Hybrid musculoskeletal care provider IncludeHealth raises $11M

The company also announced it hired Ray Shealy as its new COO

It's estimated that over 126 million Americans, or half the adult population of the United States, has a musculoskeletal condition; arthritis is the most common cause of disability, affecting 51.8 million, half of people aged 65 and older.

While physical therapy is an essential service to treat musculoskeletal pain and injuries, it can be a challenge to access, and that is where IncludeHealth comes in. The company, a provider of musculoskeletal technology solutions, blending of onsite and remote MSK care, announced an $11 million round of funding on Thursday led by CincyTech, with participation from Tamarind Hill and other investors, bringing its total funding to $22 million.

The company's offering, called MSK-OS, is a remote care platform powered by computer vision to deliver personalized and measured care in patients’ homes. MSK-OS runs on phones, tablets, and laptops without the need for any additional hardware or downloads and provides the patient real-time feedback, while also collecting objective adherence and performance data for their clinician to review in between visits. 

MSK-OS was developed in collaboration with Cincinnati Children’s Medical Center, the US Air Force, Google, and ProMedica, and partners with health systems, physical therapy networks, orthopedic practices, and the government to deliver hybrid musculoskeletal care. 

"IncludeHealth was founded to break down the barriers of accessing PT by partnering with providers and leveraging technology to extend their care beyond their clinics to offer hybrid services," CEO and founder Ryan Eder told VatorNews. 

The company works with musculoskeletal providers such as physical therapy networks, orthopedic practices, health systems and the government. The platform is utilized to deploy Remote Therapeutic Monitoring and under Value-Based Care initiatives. 

There are a number of companies in the MSK companies, such as Luna, Kaia Health, and Sword Health, that have raised big funding rounds; what separates IncludeHealth from those other is its hybrid approach, explained Eder.

"There are multiple approaches to delivering MSK. Some companies were built as virtual providers with an objective to save costs for employers or health plans by circumventing traditional providers. Others were built to partner with providers to extend their reach beyond their clinic. We fall in the latter category. We believe hybrid care is the ultimate solution - a seamless blend of onsite and remote services from your local providers," he said.

"In an effort to extend care beyond the clinic, some achieve this by offering additional third party clinicians. This can cause care continuity challenges and higher costs to operate. Our approach is to provide a highly efficient and engaging platform that can meet the patient where they are and deliver customized care from their local providers without the need for additional third party clinicians."

In addition to the new funding, IncludeHealth also announced that Ray Shealy will join its new Chief Operating Officer, and that Grant Koster will join the company's board of directors.

"Ray is a health tech entrepreneur veteran and has decades of building and scaling companies within the sector. He is a great add to the leadership team as we transition to the next growth phase of the company," said Eder.

"Grant is a clinician by trade and spent 20 years building and operating one of the prominent physical therapy networks in our country. In contrast to others that have health plan executives as board members, we felt it was important to have representation from the providers and adding his deep experience and understanding of the industry further positions us to offer the most appropriate solution per their needs."

The new funding will be used to expand MSK-OS, which means growing its team to support customer growth across all its segments and continuing to innovate the platform.

"We want to measurably lower the barriers of accessing physical therapy and become the prominent partner to deliver hybrid care," said Eder.  

(Image source: includehealth.com)