CareCam start-up gets $2.4M from IBC
The Independence Blue Cross Center for Health Care Innovation has invested $2.4 million in CareCam Health Systems, a Conshohocken start-up run largely by the management team, including chief executive Hal F. Rosenbluth, behind Take Care Health Systems Inc.
The Independence Blue Cross Center for Health Care Innovation has invested $2.4 million in CareCam Health Systems, a Conshohocken start-up run largely by the management team, including chief executive Hal F. Rosenbluth, behind Take Care Health Systems Inc.
Walgreens bought Conshohocken-based Take Care, which developed clinics in drug stores, for $249.7 million in 2008.
On April 1, IBC will start using CareCam's smart-phone-based system, which is designed to help patients with chronic diseases such as diabetes follow their care plan, said Rosenbluth, who left Walgreens, where he oversaw the company's health and wellness division, three years ago.
"The whole theory behind it is, if you follow the care plan you're provided with, you're going to get better," Rosenbluth said in an interview Wednesday. "If you get better, you're going to save money."
CareCam's customers, health plans, are also expected to save money, he said.
The IBC investment was announced Tuesday.
A South Carolina nurse, Shannon Pierce, developed CareCam's technology as a way to improve medical documentation by incorporating videos. Pierce is listed on CareCam's website as founder. Rosenbluth led a recapitalization of Pierce's business two years ago.
The current iteration of CareCam requires patients to record that they take their medicine and followed other procedures. If they don't, a message is automatically sent to a designated loved one, Rosenbluth said, whose job it is to remind the patient to do what they are supposed to do.
Periodically, the CareCam system asks the patient to take a "video selfie," Rosenbluth said. Medical professionals evaluate those videos for signs that the patient is not following their care plan, he said.
Rosenbluth said CareCam has been in discussions with a dozen health plans, but is now focused on the IBC rollout.
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