Interview with Harsh Vathsangam, CEO of Moving Analytics

Harsh Vathsangam

Today we’re “speaking” with Harsh Vathsangam, CEO of Moving Analytics. He holds a PhD in mobile health from the University of Southern California, and has over 7 years of experience in designing and testing technologies for mobile health. In the past, Vathsangam has developed technology platforms for obesity, physical activity monitoring and cerebral palsy. Here’s what he had to say…

How would you pitch your company? What’s your elevator pitch?

One line: We help hospitals increase enrollment in and revenues from cardiac rehab.

30 second: 3 million people in the US have coronary artery disease. Cardiac rehabilitation is an evidence-based program offered to CAD patients to improve their cardiovascular fitness. A patient who does cardiac rehab cuts their risk of having a second heart attack by half. However, only 20% of eligible patients attend cardiac rehab because of time commitments (36 visits to the hospital) and high out of pocket costs ($1800 out of pocket even with insurance). We help cardiac centers capture and retain additional patients and earn additional revenues. We do this by enabling them to implement billable, home-based programs through their patients’ smartphones and tablets.

What sets you apart from competitors?

We use an evidence-based program that’s been shown to have the same clinical outcomes as traditional rehab and digitize it so it can be done at home on a smartphone or tablet. We combine clinical evidence with delightful useful experiences. We are integrated into billing and make it seamless for hospitals to document and bill for services they provide using our platform. We aim to provide the best possible patient experience to help them cope with heart disease and the best possible experience for cardiac staff to provide quality care to as many patients as possible.

What’s your business model?

We charge a per patient license fee.

Can you share some numbers? How many users do you have?

We’re working with 3 major providers but are not at liberty to reveal their names for a few months, but you will hear about them in the news soon!


Where do you see the company going from here?

We want to focus on improving our product offerings by reaching more patients and continuing to push the envelope on evidence-based remote cardiac rehab.

Where do you see the mHealth industry going?

I think mHealth industry has made giant strides in the last few years. We are finally understanding that it’s not about apps or devices but about what kinds of services will be enabled with these devices. We are increasingly seeing more and more telehealth applications coming out. This is great news for patients because it brings convenience to their lifestyles without sacrificing on quality of care. It is also beneficial for hospitals and clinicians because they get to treat only the most urgent patients at the hospital and keep the remaining populations at home. It is also good news for insurers because telehealth approaches can potentially bring down cost of care. The great news is that Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services is also catching up and has unleashed new reimbursement codes to support this. As hospitals transition from fee for service to fee for value models, I predict that they will increasingly turn to mHealth technologies to keep their populations healthy.

How long are we from seeing modern mHealth technologies going mainstream?

It’s already happening. I think in 2 years we will see mHealth-based care being the primary mode of delivery. What I am particularly interested in seeing is how prevalent they will be outside the US, particularly in high population developing nations like India and China. Those countries already have a huge mobile phone user base and are starting to have epidemics of chronic diseases.