BOSTON, Mar. 29, 2022 – Nurse-1-1, the first conversational marketing company for healthcare, today announced the close of its $2.3 million seed funding round led by Argon Ventures with participation from York IE and Hyperplane. The company will use the financing to expand its team, accelerate its go-to-market efforts, and scale its current partnerships with publicly traded and nationwide digital health, at-home testing, and pharma companies.
Through a nationwide network of over 2,000 NPs, RNs, PAs, and MDs and a complete customer service platform, Nurse-1-1 educates patients and drives adherence at all patient touch points within the digital health and pharma markets. Embedding its HIPAA-compliant live chat widget into any digital health experience allows Nurse-1-1’s network of nurses and advanced practice providers to proactively engage and influence patients to make the right health decisions and properly utilize digital health offerings. In 2021, Nurse-1-1 had over 10,000 patient consultations through its partnerships with digital health, at-home testing, and pharma companies.
Medication adherence is a public health concern. Pre-pandemic, non-adherence to medications cost the healthcare system $300 billion annually, according to Healthcare Finance Report. Out of every 100 prescriptions sent, only 50 to 70 are ever picked up and paid for at the pharmacy, 25 to 30 taken properly, and about 15 to 20 refilled as prescribed. OMJ reports that the biggest barriers that patients face when using their medications effectively include poor provider-patient communication, inadequate knowledge about a drug and its use, not being convinced of the need for treatment, and fear of adverse effects of the drug—all topics that nurses are uniquely positioned to address.
“Non-adherence not only costs the healthcare system, but also can cause long-term health effects to the patient,” said Kimberly Liner, Chief Nurse Practitioner at Nurse-1-1, RN, MSN, CPNP. “Nurse-1-1 provides reliable sources of information from credible, trusted nurses.”
For each of the past 20 years, the Gallup poll has rated nursing as the most trusted profession in America. Nurse-1-1 is bringing this trust into the growing digital health market, pioneering a new category in healthcare with its patient-centric and dialogue-driven approach to care.
Nurse-1-1 also works with many at-home testing companies, navigating their patients through their at-home testing journey. In recent years, at-home testing has become a key tool in early detection of many health care issues, and studies have shown that testing adherence jumps significantly when a patient has a provider they can talk to.
“Patient adherence—whether to medications, at-home testing, or other digital health treatments—is a major issue to tackle,” said Michael Sheeley, Co-founder and CEO of Nurse-1-1. “Our embedded nurse chat provides an on-demand experience with patients waiting fewer than 8 seconds on average to connect with a nurse—bridging an essential gap in care when patients need it the most.”
“As more and more of our healthcare transitions to digital, we can’t lose the thing that really works in the current system: patients interacting with nurses,” said Joe Raczka, Managing Partner, York IE. “Mike, Kimberly and the whole crew at Nurse-1-1 are the right team to bring nurses to the front lines of digital healthcare – a mission that will have a positive impact on all of our lives.”
Interested in helping Nurse-1-1 achieve this mission? Visit nurse-1-1.com/careers to learn more.
About Nurse-1-1:
Nurse-1-1 is the first conversational marketing company for healthcare. Through a growing nationwide network of over 2,000 nurses and a HIPAA-compliant complete customer service platform, Nurse-1-1 offers a live nurse chat tool that can be embedded directly into other digital platforms. As a result, clients receive data-driven insights, improve adherence, and help their patients where they need extra support.
Nurse-1-1 is based in Greater Boston and founded by Michael Sheeley, who previously founded RunKeeper, and Kimberly Liner, a pediatric nurse practitioner formerly of Boston Children’s Hospital. Today, the Nurse-1-1 platform is embedded into the patient experience with publicly traded digital health companies and nationwide telemedicine provider groups.
We’re hiring! If you’re passionate about building a world where every human has the right to easily accessible, compassionate healthcare, we’d love to hear from you. You can check out open roles at nurse-1-1.com/careers or feel free to reach out to us at careers@nurse-1-1.com.
About Argon Ventures:
Argon Ventures is a venture fund with a mission to amplify the energy of founders to launch breakthrough products to build impactful, global businesses. The firm’s Intelligent Industry Solutions investment thesis is centered on cutting-edge software platforms that accelerate productivity & drive top-line revenue, transform markets through radical efficiency and create enterprise value through data at scale. Argon’s portfolio spans a number of markets, including digital health, future of work, manufacturing, and others. The founding General Partners collectively bring over four decades of experience as successful operators, investors, advisors, founders and C-level executives of global companies.
About York IE:
York IE™ is a vertically integrated strategic growth and investment firm helping reshape the way companies are built, scaled and monetized. Through Fuel™, its SaaS platform for market and competitive intelligence, hands-on advisory services and selective early stage B2B SaaS investments, York IE supports ambitious entrepreneurs, operators and investors on their quest to scale startups and disrupt markets. Play the long game at York.IE.
About Hyperplane Venture Capital:
Hyperplane Venture Capital is an early stage investment firm based in Boston, Massachusetts. The firm partners with exceptional founders who are harnessing machine intelligence, sensor technology, and cloud computing to design solutions at the nexus of perception, communication, and insight. Hyperplane’s portfolio covers a wide array of industries including financial technologies, robotics, digital health, industrial automation, and others.
Media Contacts:
Bailey Carroll
Nurse-1-1
bailey@nurse-1-1.com
Kate Campbell
York IE
Kate@york.ie
Related Links
http://nurse-1-1.com/
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