Healthleap’s platform continuously analyzes information across a patient’s electronic health record, including physician notes, vital signs, lab results and existing orders. Each morning, it produces a prioritized list of patients showing risk factors for conditions that may otherwise be missed by busy clinical teams.
The company says its technology is already being used in more than 50 hospitals, including Penn Medicine, Houston Methodist, Cedars-Sinai and Emory Healthcare.
Healthleap’s initial focus is disease-related malnutrition, a condition that can be difficult for hospitals to identify consistently. Many hospitals still rely on short admission surveys, which can be ineffective when patients are unable to answer questions because they are sedated, confused or seriously ill.
Research cited by the company indicates that as many as half of hospitalized patients may be at risk for malnutrition, while fewer than 9% receive a formal diagnosis. Healthleap says missed cases can contribute to longer stays, higher mortality and as much as $58 billion in annual costs across the U.S. healthcare system.
“Every week, millions of patients leave hospitals with unresolved health conditions that will erode their health and cost up to 10x more to treat later,” Healthleap co-founder and CEO Josiah Meyer said. “Finding them now is prevention, and it’s a win for everyone. Patients get treated before they get sicker. Hospitals shorten stays and are paid for the care they deliver.”
The financial case is also part of Healthleap’s pitch to hospital systems. The company says diagnosing and treating severe malnutrition can generate about $11,000 in Medicare reimbursement per patient.
At one Penn Medicine hospital, Healthleap says its software helped identify 39% more malnutrition cases. The company attributes $23.8 million in combined annual value to additional reimbursement and shorter patient stays.
Healthleap was founded in 2022 by siblings Josiah Meyer and Jemima Meyer. The idea grew out of Jemima Meyer’s clinical work, where she began developing internal tools to help care teams identify high-risk patients more quickly and work around inefficient electronic health record interfaces.
The platform is designed to insert risk information into existing clinical workflows instead of requiring teams to monitor another standalone dashboard. Healthleap says the system is HIPAA-compliant and SOC 2-certified.
“Healthleap is focused on finding patients who are being missed and getting them the care they need,” Sequoia Capital partner Alfred Lin said. “The impact for both patients and hospitals has been inspiring.”
First Round Capital co-founder and partner Josh Kopelman said the firm was drawn to the company’s effort to combine clinical risk detection with financial benefits for hospitals.
“We were immediately drawn to Healthleap’s bold vision: imagine if every hospital could use real-time AI to spot overlooked clinical risk, improve patient care, and unlock meaningful reimbursement revenue.”
Healthleap plans to use the new capital to hire across engineering, product, sales and customer success. It is also training its models to identify additional inpatient conditions beyond malnutrition.
The company is already working toward screening for early signs of congestive heart failure, hospital-acquired infections and pressure ulcers. The broader strategy is to use the same underlying system to surface risks that may be buried across a patient’s record before those conditions become more serious.
This analysis is based on reporting from citybiz & the tech buzz.
Image courtesy of Healthleap.
This article was generated with AI assistance and reviewed for accuracy and quality.
