Canopy, which makes software for oncology practices, has raised $13 million in a funding round.
The round was led by GSR Ventures with participation from Samsung Next, UpWest and others. The funding will be used to bring more employees on board across all teams, the company told Fierce Healthcare. Canopy’s clients include the Quality Cancer Care Alliance, Los Angeles Cancer Network and Cancer and Hematology Centers of Western Michigan.
The company aims to improve health outcomes for cancer patients by enabling continuous remote monitoring and physician-patient engagement. It leans on machine learning and artificial intelligence to personalize the experience based on patient treatment, disease and behavioral patterns. Canopy’s Intelligent Care Platform, which it claims is the first of its kind, features tools integrated with electronic health record systems that facilitate remote monitoring, streamline workflows and automated reimbursement capture.
The solution is currently used by six practices, which have a collective 50,000 patients, with a daily average of 100 users per practice, the company told Fierce Healthcare.
“There’s no doubt in the world that the pandemic completely changed everyone’s views on how patients, and specifically older patients, can engage with technology,” Lavi Kwiatkowsky, CEO and founder of Canopy, told Fierce Healthcare. If before COVID-19 physicians doubted that patients, especially those that are older, would use technology to self-report symptoms, now there is recognition that they do.
At one practice, Canopy’s platform has an 86% patient enrollment rate, an 88% engagement rate and a retention rate of 90% at six months among oncology practices nationwide. Later this year, the company expects to put out clinical data that show reductions in emergency department utilization and inpatient admissions, executives said.
“Lots of digital health companies will focus on simple administrative tasks but not go as far to publish outcomes and prove their technology is really changing things that matter most to patient care,” Justin Norden, M.D., partner at GSR Ventures, told Fierce Healthcare. But Canopy has done both well, he said.
“Having a proactive tool like Canopy removes barriers to care and allows patients to feel safe and share potentially serious symptoms that they may otherwise have not otherwise disclosed, and us, as a practice, to offer them timely support,” said Jeff Hunnicutt, CEO of Highlands Oncology Group, in the announcement. “This higher level of trust and communication is a subtle, but powerful paradigm shift that we’ve seen lead to dramatically improved outcomes for our patients.”