MDMetrix CEO Warren Ratliff. (MDMetrix Photo)

Vulcan Capital and other Seattle-area firms invested in a $1.1 million round for MDMetrix, a Seattle startup that helps hospitals manage clinical performance.

MDMetrix is seeing increased demand for its free COVID-19 Mission Control software, which surfaces and crunches hospital operational data to determine how to improve patient treatment. MDMetrix CEO Warren Ratliff said the startup is also helping hospitals and surgery centers as they begin to re-open their operating rooms.

“For example, we recently helped several hospitals identify more than 100,000 minutes each in operating capacity that they could generate without adding additional staffing,” Ratliff said. “Given the daunting patient backlogs and financial shortfalls facing hospitals and surgery centers due to COVID-19, expanding capacity in this way can provide significant benefits for our customers.”

MDMetrix has also been publishing COVID-19 projections. The company says it’s using artificial intelligence combined with control charts to distinguish genuine trends from less-than-significant changes in data sets that vary widely from day-to-day.

MDmetrix’s COVID-19 Mission Control software. (MDmetrix Image)

Founded in 2016, MDMetrix is part of a wave of startups using big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence to drive healthcare decisions. The company originally spun out of Seattle Children’s hospital after Dr. Dan Low, an anesthesiologist at Seattle Children’s, was surprised by the challenges he encountered when trying compare the efficacy of two different drugs in patients, as chronicled in this episode of the GeekWire Health Tech Podcast.

MDMetrix and other health-tech startups are seeing more usage and attracting investor interest amid the coronavirus crisis. Pacific Northwest-based telehealth startups 98point6 and Bright.md both raised investment over the past two months. Others including Vera Whole Health and Medcurity also reeled in more cash.

Digital health stocks of publicly-traded companies are also spiking, CNBC reported.

Existing investors Founders’ Co-op, Arnold Group, and WRF Capital participated in the funding round, in addition to Vulcan. MDMetrix has raised more than $5 million to date and employs around 20 people.

Ratliff was previously co-founder and COO of Caradigm, a healthcare joint venture between GE Healthcare and Microsoft.

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