Startup aiming to root out misdiagnoses in radiology raises $25M in new funding
A New York-based startup aiming to root out misdiagnoses in radiology has raised $25 million in new funding, leaders announced Monday.
Covera Health said the Series C financing comes by way of private equity firm Insight Partners, with additional contributions from existing investors. Founded in 2017, the analytics company has established a Radiology Centers of Excellence Program, working with payers, physicians and employers to steer patients to high-quality imaging. Covera made headlines in 2019 when it partnered with Walmart to help the retail giant’s employees avoid “misguided and unnecessary” treatment stemming from imprecise image interpretation.
“An accurate radiology diagnosis is an essential ingredient in effective downstream medical care across domains as varied as heart disease, cancer, chronic pain and musculoskeletal disorders,” Lonne Jaffe, managing director at New York-based Insight Partners, said in a statement. “We’re excited to continue this journey with Covera as they harness their powerful artificial intelligence platform to transform how healthcare is measured and delivered, with the potential to benefit hundreds of millions of patients across the globe.”
Covera’s quality analytics program utilizes advanced data science and AI to generate “robust” measures of diagnostic accuracy across pathologies and patient types. Data help radiologists to validate their accuracy in relation to peers, and pair patients with members of the specialty who excel at diagnosing a specific concern. Currently, its radiology program touches more than 1 million covered patient lives, according to its website, and is used by some of the largest employers and health plans in the U.S.
The company plans to use its new capital to further scale the radiology program, enhance the platform’s medical error detection technology, and deepen data integration across payers and providers. Covera said it expects to “dramatically” increase the number of users in the coming months.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.