Sprinter Well being is trying to provide on-demand lab attracts and testing at residence. Picture credit score: Sprinter
Amid the telehealth surge in the course of the pandemic, digital appointments have nonetheless left a couple of gaps in care.
For instance, sufferers who want a lab draw must drive in for an appointment, or in some circumstances, they could want their vitals checked in particular person. For these circumstances, a Menlo Park-based startup is trying to construct the “DoorDash for lab attracts.”
Sprinter Well being just lately closed a $33 million sequence A spherical led by Andreessen Horowitz. Different backers embrace Common Catalyst, which led the corporate’s seed spherical, GV, Accel, and DoorDash CEO Tony Xu.
Julie Yoo, a normal associate at Andreessen Horowitz, shall be becoming a member of the startup’s board of administrators. In a weblog submit explaining the deal, she made a daring prediction:
“Each healthcare firm will finally be a house well being firm,” she wrote. “Sooner or later, suppliers, payors, and diagnostics corporations will discover it troublesome to compete, and to bear threat in value-based care, with out the power to increase their care fashions from solely facility- and virtual-based encounters into extra steady, in-person relationships that meet sufferers the place they’re.”
The issue Sprinter is trying to resolve isn’t simply comfort. A good portion of ordered lab assessments go unfulfilled, doubtlessly leading to missed diagnoses.
The startup sends nurses and phlebotomists to folks’s houses for lab attracts, Covid-19 assessments, or to take their vitals. Taking a web page from supply providers, sufferers can e-book appointments on-line, and get textual content updates, together with an ETA for when a nurse will arrive, and directions earlier than or after a check.
Like its direct-to-consumer kin, the startup doesn’t at present take medical insurance. Lab attracts value $79 and a fast antigen Covid-19 check prices $99.
The startup was co-founded by Max Cohen, the previous VP of cell for Oculus, which was acquired by Fb, and Cameron Behar, a former Fb engineer.
The concept for Sprinter, Cohen wrote in a blog post, was to increase the attain of telehealth providers. He emphasised that the corporate isn’t trying to change specialty labs, suppliers or different techniques that already work effectively.
“We got down to create a contemporary model of what we name ‘final mile healthcare supply’ — fixing for tactics to fulfill folks the place they’re with high-quality care,” he wrote.
The corporate at present operates in San Francisco, and plans to develop to Los Angeles and San Diego by the tip of the yr. In 2022, Sprinter is trying to develop its operations to Florida and Texas.
Sprinter isn’t the one firm trying to prolong extra well being providers to the house. Amazon’s telehealth service, Amazon Care, additionally consists of at-home comply with up for lab providers, assessments and vitals.
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However quite than taking a direct-to-consumer strategy, Amazon is trying to provide it to employers as a lined profit.
Lab testing corporations are additionally trying to compete on at-home testing. Each Quest and Labcorp have rolled out a collection of check kits that may be shipped to sufferers’ houses.
