Intermountain Healthcare not too long ago partnered with a startup named Story Well being to assist handle sufferers’ coronary heart failure by rising entry to specialty care. Underneath the partnership, Intermountain clinicians are working with Story’s well being coaches to assist sufferers sustain with their therapy plans whereas they’re exterior the partitions of the physician’s workplace.
Based in 2020 and based mostly in Cupertino, Story has raised over $26 million to this point, in keeping with Crunchbase. Like many digital well being startups, the thought to kind the corporate got here from the CEO’s private expertise with the U.S. healthcare system.
Story CEO Tom Stanis’ father suffered a stroke years in the past. Although a lot time has handed for the reason that occasion, it’s nonetheless a battle to handle his restoration.
“This hole between the intensivist and the coordinating major care physicians is a spot the place many people fall behind. Our specialists are overburdened — unable to handle the fixed tweaking and deluge of information being generated from sufferers at residence. Major care is commonly out of the loop, not figuring out or having the arrogance to optimize a fancy ongoing restoration course of. My father fell into this gap,” Stanis mentioned.
Sufferers are presenting to clinicians with rising complexity and incomplete care experiences, he identified. This downside is made worse by the truth that clinicians are quick on time. Constricted by rising administrative duties and shortened appointment lengths, clinicians usually do not need the time they should contextualize a affected person’s full story (therefore the startup’s title) and the way that story can straight influence their consequence, Stanis mentioned.
To deal with this concern, Story’s platform presents two key options.
The primary is its digital well being record-integrated AI. This expertise permits suppliers to simply join disparate knowledge from numerous sources, comparable to EHRs, medical gadgets, distant affected person monitoring databases and lab outcomes.
“By leveraging knowledge, we are able to discover sufferers that want assist after which automate a customized care plan based mostly on medical pointers, which could be additional custom-made by the doctor. This removes the executive necessities for clinicians to seek out these sufferers that aren’t at optimum or aim remedy and makes it simpler to get them again on observe with the care plan,” Stanis declared.
As soon as a customized care plan is established, Story integrates a human contact factor. Via its well being coaches (that are actual folks, not AI bots), Story helps make sure that the care plan is adopted and the therapy aim is achieved.
Stanis mentioned that Story’s well being coaches are a vital a part of the enterprise as a result of they function an extension of the clinician to establish and resolve challenges like treatment optimization, lab draw coordination, transportation preparations and prescription help. These coaches additionally reply to affected person questions through texts and calls.
Story is presently targeted on cardiology and coronary heart failure as a result of only one% of coronary heart failure sufferers obtain the suitable medicines, Stanis identified.
The startup partnered with Intermountain as a result of the startup is searching for to broaden its attain and serve extra sufferers. Stanis declined to touch upon whether or not Story’s providers are coated for Intermountain sufferers or how the companions will measure the success of their collaboration. Nonetheless, Story mentioned that whitepapers detailing this system’s outcomes might be printed later this yr.
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