The First Coast is chock full of companies and nonprofits developing new products, growing their teams and supporting their communities.
To provide a window into that growth, we’ve singled out six outstanding innovators to honor with the 2023 Fire Awards, presented by First Coast Inno and the Jacksonville Business Journal. The honorees include startups and more established firms, and vary in industry and geography across the First Coast. Read more about each of the Inno on Fire Class of 2023 Honorees below:
Company Name: Telescope Health
Industry: Health care
COO and Co-founder: Matthew Thompson, MD
Year Founded: 2018
Brief description of what the company does: Telescope Health is a physician-led telehealth company that specializes in on-demand and value-based care solutions. We provide consulting, analytics, care coordination, and 24/7 virtual care for patients, ACOs, health systems, insurance providers and employers.
2022 Funding: $200,000 Grant
As you reflect on 2022's successes and growth, what was the prime contributing factor?
Our team — hands down. Our company has evolved rapidly because of the expertise of our leadership team. The solutions we are providing to health systems and organizations require a deep understanding of how health care delivery and payment will change over the next decade. We spend a lot of time dissecting the problems with health care and creating unique solutions. Everyone is passionate about helping others and thinking outside the box. We have a lot of fun!
Now that VC funding and investments have begun to slow, what is your strategy for seeking outside capital?
We have been fortunate to grow from our own successes thus far but are setting our sights on national opportunities at a large scale. Our strategy will include partners who expand our ecosystem and patient volume, not just provide capital. Since the beginning of the pandemic, there has been an overabundance of health care and tech startups with flashy concepts or branding. This has been appealing to investors who may not understand just how difficult it is to impact a broken health care system. Our focus has been on using our expertise and patient care data to show that our company actually yields results. At the end of the day, I’m still a physician and improving patient care is everything.
Taking a step back to the company’s founding, are you where you expected to be by now?
Who could’ve anticipated the pandemic! Our services and expertise are far beyond my 2018 expectations. As an emergency physician, I knew that virtual care could fill gaps that often resulted in unnecessary ER visits. I had no idea how legislation, the pandemic, and the economy would impact health care delivery. We were not equipped in 2019 to approach health care organizations with complex data analytics, tech, and workflows to tackle these changes at scale. The pandemic allowed us to invest back into our company by bringing on talented experts and building out these amazing solutions.
Where does the company go from here? What is next for your company in the short to near-term?
2023 is our year to prepare for national growth and also build on our existing relationships here in Jacksonville. My vision locally is for Telescope Health to become the virtual safety net clinic of Jacksonville. Virtual care can bridge gaps for uninsured patients and Jacksonville has over 100,000 uninsured residents. We will be partnering with local nonprofit organizations to connect our physicians with patients below the poverty line and are looking for ways to expand this. We are also expanding our nursing facility, insurance provider, and health system client base this year across the country.
What is your outlook for your industry and the role you play in it going into the new year?
Health care is transitioning to a value-based care model that reimburses when healthy outcomes and quality care are achieved. Health systems and organizations are seeking ways to provide more patients with preventative care. We want to be the source of leadership and innovation in this space. Most people want to be healthy. Unfortunately, primary care providers have exceeded their capacity to treat everyone in need. Employers, health systems, and insurers will all be focused on ways at reaching people who have tried to see a doctor but were told the wait was three to six months. We can see the patients that others don’t have capacity for and connect them back into a long-term care plan.
