Congestive heart failure affects 5.7 million Americans and costs the system $30.5 billion including the cost of health care services, medications and in lost productivity due to missed days at work.
A myriad efforts are underway to tackle both the treatment and the cost burden of the disease. The chief executive officer of one startup, Woodridge, Illinois-based Endotronix that recently raised $32 million in a Series C round, believes that a hardware and software strategy might be a winning combination in managing CHF patients.
The software strategy allows the company to make some headway commercially quickly, said Harry Rowland, in a recent phone interview. That's because it is a disease management platform that can help cardiology practices and heart failure clinics manage their sick patients remotely — without having to intervene only for them to be rushed to the ER. There is a big penalty to hospitals these days for repeat admissions of heart failure patients within 30 days of a hospital discharge.
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