Sprinter Health and Story Health unveiled a collaboration Thursday to help bring healthcare-at-home to heart disease patients.
Sprinter Health, a mobile diagnostics company, will bring its at-home testing services to the partnership, while Story Health will offer its “scalable” specialty care. The project will initially be rolled out to patients in Utah, with plans to expand to other states in the future.
Along with telehealth, at-home care expanded significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, offering patients a more convenient way to get routine check-ups or lab tests done without leaving their homes.
Max Cohen, CEO and co-founder at Sprinter Health, noted in a statement that the partnership will focus on keeping people healthy outside of their typical doctor visits, with a concentration on preventative care.
“As we’ve gotten to know the Story Health team, we’ve been highly impressed with their pioneering approach to care that focuses on a patient’s journey outside of the doctor’s office, where keeping folks healthy through proactive interventions is key,” Cohen said.
Nearly half of Americans are faced with heart disease at some point in their lives, according to the American Heart Association. The various conditions within that umbrella — including hypertension and heart failure — also add up to a significant burden on the health system, amounting to some $219 billion per year.
Because patients with heart disease typically have to travel to health clinics for a myriad of appointments, medication adjustments and lab testing, they may often find themselves less likely to commit to all of those in-person meetings. Factors like transportation barriers or work schedules may also impede heart disease patients from adhering to appointments or medications.
“[W]e see time and time again how logistical challenges can significantly impede patients’ ability to receive optimal care,” Story Health CEO Tom Stanis said in a statement. “Tasks like transportation to complete lab work can be debilitating obstacles for these patients.”
He said that Sprinter Health’s decision to partner with Story enables medication regimen adjustments to happen safely and efficiently outside of a clinic visit, “ensuring patients receive optimal care sooner.”
This is Sprinter Health’s latest effort to expand preventive care offerings to people at home. In November, Sprinter Health announced another partnership with virtual primary care company Firefly Health to boost care services at home — ranging from lab blood draws, vitals checks and electrocardiograms to diabetic screenings.
