Wellframe, the 'GPS for Patients' Chronic Care Management Platform, Secures $15 Million Series B Funding

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat)It is reported that Wellframe, a leading provider of mobile care management solutions, secured $15 million in Series B financing on July 12, led by F-Prime Capital Partners. Previous investor Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) also participated in this round. (VCBeat has previously published a detailed report on the company; see “30 Most Notable Healthcare Startups to Watch in 2015: Wellframe, a Doctor-Patient Communication Platform Focused on Chronic Disease Management》）

Wellframe secured $8.5 million in its Series A financing round, led by DFJ. Following this round, Wellframe’s total funding reached $25 million, and Carl Byers, Executive Partner at F-Prime Capital, will join the company’s Board of Directors.

Recently, Jacob Sattelmair, CEO of Wellframe, stated in a press release: “With this round of financing, we are well-positioned to meet growing market demand while further expanding the scope of solutions we offer as a partner. The learning and success achieved with our partners have enabled us to transform care management through a broader and bolder vision, setting new standards for how healthcare organizations can support patients beyond clinical settings.”

Wellframe, an artificial intelligence company focused on the healthcare sector and founded in Boston in 2011, is dedicated to helping patients develop rehabilitation plans through medical data, predictive algorithms, and mobile applications, enabling them to recover their health as early as possible.

The company’s platform comprises a physician-facing web portal and a patient-oriented mobile application. Its offerings include HIPAA-compliant information and care plans, designed to maintain patient engagement through direct communication channels while facilitating bidirectional messaging and care plan delivery between physicians and patients.

Within Wellframe’s mobile platform for chronic disease management, the system provides patients with a navigation interface that offers specialized professional guidance and develops rehabilitation plans to help them manage their conditions. The in-app to-do list is displayed directly to patients, establishing a direct and effective bridge between patients and caregivers.

By leveraging Wellframe’s algorithms, the platform can predict when patients will require care; consequently, it is strengthening its collaborations with hospitals. Jacob Sattelmair, CEO of Wellframe, describes this as a “GPS navigation system for patients.”

For instance, a patient with heart disease who installs the Wellframe app must obtain an activation code from their clinician to register. Each day, Wellframe sends a personalized to-do list and reminders based on national cardiac rehabilitation guidelines. Furthermore, their physician can continue to monitor the patient’s condition remotely via the platform, even from home.

All patient interaction data and care plan completion metrics will be collected and analyzed in real time, then displayed on the physician’s operational dashboard. This robust predictive algorithm facilitates intelligent early warnings, enabling physicians to identify which patients require specific types of assistance.

Wellframe was co-founded by Jacob Sattelmair and Trishan Panch. Jacob Sattelmair currently serves as CEO. He earned his master’s degree from the University of Oxford and his Ph.D. from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, specializing in physiology and the epidemiology of cardiovascular disease. He can be described as a public health scientist and technology expert. Jacob’s work and research primarily focus on healthcare, technology, data analytics, and consumer engagement research.

Trishan Panch, who currently serves as Chief Medical Officer, teaches master’s-level courses at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and doctoral courses at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Notably, Dr. Panch oversees MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) initiatives for Sano, a wearable diagnostic device company. With nearly a decade of experience in healthcare practice, he is dedicated to leveraging digital technologies to enhance the efficiency of diagnosis, treatment, and care in healthcare institutions.

Wellframe’s Founding Team

Wellframe’s current executive team consists of nine members, including five PhDs and four master’s degree holders. Among this highly educated group, four have educational backgrounds from Harvard University. One of their key strengths lies in talent diversity; professionals from various disciplines leverage interdisciplinary perspectives to offer constructive advice and collaboratively address complex challenges.

Trishan Panch subscribes to Voltaire’s famous maxim: “The art of medicine consists in amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.” Dr. Panch believes that in today’s era of rapid technological advancement, “we need to achieve breakthroughs in medical technology to truly benefit patients.”

In addition to partnering with healthcare institutions, Wellframe also markets its platform to insurance providers. Research indicates that $30 billion in direct healthcare expenditures are attributable to chronic pain, accounting for approximately 10% of annual medical spending. Targeting the chronic disease market, Wellframe entered into a partnership with Excellus BlueCross BlueShield, a New York-based health insurer, in August 2016.

Excellus’s HCI team focuses on integrating care management and quality improvement initiatives to bridge gaps in care. Jacob Sattelmair believes that the partnership between Wellframe and Excellus will reduce the time healthcare providers spend on administrative tasks, enabling them to better care for patients with chronic conditions and help maintain their normal daily lives.

Wellframe’s partnership with Excellus delivers services to patients, particularly by enhancing care for high-risk populations. Depending on their condition, patients interact frequently with the app on a daily basis as needed, ultimately reducing the time care coordinators spend managing each patient.

“They call patients every few weeks or months to address their concerns in just a few minutes,” said Susan Beaton, Vice President of Provider Services at BCBS Nebraska. This approach significantly enhances the administrative efficiency of care managers. “The telephonic care management program reduces costs by approximately 50% per member. Coupled with the use of mobile platforms, we have observed additional cost savings more than double those of traditional care management, amounting to at least several thousand dollars per person!”