BOSTON – Healthrageous, a new personalized health technology company, has landed $6 million in financing to bring to market technologies developed at the Boston-based Center for Connected Health, a division of Partners Healthcare.
North Bridge Venture Partners in Boston and San Mateo, Calif, took the lead on the financing, along with investment partners Egan Managed Capital in Boston and Long River Ventures, Amherst, Mass.
The money will be used to commercialize a health technology platform that provides personalized, interactive, motivational self-management tools that help individuals shed unhealthy habits, improve their adherence to medical advice, and embrace healthy lifestyles.
Healthrageous combines wireless biometric sensors, smart phones, individualized coaching, incentive programs and social network support in a real-time, interactive, feedback-rich experience that keeps individuals involved and motivated to achieve their personal health and wellness goals.
Healthrageous technologies were developed and tested at the Center for Connected Health, a division of Partners HealthCare, founded by Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital. The center, which is affiliated with Harvard Medical School, is known internationally for the design and development of mobile health and telemedicine solutions.
Healthrageous' launch builds on more than three years of product development, testing and piloting at major corporations. Beta customers included large employers such as EMC Corp., where the success of the initial pilot led EMC to initiate the integration of remote monitoring with personal health records currently available to U.S based employees and their family members.
"To date, the solutions have enjoyed highly-visible industry attention," said Healthrageous CEO Rick Lee. "Our core platform demonstrates clinical effectiveness and a strong value proposition by improving health outcomes, reducing healthcare costs and creating a measurable return on investment for our customers."
"Our key focus is supporting healthy lifestyles," Lee added. "More than half of all chronic medical conditions develop as a result of unhealthy behaviors. These conditions represent hundreds of billions of dollars in avoidable healthcare costs annually."
Healthrageous' technology platform is designed to interface with most major manufacturers of biometric sensors and telemedicine devices, smart phone operating systems, popular social network media, leading direct-to-consumer outbound telephonic call systems, and emerging Web-based personal health record (PHR) systems.
"It is exciting to find new ways to empower patients to be more involved in measuring, managing and improving their health outcomes and quality of life while, at the same time, better utilizing our healthcare resources," said Joseph Kvedar, MD, founder and director of the Center for Connected Health. "At the center, we are firm believers that, given the right tools and the right information, individuals can be their own best care providers."
Lists of Healthrageous executives and borad members are on the next page.
