Bright.md is raising cash to help you visit the doctor virtually.
The Portland-based startup today announced a $3.5 million Series A funding round that will help the company continue building out its healthcare platform. Oregon Angel Fund led the round, which included participation from Seven Peaks Ventures and the Stanford-StarX Fund.
When a patient is sick, he or she can use Bright.md’s software on a computer or mobile device to answer clinical survey questions, select a pharmacy, and enter insurance information. A physician then receives an alert and can suggest treatment based on the patient’s answers.
Bright.md says the diagnosis, treatment, and documentation of a patient’s visit with its software takes less than two minutes, compared to a 20-minute average for in-office visits, while saving healthcare providers money and maintaining high quality of service at the same time.
“For the first time in health care history, there’s an alignment of payers, providers and patients, all looking for a platform like Bright.md,” Eric Rosenfeld, founder of Oregon Angel Fund, said in a statement. “Just a few years ago, a service like Bright.md would not have made sense – the technology and the market conditions simply did not exist. Today, thanks to the company’s innovative leadership, they are able to drive real change in the healthcare industry.”
Bright.md co-founder and CEO Ray Costantini, who we ran into at the Oregon Technology Awards event in May, said that his company thinks of itself as a healthcare automation company.
“Our focus is on ensuring that providers are able to deliver high quality, evidence-based care to their own patients, as efficiently as possible,” he said. “We’re able to help providers evaluate patients more thoroughly, and deliver care much more quickly. That means patients get better care, faster and less expensively — all from the providers that they already know and trust, rather than from a stranger in a call center.”
Costantini noted that Bright.md sells a different solution than competitors who offer virtual doctor visits through video conferencing. He said most patients aren’t regular users of video conferencing and would prefer not to be on camera while sick.
“Delivery systems are realizing that there just isn’t any transformational value in those kinds of tools,” Costantini said. “They don’t improve efficiency, and deliver, at best, incremental value. We provide a better way to get the information that a doctor needs to diagnose and treat.”
Bright.md employs 15 and has raised $4.5 million to date.
