As businesses look to balance reopening with the health of employees, a local startup is helping them safely do so with some new health care tech as the pandemic continues to affect lives and the economy.
Plano-based VitalTech, a digital health solutions and biomedical device maker, announced the launch of its Enterprise Solutions kit, which helps businesses remotely monitor employee health to prevent the spread of the coronavirus among its workforce.
“We understand the complex challenges employers are navigating right now as they try to bring employees back to work while ensuring their health and safety,” said James Hamilton, CEO at VitalTech, in a prepared statement. “Employers can have peace of mind knowing their employees will have the tools to monitor their vitals and will be notified if any are showing symptoms of illness.”
The kit provides workers the tools to check their health daily, before showing up to the office. It includes a screening questionnaire, which the startup says will provide businesses with overall population data on pass-fail rates. In addition, it includes a Bluetooth thermometer and pulse oximeter that uploads data to VitalTech’s portal.
VitalTech said the data gathered from employees will be handled by a third-party monitoring team and employers will only have access to pass-fail rates. The third party will notify employers if one of their workers' vitals and self-reporting don’t meet a criteria set by the employer.
In addition to protecting employees, VitalTech said the new product can help businesses financially by potentially lowering insurance premiums and costs associated with sick leave, as well as helping protect a business’ customers and reputation.
VitalTech has been using its technology in other ways to help health care workers and to slow the spread of the virus. In March, through a partnership with Concord Health Partners and the American Hospital Association’s (AHA) Innovation Development Fund, the startup announced it would be providing its telehealth services free to health care providers nationwide.
Launched in 2018, VitalTech landed an $8 million Series A from Concord Health Partners and Stanley Ventures last year. In February, the company acquired London-based Breezie, a personalized internet provider for people unfamiliar with new technology. Financial terms of that deal were not disclosed. VitalTech is also a portfolio company of the AHA’s Innovation Development Fund.
“[This] solution gives employers the needed resources to implement a proactive reopening approach that keeps workers at home at the earliest signs and symptoms of illness and therefore limits the spread of the virus to other employees,” said Glenn Hamilton, VitalTech’s chief medical advisor, in a prepared statement. “One of the most valuable aspects of using this solution is that it establishes a baseline and streamlined trend tracking for employers.”
