Telepsychiatry Firm Receives $1.7 Million Boost To Expand Networks
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
1DocWay raises capital to support expansion to 11 states.
With increasing pressure applied to healthcare providers and organizations to increase efficiency, reduce costs, and improve patient outcomes, many providers are turning to telehealth solutions. Telemedicine has been used to track and treat chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes, and has even been tapped to help diagnose and treat ADD. Telepsychiatry has also been recognized as a significant tool for providing access to mental health services to remote populations of at-risk patients.
Now, New York City-based 1DocWay has completed a fundraising campaign that returned $1.7 million to be used to expand its telepsychiatry networks to 11 states. iSeedVC led the round with Rock Health, Asset Management, Great Oaks Venture Capital, and Waterline Ventures each participating.
Founded in 2011, 1DocWay has created a telepsychiatry network that connects hospitals to underserved or remote facilities including community health centers, skilled nursing facilities, military bases, and critical access hospitals in order to provide necessary mental health services to patients.
The services are delivered via a browser-based videoconferencing tool on smartphones, tablets, or desktops. 1DocWay also includes a scheduling feature and a medical record to store health data for physicians.
“We’re not a direct to consumer application,” 1DocWay CEO Samir Malik told MobiHealthNews. “Instead what we’re doing is helping hospitals that have access to a psychiatrist connect with nursing homes and smaller hospitals that don’t. In doing so, what we’re doing is really taking providers from places where they already exist and using technology to have them deliver services into settings where psychiatry is terribly needed but unavailable today.”
According to Med City News, the recently raised funds will be used primarily for product support, sales, and marketing to help the company continue its expansion. 1DocWay has recently hired seven employees to support the expansion, according to Malik.
Susan Mathis, RN, COO CenterPointe Hospital said, “1DocWay has been instrumental in building and maintaining our telepsychiatry program. They went above and beyond in connecting us to remote facilities and ensuring that all the parties involved benefited from their platform. We’ve seen higher than expected ROI so far and we look forward to growing our telepysch program with their support.”
“We admire 1DocWay’s focus on a vulnerable (and enormous) population of the 80 million Americans living in rural communities with limited access to local psychiatric professionals,” Rock Health Founder and Managing Director Halle Tecco said in a statement. “The company’s founding team has an impressive background and expertise in the psychiatric field, well-positioning them to make a huge impact on behavioral health.”