Avado has reeled in $1 million in seed funding, money that the company will use to continue to eradicate paper-based inefficiencies in the healthcare industry and make it easier for patients to connect with health care providers. Founded by former Microsoftie Dave Chase, Avado plans to announce the funding today at the HIMSS conference in New Orleans where the new book Engage! Transforming Healthcare Through Digital Patient Engagement will be launched.
There’s certainly a lot of upheaval going on in the healthcare business right now, and Chase says he wants to be at the forefront of it. In fact, just last week GeekWire’s Todd Bishop took an inside look at Caradigm, the new healthcare joint venture between Microsoft and GE.
With big companies like Microsoft and GE positioning in the market, Chase admits that it can be a tough nut for startups to crack.
“For a long time, I described healthcare as the place where tech startups go to die as arcane old technology and decision processes rule the day,” said Chase. “Fortunately, that is changing slowly but surely.”
Federal dollars also are coming into the market, helping to spark the transformation by making it easier for patients to engage with their healthcare providers. Chase recently wrote in an guest post on TechCrunch that recent rulings — most importantly one from the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) for Health Information Technology —could help lead to “healthcare’s trillion-dollar disruption.”
“It enables a Mint-like opportunity in healthcare that has been stubbornly silo’ed. The government is trying to fix that,” he said.
According to Chase, healthcare has historically operated in what he describes as the “Wang era” of computing where one company provides the technology stack from top to bottom. A similar analogy are the app stores that Verizon and AT&T tried to operate prior to the rise of Apple’s app store.
“The ruling opens up a iOS/Android app store sort of opportunity,” he says.
Avado, which is based in Seattle and New York, has already built its patient engagement platform and has recently signed up customers in New York. The startup also recently participated in the New York Digital Health Accelerator. The new funds will be used to grow the company’s staff in New York and Seattle.
“We’re thrilled to be adding to our team in New York as it’s becoming an epicenter for healthcare’s reinvention. We’re looking forward to Seattle and other locales following New York’s lead,” said Chase.
In addition to the $300,000 from the New York Digital Health Accelerator, Avado raised money via AngelList, including cash from healthcare angels such as Andy Palmer and Dr. Daniel Schwartz.
