Kevin Riddleberger, Chief Strategy Officer at Dispatch Health, is the latest person in our interview series. He has nearly 15 years of experience in the healthcare industry as a clinician and in management.
Prior to DispatchHealth, Kevin was the head of clinical solutions and strategy at an industry leading consumer mobile health app company called iTriage. He has been a board certified physician assistant for over a decade.
In addition to DispatchHealth, Kevin is an active advisor in the healthcare industry start-up community locally in Colorado providing both business and clinical expertise.
In his spare time Kevin and his wife enjoy traveling, photography, and contemporary art. Kevin also enjoys staying active in the Colorado mountains by running, playing soccer, tennis, skiing, mountain biking and chasing around his 4 year old twins; Avery and Reiss.
Here’s what he had to say…
How would you pitch your company? What’s your elevator pitch?
DispatchHealth is looking to redefine healthcare delivery through mobile and virtual healthcare. A rapidly scaling Denver, Colo., startup, we provide right-sized healthcare through the power of technology, convenience and service.
DispatchHealth is striving to create an integrated, convenient, high-touch triage and care-delivery solution that extends the capabilities of the patient’s care team and ensures we provide definitive, quality care in the home or at the patient’s location of need. Our skilled, certified providers arrive onsite with the expertise and tools necessary to administer advanced medical care, and are supported by our technological infrastructure to ensure quality and improve outcomes.
The veteran leadership team at Dispatch Health brings together the best startup, clinical and engineering skill sets to execute on a unique business model, positioning us to address and disrupt the changing healthcare landscape. The results from our 2013- 2014 pilot demonstrated that the Dispatch Health model of mobile and virtual healthcare delivery reduces unnecessary ER ambulatory visits, as well as helps patients exit a costly 911 system when it is safe to do so.
What sets you apart from competitors?
DispatchHealth arrives after an initial wave of healthcare innovation started to purge legacy thinking and created exciting new healthcare technologies. Consumers are ready and receptive to alternative healthcare delivery options — especially when those options provide greater convenience and decrease healthcare expenditure. Doctors and hospital systems understand the infrastructure is in place to effectively deliver healthcare with improved outcomes. Everyone wins, but DispatchHealth is uniquely positioned to address the following issues:
- $4.4 billion wasted in unnecessary ER care annually
- 37% of ER visits are estimated to be unnecessary
- Potentially avoidable senior living admissions cost more than $4 billion annually
- One study has found Medicaid expansion increased ER visits by 40 percent
- 3.8 million 911 transports are unnecessary or inappropriate (17-25 percent annual)
What’s your business model?
- Direct-to-employer
- Direct-to-consumer
- Health system collaboration
- Executed payer contracts
- Patent-pending technology development
- 911 diversion and EMS integrations
Can you share some numbers? How many users do you have?
Formerly True North Health Navigation, DispatchHealth has been in existence since 2013. We recently completed an eighteen month-long proof of concept pilot in the Denver metro area, delivering successfully on outcome metrics, provider and patient experience. We were able to reduce unnecessary ER ambulatory visits, as well as helps patients exit a very costly 911 system when it is safe to do so – saving nearly $1 million on 400 patients.
We will continue to grow our user based through multiple channel partnerships and with the release of consumer technology solutions in the very near future which will enable convenient access to care via a mobile app.
Where do you see the company going from here?
Target new markets with health system, employer and EMS relationships. We have some partner relationships that will allow us to quickly scale in our next markets…
How long are we from seeing modern mHealth technologies going mainstream?
It is my belief we have already seen the modern mHealth technologies going mainstream through recent rise of consumer driven healthcare and the broad adoption of consumer / provider mobile health apps and connected devices. I believe we have shifted from an mHealth system to a connected health system through the rise of consumer HIT products, sensors, big data, telemedicine, point of care solutions and machine learning clinical algorithms to benefit the patient, provider and payer.