AI meets care transitions: how a startup seeks to reduce readmissions and costs

The displacement of patients from one care environment to another is one of the most risky and fragmented moments of Healthcare. Each transition implies several transfers between different suppliers and systems – each of them introducing opportunities so that information is lost, delayed or misinterpreted.

This week, a Boston -based startup aimed at solving this problem has collected millions of dollars in seed capital.

Cascala Health closed a round of seed financing of $ 8.6 million, bringing its total fundraising to $ 11.23 million. The tour was co-directed by Flare Capital Partners and Eniac Ventures, with the participation of Digital Health Venture Partners, Omega Healthcare Investors, Tau Ventures and Ziegler Link-Age Fund.

The startup, which was founded about a year ago, uses AI to improve care transitions by allowing an easy information and communication of staff. Its platform signals the risks in real time and helps the care teams to act before turning into emergencies.

By identifying the risks early, the platform can help reduce unnecessary hospital readmissions, noted CEO of Cascala, Matt Murphy. He also pointed out that personalized interventions can lead to better recovery and satisfaction rates.

“Patients, caregivers, service providers and risky organizations are kept informed of the state, risks and requirements of the patient, ensuring that everyone is aligned in the provision of optimal care,” said Murphy.

Cascala technology brings together patient data from different sources, such as hospital files, laboratory results and clinician care notes, and instantly transforms them into an easy-to-read summary, he explained.

He added that the platform provides explanatable and verifiable results so that clinicians can trust the recommendations. He also emphasizes collaboration with doctors and aims to keep them in control by supporting the care plan they deem appropriate.

Overall, the startup aims to correct critical points of pain in care transitions on behalf of responsible care organizations, risk providers and health plans, noted Murphy.

He stressed that the realization of this will reduce the total cost of care for risky organizations. The prevention of readmissions and complications avoids hospital stays and expensive emergency care, which are the largest expenditure engines during care transitions.

In Murphy’s eyes, some of the main competitors in Cascala include companies like Wellsky and Optum, which offer post-Aiguë coordination tools, as well as companies like Innovaccer and Health Catalyst, which provide larger population health data platforms. He thinks that Cascala differs from competition because it was built from the group for care transitions rather than in large data management.

“He uses clinically responsible reasoning and focused on AI to generate usable and compatible ideas – not just dashboards,” said Murphy.

He also mentioned that there are also native DSE tools which facilitate the transitions of better care, but these are limited to their own ecosystems.

Cascala currently serves more than 1,000 treble and post-sued, which take care of more than 300,000 patients.

Photo: Alvaro Gonzalez, Getty Images