It’s been a good year for Digital Assent. Since winning the “2010 Cool Technology of the Year” award presented by TechAmerica and the Technology Association of Georgia in December, the Atlanta-based healthcare technology startup has raised nearly $12 million in funding and sold its flagship product to doctors’ offices in 25 different states.
That product – called the PatientPad® – serves as an electronic replacement for the “paper clipboard” used at the check-in counter of most hospitals, clinics and doctor’s offices in the United States. The wireless touch-screen solution automates the check-in process and delivers targeted health information and advertising to interested patients while they sit in their provider’s waiting or exam room. The device also eases the doctor’s ability to collect and maintain the patient’s medical information.
“One of life’s biggest frustrations is going to the doctor’s office, filling out the same information multiple times on a paper clipboard, and then sitting in the waiting room leafing through old magazines while you wait to see the doctor,” said Andrew Ibbotson, president and CEO of Digital Assent. “This is the problem we set out to fix.”
Founded by Ibbotson and CTO Tim Collins, Digital Assent raised $2 million in Series A funding at the beginning of the year and more recently received $7.5 million in a Series B investment round led by Sanan Private Equity, the BIP Opportunities Fund and Buckhead Investment Partners (BIP). In addition, the ATDC member company expects to soon close on an additional $2.5 million in debt financing from Silicon Valley Bank. These funds will help finance the startup’s rapid growth and pay for more staff, as well as point-of-care and group coupon offerings delivered by the company’s new PatientCoupons service, which lets physicians offer cost-saving incentives on current or future elective products, services and procedures.
Since January, Digital Assent has sold nearly 1,500 PatientPads to 175 practices nationwide. But with Digital Assent planning to soon launch the technology in major metropolitan markets including Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, and Washington D.C., they expect that sales number to grow significantly by year’s end.