary visits are averted. You also have patients who are, again, really increasing their adherence because they have their information at their fingertips, on their smartphone, they can see it on demand. They know how to do their oxygen tests, they know how to check a wound or take a picture to fire it up to their clinical team to see if there’s the beginnings of a surgical site infection, and if that’s the case, early intervention takes place, and again, appropriate treatment is provided, risk is lowered and cost is lowered as well.

Serafina: It’s a win-win, and you’re empowering patients to be a part of their healthcare and giving them the knowledge they need to contribute.

Kim: That’s true. The traditional methods were so-so. Here’s your documentation and good luck. But now, our platform is changing the dynamic of that patient journey where they get consumable information and consumer language, not medical speak, so they can consume it in the way they want it, when they need it. They get education that’s tailored to them. They know exactly what they need to send to the doctor because the doctor has worked with us to say, “This is what I want my patients to be doing when they’re not in hospital or in clinic. This is the information that I want them to report back.” So, this information is reported back instantly, it’s non-intrusive, and it’s a very dynamic, very interactive, engaging approach. Also, letting family members, because in the past we just have patient portals, and there’s really nothing there for the caregiver. Now, you’re really widening that ecosystem of care where the family is engaged, and they can hand off care and help the patient with their care. It really is a game changer in how we are healing at home and preparing for procedures.

Serafina: Right, how we’re thinking about healthcare.

Kim: Exactly, how we’re thinking about healthcare. Its been slow going. It’s been slow, slow, but now we’re saying, “Go!” We are really seeing a readiness in the community. And just like it was in the enterprise space, I’m a Microsoft alumnus and a BMC Software alumnus here, there’s innovation but then the community has to be ready to consume innovation. So, now we’re seeing a confluence of the readiness, the availability of the technology, and the acceptance that consumers are certainly ready to do something different and now the healthcare institutions are leveraging that and embracing that. So, we’re really now seeing a shift in thinking and delivery of care.

Serafina: Where is Seremedi today, as far as capital raised, customers?

Kim: As I mentioned, we’re working with Oklahoma Healthcare Medical Center, UT Health, University of Michigan, and we have just a huge pipeline of hospitals. Up until recently, we sold directly to hospitals, but we’ve now pivoted to a more blended sales strategy where we’re selling to hospitals and we are also enlisting partnerships of companies that have ready channels. That is working out really well because they already have relationships with these organizations, and we are just another product in their portfolio of products and services. So, we have the three partners that we are working with today; the customers that we’re working with today; we have signed on a partner out of Dallas, MedWell Solutions, they are focused on spine surgeries; we have some other partnerships that are very high profile, big brand companies that are in the works that I can’t mention yet but stay tuned on that.

Kim: We’ve raised three million, to date, on seed funding. We are now in our, raising out Series A for four million. And with the flow of healthcare into the homes we feel like we’re well positioned for success. We have great partners; we’re a JLABS company here in town, JLABS @TMC; we are a Microsoft partner; we are also a Cedars-Sinai and Techstars partner. We just feel like with our ecosystem of partners, with our strong pipeline, our strong pipeline of partners to come, and it’s the right time. We feel like we’re in the right place and well positioned for success.

Serafina: It’s the perfect storm. So, I would be remiss not to ask, it sounds like you have one of the best opportunities to capture really meaningful data as far as behavior change goes and even just demographic data. What do you intend to do with that?

Kim: So, the good news is, you know, our main business is really caring at home for the acute care, chronic care, and now smart aging. That’s our main line of business, but through the course of that we recognized that we are collecting some very valuable data. We know a lot about the consumers; we know their gender, we know their age, we know what medications they’re on, we know their condition, we know what region they live in. So, we really are aggregating that data and intend to commercialize that incredible asset because it informs treatment by those very categories. It informs the treatment effectiveness by age, gender, region, conditions.

Serafina: Socio-economic status.

Kim: Yes, exactly.

Serafina: Interesting. Well, we look forward to hearing all about it and good luck on your Series A. Kim, thank you so much for joining us today.

Kim: Thank you for having me.

Serafina: Of course. And this is the HealthMakers Show.