Company’s mission to bring health equity to underserved markets
Healthcare is often siled between diagnostic tests, lab processing, and follow-up care, which can make accessing tests challenging. Test results often get lost in the shuffle, and they often don’t get the treatment they need, causing communities that are already underserved to suffer even more.
This is something Dr. Sheena Menezes saw as an immigrant who came from Goa, India and grew up in Kuwait before moving to the US for college. And that’s what inspired him to co-found Simple HealthKit, an end-to-end healthcare platform that creates and delivers diagnostics, treatment and follow-up care for everyone, which raised $8 million Series C on Monday A funding announced.
Menezes told VeteranNews, “Having come from less developed countries where there are huge health care disparities, I was shocked by the amount of health care disparity here and experienced a struggle with access and staggering bills that I cannot afford. Was.”
Simple HealthKit’s mission is health care for everyone from anywhere, she explained.
“We believe in health equity and serving all communities, especially the underserved by building a system that works for everyone. Our team reflects the communities we serve – Simple HealthKit 70% Women and 80% are people of color.”
Simple HealthKit works with educational institutions, employers, public health organizations, state and local government, pharmacies, and FQHCs to provide testing for sexual wellness, respiratory health, and chronic conditions like diabetes in the communities they serve . Simple HealthKit developed its patented tests and runs its own laboratories, and sees a 42% increase in test volume between 2021 and 2022.
Physician-ordered tests can be offered over the counter for at-home sample collection and return via USPS, in-clinic and pharmacy, which then also provides connections to follow-up care to ensure that Patients can get the treatment they need. ,
“Too many people, especially in underserved populations, fall through the cracks while waiting days or weeks for test results. If someone tests positive for chlamydia, for example, we immediately connect to a telehealth provider for counseling and medication. Otherwise, people may not get follow-up care, and conditions like chlamydia can lead to PID, ectopic pregnancies and infertility, and other serious problems if left untreated,” Menezes said. Explained.
The company’s platform allows enterprises to plug into their provider’s infrastructure for testing and follow-up care through an open-ended API/HL7 connection. If that organization doesn’t have those capabilities, the company also has an out-of-the-box infrastructure that will take an individual from sample connection to follow-up care.
“We are the first and only human-centric, end-to-end healthcare platform. We believe in making high-quality tests affordable, accessible and most of all useful by manufacturing our tests and owning our own laboratories and Digital Health stage,” Menezes said.
The new funding round was led by Initialized Capital, with participation from seed investors Kleiner Perkins, Kapor Capital and Quest Venture Partners, and brings the company’s total funding to $12 million.
With this new funding, Simple HealthKit plans to add new products to its portfolio to help more people receive PrEP (preventive HIV treatment) and manage chronic conditions such as heart health and chronic kidney disease. So to receive.
Menezes said, “At Simple HealthKit, our mission is to provide health care from anywhere, rebuilding for everyone. We believe in health equity and serving all communities, especially providing healthcare services that work for all.” by building the system.
(Image source: store.simplehealthkit.com)