Fast Facts |
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|---|---|
| Location | Denver |
| Operations | Medicine |
| Industry | Advanced Manufacturing |
| Employees | 19 |
Fun Facts
Dual head counsel and biochemist
Employees bike to work
Custom ping pong/conference room table
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When we get a prescription, we hope that it will fix up our ailments sooner than later and with as few complications as possible. Sometimes, however, individual factors can make this goal more difficult than usual, and other times the medication isn’t quite what we need to do the trick. Until recently, there was no comprehensive and integrated platform for prescribers to make the best prescription decisions, but thanks to a goal and a conversation four years ago, RxRevu was born to fill that gap.
In 2013, Dr. Kevin O’Brien, MD was writing a book that compounded the best available cost-effective therapeutic alternatives when he began discussing the shortcomings of the healthcare system with Carm Huntress, now the CEO of RxRevu. They noted the cost of medications for patients, the problem with over-prescribing in the industry and even how some doctors were not prescribing the most effective medications based on research. It was during this conversation that Huntress convinced O’Brien that his book needed to become a technology instead, one that can be used by healthcare prescribers for a cost-effective enhancement on treatment. From there, RxRevu was born, with O’Brien as the Chief Medical Officer.
RxRevu has begun a revolution for the healthcare industry with their Prescription Decision Support platform (PDS). This is embedded directly in a provider’s Electronic Health Record (EHR), and pulls all the information they need for a prescription, such as cost, insurance, recommendations, lab values and more, all within the same window. In addition, since the program is comprehensive, health system administrators will also be able to view prescribing behavior, thus cutting down on over prescribing and aligning with best practices across a distributed health system.
Several organizations have collaborated with RxRevu for further development, including University of Colorado Hospital (UCHealth) in October 2016. During this partnership, health care providers prescribed more first-line, or therapeutic alternative antibiotics while non-recommended antibiotics decreased, a practice that can help fight the growing concern of antibiotic resistant bacteria.
RxRevu is also an active member of the Colorado Bioscience Association, and have also collaborated with other companies like Children’s Hospital Colorado, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.
“We’re trying to solve issues with prescribing where it matters most, at the point of care,” said Weston Blakeslee, Chief Clinical Officer. “If we didn’t have health system partners that recognize the existence of these issues and want to engage in pragmatic solutions to these problems, we wouldn’t have gotten very far.”
Great work would be difficult to achieve without some support along the way. The Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) has backed RxRevu with fervor, providing an early-stage capital and retention grant in 2016 for $250,000. According to the company, this amount was instrumental in their early success by helping them solidify a partnership with UCHealth. They have additionally won the Office of National Coordinator for Health IT’s High Impact Pilots award in 2016, and two Phase I Small Business Innovation Research Grants from the NIMH and from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in 2017. RxRevu has recently applied for a Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment grant with their UCHealth collaborators as well.
Colorado provided RxRevu great opportunities to jump into their innovative platform, according to Blakeslee. When the business was founded four years ago, they found the talent pool, capital markets, eager health system partners and collaborative mindsets made Colorado a great place to start and maintain a Health IT company.
“Colorado has one of the most talented workforces in the country with diverse skill sets. It also has an innovative environment that focuses on improving health,” said Blakeslee. “The proximity to our four Colorado health system partners is a huge advantage when you’re co-developing Health IT features and need to quickly accomplish tasks.”
As for the future, it doesn’t just stop at the PDS. RxRevu is currently developing Real-Time Benefit Check capabilities, where prescribers can inform their patients of the cost of their medicine, as well as prospective prior authorization capabilities that will allow prescribers to resolve the complex requirements that prevent patients from getting their medicine on time. The company currently has 15 employees, and are in the process of hiring a salesperson, director of product, and a two software engineers.
