Nevin Brittain, founder of Health Numeric, was named Innovator of the Year at Launched last December. A cursory glance at his company, Health Numeric, and it’s easy to see why.
Health Numeric sells remote patient monitoring to home health care providers. Its cloud-based system offers more frequent and consistent monitoring of patients in the home care environment. This monitoring helps to reduce hospital readmission rates by helping care providers be more responsive to patients’ needs and changes in their condition.
Founded:
By Nevin Brittain, 2013 Innovator of the Year
2012
Where the idea came from:
With recent changes in technology, and issues and disconnects in the healthcare system, Nevin thought it was a good time to introduce an easier way for doctors, home care agencies, and families to interact and be a part of a patient’s care. Legislation mandated by the Affordable Care Act, which prioritizes patient outcomes versus services provided, also helps. His product helps home care agencies and hospitals comply with the law.
His degree in computer engineering and his work at one the largest computer networking companies in the world, gives him the knowledge and expertise to take this kind of technology and change the way we look at home health care.
Problem being solved:
The Affordable Care Act prioritizes reimbursements that demonstrate solving patient problems over merely providing services. Hospitals use many metrics, including readmission rates, to evaluate compliance and progress. Health Numeric tackles readmission rates directly by providing caregivers real-time access to a patient’s status.
At the moment, there exists a gap in after-hospital care. Generally, the primary solutions for after-hospital care are frequent doctor’s visits or round the clock care at home, or sometimes a combination of both. This can be time consuming and expensive. With remote patient monitoring, patients and their families can feel secure knowing their health is being monitored and doctors intervene only when needed.
Target Customer:
Home healthcare agencies (e.g., Visiting Nurses)
Biggest Challenge:
Nevin’s biggest challenge so far has been education. He’s had to educate agencies on the new technology available, the cost effectiveness of it, and how it benefits the patients.
He has been doing this through different marketing materials such as white papers, social media, his website, videos and more.
Surprises:
Nevin has been surprised to find how reluctant some agencies have been to adapt to new technologies.
Funding:
Bootstrapped.
The Future:
Nevin already has several customers but over the next few years, he would like to expand the reach of the company. Within five years, he’d like to have a strong presence in the Midwest and out East.
Advice:
Nevin’s advice to future startups would be; “Remember that no matter what your business, you are a marketing company first and foremost. You have to know your market and how you will reach them.” No matter how great your product is, it won’t matter if no one has heard of it.
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