Axios Pro Exclusive Content

Moving Analytics' CEO talks future of virtual heart care

Illustration of a hand putting a coin into a heart through a slot.

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

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.

Go deeper