New York-based digital health company Heartbeat Health announced March 12 that it had closed $8.2 million in Series A funding led by .406 Ventures, Optum Ventures and existing investors.
Heartbeat Health’s virtual cardiovascular care management platform combines health risk assessment data with a cardiology-focused telehealth program, according to a statement, allowing physicians to connect with their patients and track ongoing care. The idea is individually tailored CV management.
“Evolving trends in telemedicine and digital health make cardiovascular disease well-suited for virtual care,” Jeff Wessler, a cardiologist and the CEO of Heartbeat Health, said in the statement. “Heart health is a significant concern for a large portion of the population, but also an area that can be supported by technology for both preventive health and ongoing care management.”
Heartbeat Health’s platform services primary care providers, long-term care facilities and employers across the U.S. and currently manages the CV care experience for some 10,000 patients. The company’s most recent Series A round, which also involved considerable input from Kindred Ventures, Lerer Hippeau, Designer Fund and Max Ventures, will reportedly be used to support product research and development and expand Heartbeat Health’s digital platform nationally.
“With many of the challenges of heart health being related to preventable factors, the condition is ripe for high-quality virtual care,” Payal Divakaran, a partner at .406 Ventures, said in a statement. “We are excited to back Heartbeat Health as it has developed the first, best and only solution to this problem highlighted by recent cardiovascular studies. We were also attracted to the exceptional team that Dr. Wessler and his co-founders have assembled.”
Heartbeat Health’s news comes at a time when telehealth is taking center-stage as a tool to combat the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, pandemic. The American College of Cardiology said in its recent COVID-19 guidelines that physicians should consider telehealth for treating quarantined or otherwise isolated patients, and on March 5 Congress approved an $8.3 billion package that included provisions for waiving Medicare telehealth restrictions.
After graduating from Indiana University-Bloomington with a bachelor’s in journalism, Anicka joined TriMed’s Chicago team in 2017 covering cardiology. Close to her heart is long-form journalism, Pilot G-2 pens, dark chocolate and her dog Harper Lee.