KCK health startup scores $270K to give patients a voice
July 30, 2015 | Bobby Burch
An area startup is using a recent injection of funds to better provide hospitals with valuable feedback from patients.
PatientsVoices, based in Kansas City, Kan., nabbed $270,000 from several organizations to boost its technology that analyzes and distributes information about patients’ experiences. Organizations such as the National Science Foundation, Google and Digital Sandbox KC each provided funding to the company.
“[The funding] gives us the ability to build and evaluate different versions of our software to see what works best,” PatientsVoices founder Mary Kay O’Connor said in a release. “The development team can test different software configurations without having to worry about processing costs and storage capacity.”
The National Science Foundation issued a $150,000 grant to the company, while Google offered $100,000 in credit on Google Cloud, where the platform is currently operating in a HIPPA-secure environment. Digital Sandbox, a Kansas City-based business incubator, provided a $20,000 grant to design and implement a dashboard allowing clients to access patients’ feedback.
PatientsVoices recruited area experts in computing and linguistics to help build the platform, which is now being tested in hospitals after the company. O’Connor said the platform automatically sorts feedback into improvement priorities from a patient’s perspective. It also demonstrates to hospital administrators how to improve patient satisfaction.
PatientsVoices is currently located in the Bioscience & Technology Business Center, a University of Kansas-based business incubator that has offices in Kansas City, Kan., and Lawrence. The BTBC applied to become a Google registered incubator and then nominated PatientsVoices for the $100,000 Google Cloud credit.
“Mary Kay’s unique business model improves patient satisfaction through a process that actually lowers costs and improves information capture and flow,” BTBC Vice President Frank Kruse said in a release. “The company’s technology dramatically and measurably improves a hospital’s ability to improve operations and patient outcomes on the fly. This is unheard of in the current environment.”
Featured Business
2015 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Events Preview: Lean Lab happy hour, business model canvas
There are a plethora of entrepreneurial events hosted in Kansas City on a weekly basis. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, investor, supporter, or curious community member — we recommend these upcoming events for you. Are you hosting a relevant community event? Feel free to add it to the FWD/KC calendar for increased exposure. Once your event…
Concerned tech leaders pen amicable yet stern letter on KCMO’s proposed Airbnb, Homeaway rules
An advocacy group representing the area tech industry has offered a series of concerns on how the City of Kansas City, Mo., could regulate home-sharing services like Airbnb or Homeaway. In a letter to the Kansas City Council regarding proposed regulations on homesharing, the KC Tech Council said the area now has an opportunity to…
Prairie Char, Integrated Animal Health sweep international ag, bio tech competition
Two tech firms based in Lawrence, Kan., swept the top awards at a recent national agriculture and biotech conference. Beating out more than 500 international competitors, Prairie Char and Integrated Animal Health snagged first and second place, respectively, at the North Carolina Biotechnology Center’s annual entrepreneurial showcase. “What this says is that Kansas is very…
Chris Brown: Where to Incorporate? Delaware, Missouri or Kansas?
Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in this commentary are the author’s alone. This article is general in nature and does not constitute legal advice. Readers with legal questions should consult an attorney. Entrepreneurs often think they need to incorporate in Delaware. In this article, we’ll look at whether that is the best decision (hint – often…