You have a medical emergency, you go to the emergency room, you see a doctor, immediate problem solved, you leave. That’s it? What about follow up? As every entrepreneur knows, follow up is everything.
BoardRounds co-founder Benjamin Jack, MD (Columbia ‘07SEAS) is a recent medical school graduate (Weill Cornell Medical College) who saw patients returning to the ER because of poor follow up. So he teamed up with Aditya Mukerjee (‘12SEAS) to solve the problem and the result is BoardRounds, providing hospitals with transitional care management as a service, and guaranteeing prompt post emergency room discharge primary care physician follow-ups for all patients.
Using the BoardRounds mobile app, patients can find and schedule follow up services. Physicians can also access the tool through their electronic medical records. In addition to scheduling, the BoardRounds’ analytics platform helps physicians select the most appropriate post-discharge interventions and identify high-risk patients.
The two co-founders, who are now part of the Columbia Startup Lab, are here to give us the diagnosis – and their solution.
Tell us about the service.
BoardRounds improves follow-up care for emergency room patients. We help hospitals keep patients in-network, reduce long-term costs of care for health insurers, and keep patients healthy.
How is it different?
We’re focused on follow-up care, specifically from emergency rooms.
What market are you attacking and how big is it?
BoardRounds addresses the market of 129 million emergency room discharges per year. We believe the market opportunity to be over $5 billion.
What inspired the business?
Benji recently graduated from medical school, where he worked in the emergency room at New York-Presbyterian and other hospitals. He saw patients revisit the ER because of poor follow-up care, and teamed up with Aditya to tackle the problem.
What is the business model?
We charge hospitals and insurance companies for our services, as we provide financial benefit to both.
What are the milestones that you plan to achieve within six months?
Sign on three hospitals and an additional insurance company.
Tell us about your experience with the Columbia Startup Lab thus far and your decision to apply.
We’ve had a great experience at CSL! We wanted to be part of a new collective of Columbia entrepreneurs and we’re really excited to be a part of this growing community.
If you could be put in touch with one investor in the New York community who would it be and why?
Esther Dyson, because she’s a talented health-focused investor that adds tremendous value to the companies she works with, beyond just capital.
Why are you launching your business in New York?
There has never been a better time or place to launch a healthcare startup than right now in New York City. There is a thriving community of entrepreneurs, investors, and customers ready to tackle the greatest challenges in healthcare, and we’re proud to be part of that movement.
Where’s the best place to eat at 1am in New York?
Veselka! (Or Koronet’ s Pizza)
