Hippo Applied sciences, a Vancouver, Wash.-area startup growing tech to attach sufferers in rural areas with specialists, raised seed funding from Ochsner Well being, a big well being system primarily based in New Orleans.
The businesses didn’t disclose the funding quantity, however the money brings complete funding in Hippo to $3.7 million, based on a spokesperson. Earlier buyers embody members of Hippo’s government group and different particular person backers.
Hippo’s platform hyperlinks up software program to help digital care and telemedicine workflows with a headset worn by a clinician.
The hands-free, voice-activated headsets can be utilized on the level of care to livestream affected person encounters to specialists at hospitals.
Hippo will collaborate with Ocshner to attach specialists with suppliers and sufferers in remoted areas of Ochsner’s community, which serves Louisiana, Mississippi and the Gulf South. The main target will initially be on neurology.
The partnership is “bringing the specialist and care group to the affected person wherever they’re,” mentioned CEO Patrick Quinlan in a press release Wednesday saying the deal. Quinlan, previously CEO of Ochsner, co-founded Hippo in 2020.
Different co-founders embody neurosurgeon and chief medical officer Wale Sulaiman, beforehand a professor of medical neurosurgery at Tulane College and medical director of the Ochsner again and backbone heart; company lawyer Craig Williams; and Brian Hamilton, a co-founder of Vancouver-based RealWear, an assisted actuality wearable startup that just lately raised $23.5 million.
RealWear manufactures Hippo’s specialised headset and Hippo develops the software program, which can be appropriate with different head-mounted shows and good glasses. Hippo costs an set up charge for {hardware} and a month-to-month licensing charge primarily based on utilization.
The corporate started to return collectively three years in the past when Hamilton, who comes from a household of medical staff, examined a headset for affected person care in Nigeria in collaboration with Quinlan and Sulaiman.
In line with a 2019 CNN story about his life, Sulaiman was born in Nigeria and has lengthy had a dedication to offering medical care within the nation. Sulaiman is the CEO and founding father of RNZ International, a medical administration and providers firm that operates in sub-Saharan Africa and makes use of Hippo’s platform.
Hippo can be getting used for medical schooling by Barry College and different prospects. It was deployed in hospitals in China early within the pandemic and is being utilized by dialysis clinics in Guatemala.
The startup has 10 workers, together with chief expertise officer Ivan Lumala, who served as chief expertise officer of Microsoft 4Afrika, the tech big’s effort to develop its enterprise on the continent by fostering native innovation.
Hippo says it stands out from different digital care corporations by providing a team-based medical workflow that enables a number of clinicians to seek the advice of on a affected person case.
Hippo is an acronym that displays the Hippocratic Oath. It stands for well being, integrity, folks, objective and outcomes.