Aces Health, a digital health startup that focuses on automating communication, data collection and patient engagement during clinical trials, is on a fast-track to growth. Earlier this year they closed a seven-figure funding round led by Miami Children’s Health Ventures, a for-profit investment arm of Miami Children’s Hospital that partners with a startup accelerator.
Additional investors in the company are seed stage venture firm Krillion Ventures, along with a group of individual investors that include digital health veterans formerly of companies like PopHealthCare (acquired by insurer Guidewell this year) and Accenture.
Co-founder and President David Heenan says the company has been moving rapidly ever since, growing the team from three to 10, moving offices to the desirable Inman Park neighborhood, and refining the technology to go to market with their first five customers. They’re also opening a satellite office in Miami.
Notable hires include Ryan Gilson, former lead developer at InsightPool, who is helping build out the platform, and clinical researcher John Slattery, now Aces Director of Research and Innovation.
Aces automates subject engagement and data collection during clinical research trials. The app connects to health tracking devices like fitness wearables and bluetooth-connected medical devices to make it easier for the patient to enter data and faster for researchers and providers to collect and analyze that data.
But Heenan says in the future, Aces won’t necessarily limit itself to only clinical trials.
“We view the many sub-spaces within the healthcare industry as interconnected and overlapping; there is not a huge difference between managing a subject in a clinical trial and managing that patient through their general continuum of care. With that in mind, our mission is to bridge the gap between population health management and technological innovation to make the management of healthcare with a digital platform possible,” says Heenan.
Aces plans to raise additional funding and hire about another 10 employees in marketing, sales and development before the end of the year.
