Moving Analytics' CEO talks future of virtual heart care

In the push to decentralize health care, virtual cardiac care is the latest digital health frontier, Moving Analytics CEO Harsh Vathsangam tells Axios.

Why it matters: Remote heart health management represents a fast-beating subsector of the digital health industry that's drawing interest from venture capitalists and private equity investors alike.

Driving the news: As digital tools to remotely monitor patients grow increasingly sophisticated, investors are seeing opportunities to better tackle a long underserved (but sizable) market in virtual cardiac care.

Details: Moving Analytics collected $20 million in Series A funding earlier this summer, and other players raking in dollars include:

• Story Health, which raised $22m in a Series A round in February co-led by Northpond Ventures and B Capital Group.
• Hello Heart, which gathered $70m in Series D funds in May led by Stripes growth equity.
• Cleerly, which raised $192m in a "hearty" Series C last month in a round joined by Peter Thiel.

How it works: Moving Analytics contracts with health plans as an in-network provider and works with surgery centers and ICUs to refer patients to its services.

• The company focuses most of its efforts on value-based care organizations such as Allegheny Health Network and Kaiser Permanente.

By the numbers: To date, Moving Analytics has served 5,000 patients.

• "There are 3.5 million people who’ve had a severe heart event such as a heart attack and all of them need after-care," says Vathsangam. "But many are not getting it because of access issues."

State of play: As HMOs and PPOs increasingly recognize cardiac care as a large area of spend, specialty practices — including cardiac clinics — are getting a larger reimbursement share, Vathsangam says.

• The first wave of digital health tackled the industry's low-hanging fruit, he says, tracking basic metrics like steps, sleep and general activity.

• The next wave was employer-facing care, which focused largely on mental health, weight loss and musculoskeletal conditions.
• Now comes the flood of digital health startups targeting specialties like cardiac — which Vathsangam welcomes. "There’s plenty of room for several companies here," he says. "Not everyone’s going to cover everyone geographically."

Flashback: The COVID pandemic turbocharged telehealth across all specialties, but Vathsangam remembers a time when virtual and remote care wasn't a priority.

• Pre-pandemic, Vathsangam presented his company's entirely virtual approach to heart health at a cardiac board meeting — and was laughed out of the room.
• "It was definitely a different world," Vathsangam recalls.

Of note: Axios scooped yesterday that PE is getting in on the act, too, as Pivotal Healthcare Partners preps itself for sale.