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
The metric that your startup needs to measure: Net promoter score
Startups are full of uncertainty — and prospective clients know that. Credibility and reputation are both keys to a company’s ability to not only sell a product or service, but also to create brand ambassadors that will promote it to friends and others. As the saying goes, your customers are your best salespeople. “If you…
Comcast launches new gigabit service in Kansas City metro
The Kansas City gigabit market just become more crowded. In addition to Google Fiber and AT&T, Comcast has now joined the ranks of Kansas City Internet providers offering gigabit speeds. In 2017 Comcast will begin to roll out residential gigabit Internet service to customers in the Kansas City suburban area. The company will deliver the…
Four female entrepreneurs will represent KC in UberPITCH contest
Four Kansas City entrepreneurs will be celebrating global entrepreneurship week on the East Coast as they vie for part of a $120,000 pie. Kansas City’s representatives — which are listed below — represent a diverse set of industries, including tech, health and agriculture. Kansas City was one of five participating cities in UberPITCH — a…
Google Fiber launches ‘gigabit community’ effort in KCK
In a world where the Internet is used to search for jobs, pay bills and finish homework — Google Fiber aims to use its gigabit service to leverage equal opportunity. In conjunction with a host of community partners, Google Fiber on Wednesday launched its first gigabit communities site in Kansas City, Kan. to help close the…