Lincoln startup miTRAX is working on a solution that will help health care providers improve work flow efficiency and patient outcomes with the goal of improved care and reduced expense.
“Our business is patient/procedure management in the orthopedic space,” said Rob Barie, President of miTRAX. “We’ve taken patient education, engagement and outcomes and created a software platform that is available online or on a mobile device.”
By involving patients and physicians in the full pre- and post-procedure process, miTRAX helps patients recover faster.
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How miTRAX works
Once a surgery date is scheduled, the patient is provided credentials to log in to miTRAX. From there, information can be pushed out by providers about appointments, medications and both pre- and post-operative instructions. Patient information can also be pushed back to the provider, monitoring such things as pain tolerance and medication levels.
Barie said this type of interaction goes with the patient throughout their rehabilitation. It also follows them through physical therapy and protocol for exercises.
“Instead of handing patients a manual, they can log on to miTRAX and see videos that demonstrate all of the exercises,” Barie said.
The goal is to give doctors a library content that they can use for future patients.
“The foundation of the software is about creating repeatable workflows so that the doctor doesn’t have to do the same thing with every patient,” Barie said. “Do it once and re-use.”
Physicians “know the scores are coming”
One driving force behind efforts to control costs in procedures such as hip and knee replacement is the high percentage of patients that are covered by Medicare.
“Medicare is very focused on trying to bring pricing consistency to total joint replacements,” Barie said. “Right now, there can be a cost difference between facilities of up to $25,000 in Lincoln.”
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will also begin mandating collection of Patient Recorded Outcomes (PRO) data in April. miTRAX is set up to allow patients to report this information through a mobile interface. This could ultimately lead to physician rankings based on the PRO results. Higher-performing physicians could receive bonuses and other incentives.
“Physicians are engaged because they know the scores are coming,” Barie said.
Startup veterans
The founders of miTRAX are no strangers to the startup world. Dr. Rob Rhodes, a Lincoln family practice physician, is the founder of InjuReplay, a company designed to educate athletes about sports injuries. The company has established a partnership with Hudl to add sports injury content to Hudl’s portfolio. Rhodes has also completed entrepreneur fellowships with Pipeline Entrepreneurs and the Kauffman Foundation.
Rex Lamb is a 30-year veteran in the technology development and startup space. He has served as founder and president of several companies, including MicroScan, DuoTech, Filebound Solutions and Marex Group.
Rhodes said the Pipeline experience prepared him in ways outside the normal scope of a practicing physician.
“I learned about marketing, balance sheets, things they don’t teach you in med school,” he said.
Solving physician burn out
Rhodes also sees first-hand the impact that dealing with government and insurance industry mandates is having on health care professionals.
“There’s a lot of fatigue caused by mandates,” he said. “It’s very easy to see that physicians can burn out.”
The company hopes that physicians will see patient-friendly software as a way to do more with less work.
Barie said that miTRAX has been bootstrapped to this point, but they are actively involved in their first formal capital raise.
“It’s been a labor of love for all of us,” Rhodes said.
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Rod Armstrong is Vice President of Strategic Partnerships for AIM in Lincoln, Nebraska. He is a regular contributor to Silicon Prairie News.
