The Indiana University Philanthropic Venture Fund, which provides capital to faculty, students, alumni and staff at all IU campuses to help them further develop their research and innovations into startup companies, has invested $500,000 in Indianapolis-based Diagnotes Inc.
The company helps health care professionals communicate with each other, patients and caregivers on a single, unified, cloud-based platform that can be accessed from any mobile device or internet browser. Todd Saxton, associate professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at the Kelley School of Business at IUPUI, helped co-found the company with Bharath Bynagari and Dave Wortman, Diagnotes’ chief executive officer.
Wortman said the company’s mobile and web-based applications reflect natural communication habits between health care professionals and their patients. The enterprise-grade clinical communication and collaboration platform serves a wide variety of clients.
View print quality image“We work with large health systems, specialty and community hospitals, long-term care facilities, employers, and behavioral health organizations,” Wortman said. “Clients use the platform for everything from simple, secure messaging to telehealth consultations between specialists and patients in rural areas via HIPAA-compliant secure live video.”
Wortman said Diagnotes also offers schedule management; discussion documentation; and integration with electronic health record, or EHR, systems.
“Clients who use the schedule-management feature reduce delays because they can send text messages or launch voice or video calls directly from the schedule in Diagnotes,” Wortman said. “When clinicians track conversations that happen while on-call or after hours, it improves continuity of care and can be used for billing purposes when appropriate. And integrating with an EHR system allows users to include patient summaries in discussions.”
Wortman said the $500,000 investment from the IU Philanthropic Venture Fund will be used for geographically broader and more frequent marketing campaigns, increasing support of clients’ adoption and use of Diagnotes, and improving the platform and prioritizing the development planning.
Teri Willey, manager of the IU Philanthropic Venture Fund and executive director of the IU Research and Technology Corp., said she and her team understand the value of Diagnotes’ work.
Diagnotes has received funding from other sources, including Elevate Ventures, the Innovate Indiana Fund, the Indiana Seed Fund, BioCrossroads, the Purdue Venture Fund and Vision Tech Angels. Diagnotes’ founders and private individuals have also invested in the company.
“Receiving support from a mission-oriented investor like Indiana University aligns closely with our core values and lends enormous credibility to our vision,” Wortman said. “IU alumni are involved in many successful health care startups around the country. It is an honor to be selected from this group and supported by the IU Philanthropic Venture Fund.”
