Healthvana Inc., based in West Hollywood, announced a partnership with Boston-based UrSure Inc. to help patients without HIV adhere to a preventative drug regiment to stave off the disease. Healthvana sells intake and patient engagement software to health care firms who work with HIV-positive individuals and individuals at risk of contracting the virus. UrSure provides urine tests that identify whether individuals have kept up with an HIV drug regimen.
The mutual referral agreement, announced March 21 at the 2019 National HIV Prevention Conference in Atlanta, gives Healthvana access to UrSure’s patient and clinic base, who in turn will be able to access test results through Healthvana’s mobile phone app.
“What it does is make Healthvana a more powerful tool for more patients, with more information about preventing HIV,” founder and Chief Executive Ramin Bastani said.
His firm generates revenue by contracting with health care companies, such as the Hollywood-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation, to handle patient intake at clinics, and deliver online test results and educational information to patients.
Annual contracts run between six and seven figures depending on the clinic size, number of locations, volume of patients and software requirements, he said. The company has signed contracts with more than 100 clinics.
While Healthvana is profitable, Bastani declined to disclose the firm’s financial details. Eighteen months ago, he said it operated in two states with 100,000 patients; it now operates in 16 states with more than 250,000 patients.
The UrSure partnership will allow Healthvana patients access to UrSure urine tests that measure adherence to PrEP, a once-a-day pill that helps lower the risk of contracting HIV.
“It will expand our outreach by 20 percent to help prevent HIV,” Bastani said. “It’ll help ID patients not adherent, so they can get more help.”
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Scanwell Unveils New App
Scanwell Health Inc. has combined a smartphone app to test for urinary tract infections with an online doctor visit and same-day antibiotic prescriptions.
The downtown-based digital health startup added the telehealth feature early this year to its $5 home test kit, which has already been sold to approximately 3,000 women since December.
The doctor consultation service was added in late January across California. The physician review of urine tests was expected to roll out last week in Texas.
“Things are moving,” said Stephen Chen, founder and chief executive of Scanwell Health. “People are buying test kits, getting (physician) consults in California.
“Now, consumers can choose their own health care options from their phone.”
The privately held company launched in February 2018 to solve one problem: women with highly uncomfortable urinary tract infections who often struggled to see a doctor who could diagnose their condition and prescribe an antibiotic remedy.
Chen, who has an MBA from Harvard, was once featured on “Shark Tank” for a urine test to identify health conditions in cats and dogs. It was developed by his Los Angeles-based Petnostics firm.
That technology led to Scanwell Health, which incubated last summer at Mountain View-based Y Combinator, which invested $120,000.
It developed what it claims to be the first federally cleared urine test app to allow a woman to test her urine at home with a paper test strip and camera phone.
The test, which received the go-ahead from the Food and Drug Administration in late 2017, uses patented metrics to analyze how the strip changes color and to conduct a urinalysis like those offered at hospitals and medical clinics.
“Now end to end, patients can test themselves and have a physician review their results, and get prescribed same-day treatment,” Chen said. “This has never been done.”
Scanwell’s UTI test is now sold in packs of three for $15. A consultation with a doctor who can prescribe antibiotics costs $25, no insurance needed.
Chen declined to disclose revenue but said a seed round had closed and was expected to be announced this spring.
He said his nine-person firm is now partnering with Oakland-based Kaiser Permanente Inc. to provide test kit services to screen for early stage chronic kidney disease, of which 90 percent of cases go undiagnosed.
Staff reporter Dana Bartholomew can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 556-8333.
