Explorys raises $2.55M to take healthcare data analysis next step

Explorys Inc., the Cleveland, Ohio, startup that is putting healthcare data management, analytics and outcomes […]

Explorys Inc., the Cleveland, Ohio, startup that is putting healthcare data management, analytics and outcomes measurement on the Internet, has raised $2.55 million in Series B funding from Sante Ventures and Cleveland Clinic Innovations.

Founded last year by data management veterans Stephen McHale and Charlie Lougheed in collaboration with the Cleveland Clinic, Explorys provides specialized data services and applications that empower healthcare providers to improve treatment, and biotech and pharmaceutical companies to accelerate research and product development at the same time as measuring performance and drug safety.

The company has developed a network of healthcare providers, including the Clinic, which contribute more than a billion clinical records that are updated on a daily basis.  It launched its platform for healthcare providers last month and expects to begin offering services to life sciences customers in the fourth quarter.

Explorys will use its latest fundraise to continue developing platform technologies, such as drug-safety detection and third-party software development interfaces. The company of 15 people and growing also will use the money to develop its network, sales and marketing activities.

“Stephen and Charlie have assembled an impressive team to create clinical insights from health data,” said Joe Cunningham, managing director of Austin, Texas-based Sante Ventures and Explorys board member, in a release. “We are enthusiastic about Explorys’ potential to meet the needs of a fast-changing, outcomes-driven healthcare system.”

Given the national healthcare debate and the urgency to solve escalating costs, McHale and Lougheed see an increasing opportunity to use information collected through electronic health records to improve the quality of medicine and reduce its cost.

“So the more we understand how effective certain treatments are … and the more we can tie that to cost, over time, I think that will be valuable. Very valuable,” Lougheed said in a March interview.

The company also could use its network to provide comparative effectiveness intelligence to healthcare providers, and pharmaceutical and life sciences companies, Lougheed said. Comparative effectiveness is comparing two or more medical treatments for benefits, risks and costs.

Explorys raised $1 million in an October 2009 Series A round led by 23Bell LLC of Cleveland, McHale’s and Lougheed’s investment company, that included Genesis Inventions of Austin, Texas.

Early this year, Explorys also snagged a $17.6 million, 10-year job creation tax credit from Ohio for potentially creating more than 300 jobs.

“With strong momentum going into this financing round, our goal was to raise sufficient capital to propel Explorys to a point of sustained revenue growth,” McHale said in the release. “This is a bold initiative with unprecedented support from the healthcare and life sciences communities. We’re excited to be the first mover in a space that will have profound effect on treatment and drug safety.”

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