H1 Insights, a New York startup that developed a platform where healthcare professionals can connect, announced Wednesday it closed on a $12.9 million Series A round.
Described as the “LinkedIn for the healthcare industry,” H1 has scraped data from peer-reviewed publications, clinical trials and about 16,000 healthcare organizations to create more than eight million professional profiles to date. Each profile lays out the person’s expertise, interests, publications and involvement in clinical trials. The platform is meant to be a space where doctors in different specialities can communicate with each other, and a tool for pharmaceutical companies to find relevant physicians for trials and treatments.
Although most clinical trials have been halted as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, H1 marketing lead Josh Pirtle told Built In that the platform has been useful in finding doctors who are treating patients with the novel coronavirus, a vital first step in finding a potential treatment.
“Once you find the doctor, you’ll receive pertinent information to their medical cases and have the opportunity to reach out and collaborate,” Pirtle said via email. “Our platform will tell you the date they treated them, how many they have treated, and all the contact information ... one would need to get in touch with them.”
The company is also offering free access to the platform for healthcare professionals in need of medical supplies, providing them with an additional way to source the items they need to take on the pandemic.
H1 counts seven of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies as clients. Founded in 2017, the company claims to have seen 350 percent growth over the last year. To meet demand, Pirtle says H1 has been adding members to its team almost weekly over the last couple months. While the company does not have a set number in mind, this most recent funding will be used to hire as many people as it needs to sustain its growth. “Whatever that will take is what we will do,” Pirtle said.
Data has never been more important — or readily available — than it is right now. But making sense of it all and finding what is relevant is a challenge, which means H1 will be increasingly important both in the era of COVID-19 and beyond.
“With the current state of our economy and the lack of face-to-face interactions that pharmaceutical companies’ and medical affairs department are accustomed to, having in-depth, accurate information is more important than ever,” Pirtle said. “H1 has the largest platform of healthcare provider information and is proud of its reputation of having the most accurate and most frequently updated platform in the world.”
