Together+Clinic gives doctors a pulse on their patients’ health between visits

Ryan and co-founder Richard Thompson, division chief of cardiothoracic surgery at Bryan Health, see first hand that a lot is lost after patients walk out the door. They’re uneasy the moment they leave, and doctors are in the dark as to how they’re fairing. Quick readmission is all too common.

Together+Clinic logo

LINCOLN—Bryant Heart chief medical officer Ryan Whitney had approached his dad about pursuing nearly 50 different business ideas. Every time, his father told him it wasn’t a winner. That is, until Together+Clinic, a platform that keeps doctors and chronic disease patients connected between visits.

It’s worth noting his dad, Blake, was the first president of WebMD and has decades of experience in health care technology.

Ryan and co-founder Richard Thompson, division chief of cardiothoracic surgery at Bryan Health, see first hand that a lot is lost after patients walk out the door. They’re uneasy the moment they leave, and doctors are in the dark as to how they’re fairing. Quick readmission is all too common.

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“Heart patients leave the hospital scared,” Thompson told SPN. “We’ve found they’re more satisfied when they know doctors are checking in on them.

“As a patient, the gaps in medical care are huge. We don’t know what happens between six months or a year. Unless you call, we don’t know about it. Now we can affect it with tech.”

That tech is a platform giving health care providers daily updates from patients as to how they’re doing, distilled into a red, yellow and green color coding to know who may be trending toward high risk. They can help before it’s too late for preventive measures.

Thompson says it helps that quality matters now. Readmissions within 30 days penalizes hospitals based on new value-based purchasing standards by the government, putting $10 to $12 million at risk. And while hospitals continue to put millions into electronic medical record (EMR) technology, they’re laying off staff. So the time is right for a solution that emphasis quality and doesn’t put a financial strain on providers.

For patients, all they have to do is answer five simple, specific questions each day. Questions like, “Does your cough produce mucous?” and “Compared to yesterday, my breathing is _____.”

And with 44 percent of Americans dealing with one or more chronic diseases—more than 133 million people—there’s a lot to be gained from any small steps.

It’s all geared by risk-prediction algorithms that are being refined right now with help from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Raikes School of Computer Science and Management. It bucks a trend of equipment-heavy, intensive programs that place a lot of work on both the patient and doctor. Together+Clinic wants to make it as easy as possible. Oh, and free to both patients and doctors.

“In order to be disruptive in this industry, you have to do it at no cost,” Thompson said.

To engage patients more, the long-term plan is to motivate and reward them with money off prescriptions—through corporate partnerships—based on how frequent they communicate and use the platform. It’s a system similar to how the insurance industry rewards customers. Eventually, patients also will be able to communicate with each other to provide support with similar issues and finding the best prices.

They’ll make revenue through targeted marketing, the marketplace where patients can get discounted drugs and first in analytics for the industry: information in real time from patients in between visits.

It all has the potential to save health systems billions nationwide, while saving patients office visits and copays.

“How do you quantify saving inefficiencies?” Thompson said. “Hundreds or millions to billions are out there to be saved.”

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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4 responses to “Together+Clinic gives doctors a pulse on their patients’ health between visits”

  1. Patrick John Stevens Avatar
    Patrick John Stevens

    His Dad being the president of WebMD was worth noting indeed! Good piece.

  2. Bob Ravenscroft Avatar

    innovative and entrepreneurial physicians.

  3. […] Together+Clinic gives doctors a pulse on their patients’ health between visits […]

  4. Jon Avatar
    Jon

    I’m a patient of Dr. Thompson following a CABG x 2 in early June 2014. I’ve been enrolled in the Together + Clinic program since my discharge.

    It was scary leaving the hospital after such major surgery. One thing that has really helped me is the Together + Clinic.

    I am communicating with Dr. Thompson every day from home. The program is set up to monitor my diagnostics, both general “how are you feeling” questions and specific numbers for blood pressure, heart rate, etc. If there are any abnormalities or concerns, Dr. Thompson sees it and communicates with me right away. There is no waiting for an appointment to talk with him, and no sitting at home and wondering “is this okay/normal?”

    It takes only 2-3 minutes to enter the information online each morning. It has worked really well in my recovery process and the peace of mind it brings is immeasurable.