Most health record systems focus on the clinical setting, from doctors’ notes to prescriptions. But what happens outside of hospital walls often determines a patient’s health.
Dallas-based Pieces Technologies is building software to bridge these two worlds, connecting health systems with food banks, job assistance services and community health clinics. The startup recently raised $25.7 million in a series B round led by Concord Health Partners.
“Concord is focused on identifying the most promising healthcare companies that address affordability while improving quality and access to care,” Concord Founder and Managing Partner James Olsen said in a news release. “We are thrilled to support this exciting cross-sector technology company, and we look forward to helping drive its innovative technology to new communities for the benefit of patients across the country.”
Concord Health Partners’ investment will come out of a fund the VC manages for the American Hospital Association. Existing investors Children’s Health of Dallas and OSF Healthcare System also participated in the funding round.
Pieces CFO Brett Grob said the funding round was a “seminal capital raise” for the company, marking its transition from a startup to a growth company. The company plans to invest the influx of cash into its commercialization efforts, sales teams and marketing strategies.
Pieces first started as an effort at Parkland Health & Hospital System, a large safety-net hospital in Dallas. Founder and CEO Dr. Ruben Amarasingham was tasked with leading an effort to reduce 30-day readmission rates and improve clinical care.
The department operated as a standalone nonprofit for eight years. Then in 2016, Pieces launched out of that effort.
In the three years since it spun out, Pieces has reduced hospital length-of-stay by up to half-a-day and helped lead to a sustained reduction readmissions. Some of its clients include UVA Health System, Children’s Health of Dallas, OSF Healthcare System and Parkview Medical Center. Community service providers such as job assistance resources and educational services also use Pieces’ software.
For example, for a patient with heart disease, a physician could use the system to share dietary needs to a food bank. They could also receive a notification if that patient stopped going.
“More than 50 percent of outcomes are from social determinants of health,” Grob said. “We truly have a cross-sector platform, with one pillar rooted in the clinical setting and one pillar rooted in the community. What we’ve seen in the market — it’s very siloed.”
Grob said Pieces Tech uses natural language processing to pull information from clinical notes written in a medical record system. The company’s then pairs that with data from community-based organizations, giving case-managers a longitudinal health record.
In the long-term, Grob expects the company’s work will align with efforts by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to improve care between clinical and social service settings.
“Clearly, that’s setting the stage for where reimbursement policy is going to shift in the coming years,” he said.
Photo credit: mikdem, Getty Images
