Outcomes4Me Raises $4.7 Million to Help Patients Navigate Cancer Care Using AI
Company adds former Google Exec as COO and brings product out of beta after reaching 10,000 patients
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Nov. 18, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Outcomes4Me Inc., developer of a free mobile app and platform to navigate cancer treatment and care, today announced that it has raised $4.7 million in funding, led by Asset Management Ventures with participation from Sierra Ventures, Merstal Ltd. and others. A portion of the funding includes federal funds from the National Cancer Institute. The company will use the funding to expand its reach to address a variety of cancers beyond the more than 10,000 current breast cancer patients who have been using the app in the past year.
Outcomes4Me also announced that Sami Shalabi, who previously headed up engineering and product development at Google, has joined the team as chief operating officer.
Outcomes4Me is the first commercially available app to offer all breast cancer patients a personalized evidence-based experience to help them navigate their care, irrespective of their geography or healthcare provider. The app helps patients achieve better outcomes by retrieving and consolidating their health information, providing them with options for approved treatments and clinical trials, and supplying tools to manage their symptoms.
"Being diagnosed with cancer can be stressful and overwhelming. Outcomes4Me is on a mission to support patients through this journey by empowering them with easy to understand, relevant and evidence-based information," said Maya R. Said, Sc. D., founder, president and CEO of Outcomes4Me. "Patients are our highest priority as we strive to bring transparency between them and the medical field, using our continually evolving insights to improve care and accelerate research."
Using AI to Inform, Educate and Help Breast Cancer Patients Navigate Treatment Options and Clinical Trials
Outcomes4Me is a HIPAA-compliant platform and consumer app that leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to analyze medical records and provide patients with personalized actionable and timely information. Already, the technology has been applied to medical records from more than 700 different institutions throughout the United States and Canada to gain insights into treatment protocols, clinical outcomes, and patient-reported outcomes.
The app also provides patients, regardless of their race, socioeconomic status or geographic location, access to a variety of resources, including information previously targeted only to physicians, such as the National Comprehensive Cancer Network® Clinical Practice Guidelines (NCCN Guidelines®) and drug information from UpToDate Inc., Wolters Kluwer.
"Outcomes4Me is giving patients a new way to navigate their care experience," said Skip Fleshman, partner at Asset Management Ventures. "We see great potential in the company's ability to transform the way that the medical community and patients work together, not only to achieve the optimal personal outcome, but to contribute to the greater quest of discovering cures for cancer and other diseases."
Building a Team for Consumer Success
Outcomes4Me is comprised of seasoned healthcare, oncology, pharmaceutical and technology veterans. The company was co-founded by Dr. Said, a pharma industry veteran who is the former senior vice president and global head of Market Access & Science Policy at Novartis, and Dr. Osama Rahma, an NIH trained medical oncologist and nationally recognized cancer immunotherapy expert at Dana Farber Cancer Institute and assistant professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
With the recent hire of Shalabi from Google, Outcomes4Me is now expanding its team by adding a consumer sector powerhouse. "We want to continue making it simple for patients to navigate their care," noted Dr. Said. "Sami understands this goal and brings a product sophistication that I am confident will help evolve our product suite in ways that both our users and partners will love."
Shalabi brings a strong track record of founding and scaling successful consumer products. Having spent 12 years at Google, he most recently led the reinvention of Google News, which during his tenure grew to more than 1 billion users. There he also founded and led another billion-user project, Google Play Newsstand, as well as Google Play Magazines, Google Currents and Google Friend Connect. Prior to this, Shalabi co-founded Zingku, a venture-backed mobile social startup that was acquired by Google.
"Disruptive technologies, such as AI and ML, are driving massive changes in healthcare and opening opportunities to democratize access to information," said Shalabi. "Now more than ever, there's a need for services that advocate for patients and reimagine how patient care can transform outcomes for all. I'm looking forward to playing a key role in achieving this mission at Outcomes4Me."
The Outcomes4Me app is available free to users on both the Apple App Store and Google Play.
About Outcomes4Me
Outcomes4Me is on a mission to improve health outcomes by empowering patients with understandable, relevant and evidence-based information. Outcomes4Me has developed a platform for shared decision-making between patients and providers. The platform harnesses regulatory-grade, real-world data and patient experiences generating deeper insights and better outcomes to improve care and accelerate research. The Outcomes4Me mobile app enables cancer patients to make decisions and take control of their care based on information that is personalized to their specific condition, including finding treatment options, matching to clinical trials, and tracking and managing symptoms. Based in Cambridge, Mass., Outcomes4Me is a woman-led company comprised of seasoned healthcare, oncology, pharmaceutical, consumer and technology veterans. For more information, visit www.outcomes4me.com.
SOURCE Outcomes4Me Inc.
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