Though most users don’t see it, there is a tribute built into Spesana’s digital platform, which reminds its staffers of their work’s importance. It reads, “Built with love, for those we’ve lost,” then lists the family members and friends of employees whose lives have been taken by cancer.
“We’re just so tired of adding names to that list,” said Carla Balch, Spesana’s CEO.
Balch and co., however, are not tired of running the Memphis-based startup. Rather, they seem to be full of energy and are barreling forward in their quest to make life better for not just cancer patients, but those who treat them.
'The special sauce'
Spesana provides an aggregated medical record to ensure cancer patients gets the best, most efficient care possible based on their overall needs. Its platform melds molecular diagnostic reports with electronic health records (EHRs), prior authorization, payer processes, approved drugs and pathways, clinical trials, clinical literature, and scheduling.
Because it puts a cancer patient’s records and information from multiple clinical offices under one platform, the administrative workload for physicians and hospitals can be lightened significantly. And as Balch is quick to emphasize, the technology isn’t just for oncologists since “a cancer patient is never just a cancer patient.”
“The users we have are all kinds of physicians — primary care, pulmonology, oncology,” Balch said. “That’s part of the special sauce. All kinds of clinicians can collaborate on the care of a patient. They don’t have to be just one 'ology.'”
Since its inception in 2020, the startup has swiftly gained momentum by growing its clientele base — it’s currently at 58 clinical sites — scoring key partnerships, and expanding its offerings.
'Good for physicians and good for patients'
For example, in December 2021, it partnered with Colorado-based Biodesix Inc., a move that provided its clients with a streamlined, efficient way to order molecular diagnostic tests for their patients. In other circumstances, these tests are difficult for physicians to access, and many patients aren’t tested. But they’re important, because they look for genomic and molecular alterations and can make cancer patients eligible for targeted therapy — which is often more effective than standard, general cancer treatments.
Though the partnership with Biodesix is focused on lung cancer, Spesana has broadened its molecular diagnostic test offering through a partnership with Florida-based Protean BioDiagnostics — a collaboration that gives its clients access to molecular diagnostic tests for all types of cancer.
And significant benefits could come from using Protean’s tests.
“The really cool thing about Protean is that they can get a lot of testing done with very little blood or tissue,” Balch said. “Sometimes there's just a tiny amount of tissue, and that's good for one test. Protean is an expert at being able to do lots of testing on very little sample, which is good for physicians and good for patients.”
Spesana is also set to make molecular diagnostic tests available for two additional medical specialties soon — one will be cardiology — and eventually, it wants clients to have access to the tests across all specialties.
Clean and out the door
This isn’t the only area of focus for the startup right now, either.
Prior authorization is the management process used by insurance companies to determine whether a prescribed product or service will be covered, and it can frustrate doctors.
In 2019, the American Medical Association (AMA) surveyed 1,000 practicing physicians about impacts of prior authorization on patient care. More than 90% said it had a significant or somewhat negative clinical impact, and 86% said the administrative burden associated with it was “high or extremely high.”
Spesana, however, offers a program called Authorize — which looks to make the process smoother while helping to deal with insurance eligibility and patient financial responsibility.
“We can tell what is required for which kinds of services and submit it electronically and [that] … allows each user to know everything is done,” Balch said. “It's clean, and it's out the door.”
Authorize has gained a significant amount of attention, and two states have selected it as a program their health care providers — across all medical specialties — will use for prior authorization.
“Some states are having to move to electronic prior authorization,” she said. “So, since Spesana has something beautiful and automated, we are at the forefront."
Though Balch couldn’t reveal what the states were, she said that physicians will be added to the platform in waves, and that over time, the partnerships are set to add “hundreds and hundreds” of clinical sites as clients.
Scaling up
This, in part, is why Spesana is looking to raise more money.
Currently, it has $5.7 million in seed funding, and it’s looking to raise another $10 million — a portion of which is expected to be used to expand the company's team. Right now, Spesana has about 20 employees. But by the end of this year, Balch hopes to hire an additional 50.
Though Spesana employees primarily work remotely, she’d love for some of those staffers to be based in Memphis. And the positions will have a variety of focuses, from engineering and product sales to marketing. Balch considers herself frugal, in the sense that she doesn’t hire people until she absolutely has to have them. But Spesana is growing — and she knows a bigger team is necessary.
“In order for me to scale my team of engineers and sales and support and trainers,” she said, “I need to hire quickly."
