Surgical Optimization Company Pip Care Raises $5M in New Funding, Led by A1 Health Ventures

New York, Oct. 17, 2024 – Pip Care, a company that optimizes the surgical journey for care teams and patients, today announced a total Series A raise of $5 million in equity funding. The round was led by A1 Health Ventures, with participation from existing investor UPMC Enterprises.  

The successful Series A close comes on the heels of Pip Care being awarded a $2.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to launch a trial of its platform in 2,000 patients. Pip Care partners with health systems and their surgical specialty teams to offer best-in-class care to patients throughout the surgical journey by coupling a smart phone app with a real-life health coach. 

“This raise reaffirms the work we have done so far and fuels our next phase of growth to ensure we deliver the most impactful, tech-enabled, human-powered medical optimization platform to health systems, surgical care teams and their patients,” said Kathy Kaluhiokalani, founder and chief executive officer, of Pip Care.

Pip Care is the first mobile app to pair a digital platform that provides perioperative and post-operative instructions to patients with one-on-one telehealth coaches who check in regularly to assist patients throughout their surgical journey. This includes evidence-based protocol tracking, surgery and surgeon-specific perioperative and post-operative instructions to improve outcomes and reduce complications, and care coordination so patients can achieve their surgical goals. Recent academic research revealed that patients who used Pip Care had to stay in the hospital for nearly a day less than their counterparts who didn’t use the app, and cut in half their risk of readmission within a week of surgery.  

“Pip Care’s differentiated service offering deploys health coaches to conduct live sessions with patients, enhancing patient engagement, adherence and satisfaction. This ultimately drives better outcomes for patients, lowers costs for health systems, and enables standardization, consistency and reduction in administrative burden for care teams,” said Rachel Kern, managing director at A1 Health Ventures. 

Launched in 2022, Pip Care is the first company to be created out of a collaboration between global healthcare venture builder Redesign Health and UPMC Enterprises, the innovation, commercialization and venture capital arm of UPMC.  

“Pip Care is an example of the clinician-originated, patient-focused companies we value at UPMC Enterprises,” said Pip Care Chief Medical Officer Aman Mahajan, M.D., Ph.D., M.B.A., senior vice president of health innovation at UPMC Enterprises and executive director of UPMC Perioperative and Surgical Services. “As the research shows, this approach results in improved surgical outcomes by providing patients timely support for evidence-based perioperative care, when and where they need it.” 

In preparation for elective surgery, doctors will often recommend patients follow evidence-based protocols – known as ‘prehabilitation’ – to improve their health. These can include improving their nutrition, physical conditioning, psychological support and stopping smoking. Pip Care helps patients adhere to these protocols by simplifying the doctor’s presurgical instructions into daily tasks that are easy to understand and complete. The health coach answers questions and keeps the patient accountable. Finally, Pip Care also coaches patients through post-surgical care, such as understanding discharge instructions, wound care and the importance of proper pain management.  

Pip Care improves clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction, without increased staffing or complicated workflows. By streamlining processes for care teams, Pip Care allows teams to move more than 20 patient touch points to Pip Care, saves over 10 hours of front office time per patient and empowers clinicians to function at the top of their licenses.  

The high-touch, high-tech platform enables health systems to build personalized programs for patients, leveraging a digital platform to streamline, simplify and optimize all aspects of the surgical journey.  

Bass, Berry & Sims served as outside counsel to Pip Care in their Series A round.