This content was created by Tim Draper. This content was uploaded by Tim Draper. This is a YouTube pitch video titled "Pitch Competition Kat Kuzmeskas Simply Vital Health | Blockchain: Out of the Labs" (posted 2017-06-12). It contains a live startup pitch and Q&A by Kat Kuzmeskas, CEO and co-founder of Simply Vital Health, describing a platform that tracks patient care after hospital discharge to support value-based care. She outlines the problem (hospitals financially responsible for 90-day post-discharge costs), the target market (starting with the $10B orthopedics market), business model (one-time integration fee $15–25K + ~$100 per enrolled patient), first customer (Hartford HealthCare / Hartford Hospital), ROI example (reducing skilled nursing days), technical approach (using a blockchain receipt API from Therion for auditability), team background, sales cycle, and traction. Several audience members (labeled Speaker B, C, D) ask clarifying questions during the Q&A.
Chapters
Great. Waking you up. All right, hi, I'm Kat. I am the CEO and co-founder of Simply Vital Health, and we are providing insight into what happens after the patient leaves the hospital. This is Bob. He just had a hip replacement. Before 2016, the hospital was not worried about Bob after he left the hospital. Starting in 2016, the hospital became financially responsible for Bob. What that means is that the hospital has to follow Bob for 90 days, no matter where he goes. This means that their hospital margins are getting squeezed, because if the cost of Bob's care goes over a certain fixed threshold, that goes on the bottom line of the hospital, squeezing their margins. The trouble is, is that there's a massive black hole about what happens to Bob after he leaves the hospital. This means that they cannot manage Bob, and they cannot manage their financial risk. Another trouble is, is that their current technology does not help at all. Their electronic medical record is terrible. It's not good for care coordination, and it definitely does not help them manage risk. They've actually flat out said that Epic, one of the major products, sucks. And our first customer, paying customer, agrees. Hartford HealthCare Bone and Joint Institute signed on with us because we help provide insight into what happens to their patients after they leave. Hospitals use our platform to connect providers outside of different facilities back into the hospital team, and they use our clinical and financial analytics as a decision engine. This is really important because 49% of Bob's care in that 90 days occurs outside of the hospital. So an important data point that they would want to know that they're not getting now is how many days is Bob staying in a skilled nursing facility. Each day is $500. and increasingly notches up on the cost for the hospital. The other issue is that hospitals have a little bit of a trust issue. They really don't like sharing data. So we use blockchain technology in our platform to create an extra layer of trust. So we have an auditability and security feature in our platform. So this new model of care is called value-based care. It's a $300 billion, or 75% of all private and public health insurance payments are going to be tied this type of care in the next 3 years. To wedge into the market, we're starting first with the $10 billion orthopedic market. So who are we and how do we know that we're going to win in this market? So I left my job at Yale New Haven in December 2016 because I had this exact problem when I was managing the orthopedic department. In terms of my career winnings, my strategic and business development analyses have reached national recognition. I was a Teach for America Corps member, which is more selective than Harvard Law, and just last week, unexpectedly, I was featured in Fortune as the 34— one of the 34 leaders that is changing healthcare. Then we have Lucas, our fearless CTO. He's an award-winning software developer, placing in competitions led by Intel and NASA. He's a double major in electrical and computer engineering and physics, and he's built his own operating system. He was the lead tech and blockchain developer at Capital One, And he was just published in Nature last week. So this is a massive issue in healthcare, and because it's such a massive issue, we're gaining traction really fast in the press, customers, and partnerships. So come speak to me so you can learn how we're winning this market. Thanks.
Thank you. So the hospitals pay you?
Yes.
And they pay you because they need that extra data about the patient who has left the hospital?
Correct.
And they get this data on sort of what happened to them for those 90 days?
Correct.
And they need it so that they can then measure What's happened over time so that they can watch for something similar that would happen later, right? Exactly. That's why—
That's exactly it, yes.
Okay.
Yeah, so the current way they're doing this financially is they get the data anywhere between 3 to 12 months behind, so it's all retrospective analysis. We're giving it to them in near real time so that they can make decisions right away.
And have you figured out how much that's worth to them? I mean, have you sold to a hospital yet?
Yes, so we sold to Hartford Hospital in Connecticut. So our business model is an integration fee, one-time integration fee between $15,000 and $25,000, and then it's $100 per patient that's in this program. Most— the patient size ranges between 100 to 1,000 patients just in orthopedics.
What's their ROI on giving you that $100? How much is it making them?
Yeah, so that's a great question. So Obviously that would be one of our targets that we measure, but an example of that— so let's say that there are 60 patients that go to a skilled nursing facility and we want to reduce the amount of time they're there by 2 days. That's it. That will result in a $60,000 savings, which will nearly cover the cost of the platform.
Are you using a private permission blockchain, I assume? What protocol are you using?
Good question. To start, we're actually using Therion's free API, which creates a receipt of the information so that if there's ever a question, we can prove that the data hasn't changed. That's our way to enter the market. Healthcare is a little bit wary about blockchain, so our goal is to get providers on board, hospitals on board, and then expand beyond that.
Sorry, so just a quick follow-up question. If you're using Therion's technology, are you basically just a sales and marketing channel for them and going and building partnerships? Like, what tech are you building on top of?
Yeah, so our platform is the proprietary piece. That's just the blockchain piece that we're using in terms of API. We're not marketing it. It's part of our platform so that when the administrator comes in, they can see all of the hash information, the audit information. We're not selling Teryon to the hospitals.
Walk me through your sales cycle for hospitals.
Yes, good question. So I, because I purchased technology for a hospital, I figured out how to fly under the enterprise radar. So if you price it correctly, you can sell directly to the department. So we're targeting the Department of Orthopedics specifically.
What's the sales cycle like?
Oh, yes. So when I was at Yale New Haven, we were approving contracts within a day, a couple of weeks. It depends on the hospital, so it can be anywhere between a day to 2 or 3 months. We signed Hartford in around 3 and a half months.
And how many hospitals do you have?
So Hartford is our first. We filled our pipeline from that. We were in active conversations with them. We just launched in January.
Okay. Why couldn't you get new patients?
Oh yeah, so we're meeting with them on this Tuesday, I think, second.
So you launched in January with one hospital and you haven't added more since then?
I'm sorry?
So I'm only trying to understand, did you launch in January with the first hospital?
No, we're launching it with Hartford in May. We started in January in terms of the company, building the company. We were working on a wireframe before then, testing the market.
