Some health providers call it the “blind spot of health care”: the time between patient primary care visits.
Natalie Davis, a former primary care pediatrician, said she often found that the amount of time between visits with her patients was problematic. Often, she’d tell her patients what to eat and how to exercise, but by the time of their next visit, they were closer to developing a chronic disease than losing weight.
PreventScripts is hoping to bridge the gap of time between provider visits and ultimately delay the development of lifestyle diseases.
Davis is the chief medical officer and co-founder of the Paducah, Kentucky-based startup. It’s a remote monitoring app, where providers can track the patient’s progress. This is meant to be a preventative approach to medicine.
A provider on-boards a patient on the app, taking account of their diet and exercise and other factors. It offers biometric color coding based on guidelines for blood pressure, weight, blood sugar and Body Mass Index (BMI).
The patients’ scores for well-being are based on standards from the American Diabetes Association, American Heart Association, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and American Academy of Family Practice.
While the patients enter metrics, providers can monitor their results and call them if changes are needed.
Both Davis and co-founder and CEO Brandi Harless have a health care background. Harless is a public health professional. It was also cofounded by Jay Campbell, chief technology officer.
The fact that PreventScripts is headed by two individuals with a health care background rather than tech is unique in the space, Harless said. In that way, she said PreventScripts has spun the concept on its head.
“It's really about understanding that technology is just the helper, it's not the answer,” Harless said.
Harless said the company values the independence of primary care providers and wants to help them increase their revenue.
The app is unique because it is equal parts for patients to be aware of their health but also simplifying the experience for providers by automating provider feedback.
The company is in its beginning phase, now serving nine providers. It has been in the works since 2014, but it piloted the product in 2019. The first customer was on boarded last fall.
Harless and Davis are the only employees. CTO Campbell also does some development work and oversees the outside development firms.
PreventScripts generated $285,000 in pre-seed capital — this is from the Commonwealth Seed Fund, Bluegrass Angels and the Kentucky Enterprise Fund among others. It also has three angel investors, each of which are from Western Kentucky.
Davis said PreventScripts is working to get its revenues at a level for a formal seed raise and is seeking a lead investor for it.
“We're very ambitious, and we have some exciting early success, and we have a great team and we are excited to scale behavior change across at risk populations, particularly in our state of Kentucky,” Davis said.
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