Patzer’s Entrepreneurial Experience Brings Innovative Solutions to Healthcare Industry
After such great success with the founding and then sale of Mint.com, and his next startup Fountain sold to Porch in 2015, one may wonder what entrepreneur Aaron Patzer would do next? Would he remain on the sidelines or again re-enter the challenging entrepreneurial arena?
Patzer answered that question in 2019, upon the co-founding of Vital with Dr. Justin Schrager, an Emergency Medicine Physician. Just four years later, Vital is a leading artificial intelligence (AI)-driven digital healthcare company serving over 100 hospitals and 31 health systems nationwide.
Vital is dedicated to improving the patient experience through its software-based services, ERAdvisor for a hospital’s emergency department and CareAdvisor for inpatient care settings. Patients use their mobile phone to have timely communication with their care providers. This keeps patients in-network which bolsters the revenues of hospitals and health systems.
Patzer, having two successful startups, had the attention of investors who value an entrepreneur’s successful track record. Todd Cozzens, Managing Partner at Transformation Capital that led the $24.7 million Series B round, expresses that view.
“With consumer-grade software and AI led by Mint.com founder Aaron Patzer, Vital has proven its ability to break down information silos, connect and engage with patients to deliver a superior experience, and reduce clinician burden across the ED and inpatient settings,” said Cozzens.
Seasoned investors like Cozzens focus on a number of factors in coming to their decision to fund a startup. They look for factors that increase a startup’s chances of success. In addition to having a seasoned founder, investors give weight to a startup that is part of a new technology wave or model. Vital is part of the global digital transformation now underway that is bringing efficiencies to operations in new ways.
Investors also want to fund a venture that answers a major pain point—which Vital proved within its first few years, generating efficiencies and adding revenues to hospitals and health systems greatly under pressure. The healthcare startup projects it will impact over one million patient lives and support 100,000 clinical tasks in 2023. That is a level of performance that gains investor support for a follow-on growth round.
“With this funding, we will advance the impact of our technology for patients, families and clinicians,” said Patzer. “Our beautiful and intelligent software keeps patients engaged and informed, while automating tasks for staff who manage emergency department visits and inpatient stays.”
With the additional participation of Threshold Ventures, other strategic health system investors and co-founder Patzer in the round, Vital’s total funding surpasses $40 million. The funding will fuel expansion that builds on last year’s 40 new hospital clients, including facilities. More seasoned industry veterans in technology will be hired and more new features launched that will enhance clinical decision support, care coordination and patient experience.
“The Vital team continues to rapidly innovate for its health system partners…and we expect monumental growth in 2023 and beyond. Vital has revolutionized the patient journey much like Mint.com did for personal financial management,” added Cozzens.
AI and natural language processing (NLP) is behind the enhanced patient care experience that Vital provides. Patients view personalized content, automated communication and real-time feedback. These solutions are a “key differentiator” in the market that runs hand and hand with Vital’s ability to innovate quickly—that Patzer sees as a win for both patients and hospitals.
On his blog in 2019 Patzer notes the similarity between Vital and Mint.com, stating about the latter, “We gave people the data they needed to make money decisions that day, not later in a quarterly or monthly report”.
He goes onto share that hospital staffs value timely information as well, and that is what Vital is innovatively creating using AI. In his blog he gives the following example of how AI can have a big impact, “A far better solution would simply be to help nurses make more informed decisions at the time a decision needs to be made. And the only way to realistically do this is through software that uses modern AI.”
Patzer’s assessment of hospitals’ and hospital systems’ needs, resulted in the very quick creation of a number of machine learning algorithms for its platform. The identified data identified was in the areas of patient admit or discharge, fractional emergency severity index (ESI), 30-day readmit, and expected labs, imaging, procedures, medications. As a cloud-based software, the Vital platform sits on top of any existing electronic health record system, greatly easing the scaling of Vital as it meets more needs.
The closing of the Series B marks the beginning of an important next stage for Vital. Patzer and his team now have the critical funds to scale their healthcare startup’s operations, furthering Vital’s swift penetration of the market.
