EHR Rehab: UW Spinout Raises $5.8M to Improve Health Record Access for Doctors

Built in Seattle | by Quinten Dol | May 7, 2019

A Seattle-based tech startup has raised $5.8 million in Series A funding in an effort to widen bottlenecks and smooth clinical workflows within hospitals. TransformativeMed is targeting the ways in which doctors communicate with one another, which traditionally center around messaging software that requires a complex and cumbersome interface to access a hospital’s electronic health records.

EHRs work well at storing patient data, but aren’t particularly good at organizing it in a way that caters to the individual needs of the physicians, therapists, specialists, social workers and consultants many patients interact with during a stay in a hospital, each of whom require access to very different information. TransformativeMed says its software overcomes that hurdle by embedding within an EHR system, organizing information to facilitate collaborative work and making it accessible from any connected device.

The company created its solution, dubbed CORES, based on research into how doctors want their information organized.

“TransformativeMed built its business through clinical word of mouth,” President and CEO Doug Cusick said in a statement. “This intimate clinical connection has provided deep insight into what the market needs, the runway to learn how to deliver a truly turnkey solution to IT and, most importantly, market proof that our EHR-optimization approach works.”

Having proven its technology, the startup says it will use the new funds to grow its sales and marketing operations. TransformativeMed’s technology is already used in more than 130 hospitals and health systems.

“We are thrilled with the confidence that our investors have in our solution and team and are prepared to jumpstart TransformativeMed’s growth as we redefine the Clinical Communication and Collaboration market.”

Seattle-based Alliance of Angels led the round.

TransformativeMed was founded by CIO Dr. Erik Van Eaton, Associate Professor, Division of Trauma, Burn & Critical Care Surgery, and CTO David Stone, who sought to overcome technical barriers that EHRs imposed on patient care. The pair founded the company at the University of Washington — where Eaton is an Associate Professor of Surgery and Stone worked as an Application Architect — in 2011.