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In
order to increase quality of care and make healthcare more efficient we tend to
focus on the admission process, when the patient is most sick. We work to
improve accuracy and reliability of diagnostics and make better treatment
options that improve patient outcomes and shorten hospital stays. The discharge
process rarely get the same level of attention, but can be just as important. Many
patients leave the hospital with a host of issues to manage in order to assure a
successful recovery, including taking medications, monitoring symptoms and managing
follow-up appointments. However, one in five patients return to hospital within
30 days, highlighting the need to develop solutions that help improve care
after discharge.
The
Toronto-based startup Dash MD is determined to provide recently discharged
hospital patients with the resources they need to successfully manage their
recovery. They have developed an innovative digital health app that allow
hospitals to create custom aftercare content, which help educate and inform
patients about their recovery process, as well as help them locate nearby
healthcare providers and manage appointments. The app is downloaded by patients
and the appropriate aftercare plan is chosen based on a card given to patients
before they are discharged from the hospital, giving them access to hospital
specific information and tools to find follow-up care, services and products.
The
idea of the app was born after Zack Fisch Rothbart, the CEO of Dash MD, broke
his leg. After being discharged, he felt a tingling feeling and pain in the leg, but
thought it was part of the healing process. The cast had been put on too tight,
decreasing blood flow to his leg. Failing to absorb what the nurse had told him
about how to care for his leg, he didn’t know what warning signs and symptoms
to look out for, risking an amputation.
Hospital
readmissions is a major problem costing billions of dollars every year.
Preventing these readmission could not only reduce unplanned use of resources,
but increase efficiency and improve patient outcomes. As a result, hospitals
are now working hard to find solutions that can bring their readmission rates
down. Dash MD has developed an innovative and powerful digital health solution
that could help both patients and healthcare providers. It provide specific
aftercare instructions straight to patients’ smartphone, access information of
common symptoms and direct patients to appropriate care providers depending on
severity, and manage medications, appointments and contacts relevant to their
recovery. The simple, yet innovative and powerful solution help educate
patients, potentially accelerating the recovery process, improving health
outcomes and quality of life, while reducing readmission rates and giving hospitals
valuable patient experience feedback.
Dash
MD was founded in 2015 by Zack Fisch Rothbart, Kaye Mao and Cory Blumenfeld, and
the technology is currently being piloted in hospitals in Canada. The startup has won the CBC Toronto’s 2017 pitch
competition, Spark Innovation Centre’s annual Ignite startup competition, and been
part of ventureLAB.
