Homeward Healthcare rebrands, becomes Wellopp, as company leads the way in using social health data to improve patient outcomes

TOLEDO, Ohio, Nov. 30, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Wellopp is the newly rebranded name of the award winning digital health start-up, formerly known as Homeward Healthcare.  After last year's ground-breaking study at Hurley Medical Center, Wellopp began expanding into larger health systems in Michigan, Nevada, California, and Ohio.   The success in reducing readmissions during the tragic Flint Water Crisis brought national attention to Wellopp's solutions.  However, it was the increased footprint that brought additional investors.

"We were fortunate to find a progressive health system investor, a hands-on venture fund, and a value added angel investor to come together and complete our first institutional round of funding," stated Wellopp CEO, Joseph Gough .  After being finalists at SXSW, HITLAB's World Cup, and Humana's Innovation Summit, many investors that had been watching Wellopp from the sideline decided to pull the trigger.  

Gough broke down the almost $4m investment tranche: "It starts with ProMedica Health System and their pioneering CEO, Randy Oostra.  This is going to be a transformational provider relationship for the entire patient population of Northwest Ohio.  With a $44m roadmap beyond this investment, we finally have the confidence and flexibility to execute on the long term plan that will be game changing in the world of social health analytics." 

With turbulent times ahead in the healthcare world, Wellopp's leadership knew it would be important to add investors with deep knowledge of the health insurance and financial markets.  "Arsenal Capital's Pete Reinecke gives us an investor and a board member who can help us navigate the finance obstacles of a changing healthcare landscape," said Wellopp CIO, Jon Wiedmann. 

Wellopp will use this capital infusion to continue their expansion in the Midwest and California.  "Now that we have the data to prove our position as a digital therapeutic, I believe this is the tipping point," said Wellopp's CTO, Mico Malecki.

The data that Malecki is referring to has been collected from more than 700 patients in three distinct socioeconomic settings: Flint, MI where the Medicaid population is over 80%, Royal Oak, MI where Medicare is the predominant payer, and Las Vegas, NV where the mix was almost even. In all these varied and challenging environments, the goal of 30% readmission reduction has been surpassed, culminating in 47% CHF and COPD reductions in the two Michigan hospitals.        

Wellopp's first installation in California is already expanding after just a few weeks of data.  Gough is thrilled with the results and praises his team of 22 social health "rocks stars".  From his office at ProMedica Innovation's Wildwood campus, he continued with pride: "We have great talent in Ohio and Michigan, and we need to keep it here.  Our struggle is breaking the status quo.  It's difficult to take risks and make systemic changes in healthcare.  But we have shown drastic improvements in every installation and these were all completely different demographics.  For us it's simple, what's going on between the patient's ears is far more important than what's in their chart when it comes to recovery and wellness."

For more information contact:
Eric Holmes
VP Operations / Wellopp 
419.360.2938 / telephone
[email protected] / email
@wellopphealth / Twitter

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SOURCE Wellopp