Please welcome Medmo, the medical technology platform transforming the imaging process for patients and providers
Meet Medmo, the latest addition to Lerer Hippeau’s portfolio.
HQ: New York
Founder: Lucas Takahashi and Christopher Kelly
The problem: Medical imaging is a fundamental piece of healthcare, from preventive care to diagnosis to treatment. The market, however, is highly fragmented and encumbered by operations that are expensive, archaic, and difficult to navigate for both patients and providers. (If you’ve ever had imaging results handed to you on a CD-ROM you have no way of playing, you’ll understand these frustrations.) As a result, up to 40% of imaging orders are delayed or never completed, leading to worsened patient outcomes, lower quality scores for providers, and missed appointments for imaging centers. Patients are forced to wait longer, travel farther, and pay more than they should. As a result of missed orders, providers lose visibility into patient journeys once the patient leaves the office, and end up spending valuable time chasing down results.
Medmo’s solution: Medmo empowers patients and providers to regain control of the care journey by enabling the seamless scheduling and completion of imaging exams. The company’s platform facilitates the imaging process from start to finish, while allowing providers to track patient journeys and close the loop on care. This leads to lower costs for patients, reduces the administrative burden on staff, and improves the quality of care across MRIs, CT scans, mammograms, ultrasounds, and x-rays. Medmo’s solutions are deployed for patients, providers, and imaging centers, with an emphasis on putting the patient first, and are tailored to provide a convenient and delightful experience over time. By making the imaging process more navigable, patients can receive the best care possible and know exactly which steps they need to take after their initial appointment.
Origin story: As a physician who regularly treats underinsured patients, Chris recognized the need for a service that helps people find care at predictable and affordable prices. He partnered with Lucas to develop a solution that eliminated the complexities of imaging — often a first step to care — and Medmo emerged. Lucas has had a wide range of experiences driving positive outcomes at both start-up and established publicly traded companies. Prior to building Medmo, he held positions at Axiom, a legal services marketplace, as well as BlackRock and GE Capital. Both he and Chris believe excellent healthcare should be a right, not a privilege, and that modern healthcare should be patient-centric with a focus on empowering patients through improved access and lower costs.
Why we’re betting on it: Medmo has expanded its reach nationwide to power imaging for a wide range of multi-state provider groups and patient panels, from primary care to virtual women’s health and multi-specialty health systems. Medmo integrates seamlessly into existing healthcare system workflows, demonstrating real world efficacy across various healthcare organizations, including some of the largest virtual health clinics in the country, and improving adherence (order completion rate) by an average of over 30% for clients. As a result, it consistently drives better patient outcomes, closes the gaps in care, and reduces overall healthcare costs — rendering it utterly unsurprising that Medmo has grown over 10x YoY. By creating the connective tissue across a complex and highly fragmented market, Medmo makes imaging more efficient for all.
Our take: Investor capital in healthcare has often focused on high-tech solutions that aim to improve diagnostic assessments but which ignore a crucial first step: connecting more patients with affordable and accessible care providers. Medmo removes the cost and logistical barriers to diagnostics, improving imaging order completion rates and, subsequently, quality of care. This approach aligns with those of other investments we’ve made in healthcare at Lerer Hippeau. We have backed a number of companies improving healthcare by first making it more accessible and transparent. Our partnership with Medmo is a continuation of this effort. Lucas and Chris firmly believe that the greatest challenges facing the healthcare system come down to issues of access and cost. We couldn’t be more excited to support Medmo as they accelerate their expansion and platform development and work to modernize the imaging process, one of the most important steps in any patient’s care journey.
Further reading: “Startup aiming to streamline medical imaging appointments raises $9M” via Radiology Business
