DocBookMD Secures $2.2 Million in Seed Round Funding
Austin, Texas, February 1, 2012
DocBookMD today announced the company has raised $2.2 million in seed round funding from private investors involved in the healthcare industry. The new funding will allow the company to accelerate adoption of its rapidly growing mHealth application, DocBookMD. Currently used by physicians in more than 20 states, DocBookMD allows doctors to rapidly exchange text, photos, charts, X-rays and other information to speed patient care and save valuable time.
“DocBookMD is transforming the way I work by helping me communicate in real-time with my team and the ER, as well as make quick consultations and referrals,” said Dr. Matt Rogers, an Austin cardiologist and a company investor. “It’s allowed me to make better decisions on which patients need care immediately as the ER sends me electrocardiograms which I can evaluate on the spot wherever I am.”
Unique to DocBookMD is the management team’s expertise in medicine. Co-founders are husband and wife, as well as practicing physicians: Dr. Tim Gueramy, an orthopedic surgeon, serves as CEO; and Dr. Tracey Haas, a family physician, is the company’s Chief Medical Officer. Ray Wolf, who serves as DocBookMD’s Chief Operating Officer, has a technology background which includes United Technologies, Dell, and Brocade. The company’s advisory Boards include numerous physicians such as Dr. Rogers, as well as business luminaries who include James Nolen, Distinguished Senior Lecturer in the Department of Finance at The University of Texas at Austin McCombs School of Business; Mike Betzer, CEO of Social Dynamx; and R.J. Brideau, SVP Sales and Customer Success at ReachForce.
“We’re proud to have financial backing from investors who have a deep understanding of the day-to-day communication challenges and subtleties of how physicians work,” said Dr. Gueramy.
DocBookMD is growing rapidly with 20 percent more users signing on month over month. The mobile application is available free to physicians who are members of a medical society who has signed up for the service. DocBookMD is available for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android phones. To download the application, visit the App store or Market on your smartphone.
In addition to text messages and photos, DocBookMD also allows physicians to:
- assign an urgency setting to outgoing text messages and confirm receipt
- search a local pharmacy directory, and
- search a local medical society directory to locate other doctors by name or by specialty.
As a HIPPA-compliant messaging application, DocBookMD also solves the ban on texting patient information recently imposed by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). Since July 2011, physicians who sent individually identifiable health information via a text were in violation of HIPAA regulations, a felony offense. Penalties include hefty fines of up to $50,000 or up to one year in jail or both.
DocBookMD is an exclusive HIPAA-compliant smartphone platform designed by and for physicians, creating secure networks for physicians to share patient information and collaborate with their medical colleagues. DocBookMD is offered through county and state medical societies to their members and is currently available throughout 20 states.
