Mint.com founder launches visual ER management software

The founder of Mint.com believes he can do for the hospital emergency room what he did for banking and budgets: better organize data, patients and resources through easy-to-understand visualizations and cloud-based software.

Aaron Patzer’s new project, Vital, has launched with $5.2 million in seed money led by First Round Capital and Threshold Ventures, formerly known as DFJ. Its programs employ artificial intelligence and natural language processing with the goal of triaging patients, determining their likelihood of being admitted overnight and coordinating care teams.

By identifying and fast-tracking the patients that will require less attention, as well as preparing for more intensive cases in advance, ER staff can determine any bottlenecks and improve the flow of patients, the company said, as its software layers on top of the hospital’s existing electronic health records platform.

The seed round also includes backing from Bragiel Brothers, Meridian Street Capital, Refactor Capital and SV Angel, alongside angel investments from CloverHealth CEO Vivek Garipalli as well as Nat Turner and Zach Weinberg, the founders of Flatiron Health.

Vital plans to use the money to build out its team of engineers and data scientists as it develops its HIPAA-compliant platform, which is rolling out now to replace what Patzer describes as the outdated and inefficient software seen in the ER today. It also includes a patient-facing app that takes down basic information and communicates wait times and updates.

The Vital digital triage platform. (Image: Vital)

"Doctors and nurses often put more time into paperwork and data entry than patient care," said Patzer, who will serve as CEO. By streamlining and automating portions of the process, Vital hopes to cut ER wait times in half while reducing provider burnout.

Vital emerged from stealth last September, after two years of academic study and program research and development, with the aid of co-founder Justin Schrager, a doctor of emergency medicine at Emory University Hospital.

"Vital successfully built software with a modern, no-training-required interface, while also meeting HIPAA compliance. It’s what people expect from consumer software, but rarely see in healthcare," said First Round Capital founder and partner Josh Kopelman, who joins Vital’s board of directors. "Turning massive amounts of complex and regulated data into clean, easy products is what Mint.com did for money, and we’re proud to back a solution that’ll do the same in life and death situations."

by Conor Hale

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