Our palm pilots tell us when important stuff is scheduled to happen. Doesn't it make sense for doctors to be able to remind their patients in the same way? After all, who can keep track of hundreds of follow up dates, prescriptions and annual check ups?
Ann Arbor-based Cielo MedSolutions asked these very questions and ended up with a successful business. The University of Michigan spin-off specializes in making sure doctors connect with their patients when its time for a checkup, test or treatment they might otherwise forget.
"Doctors have no idea when you're due for something because it's all in a manila folder," says Dave Morin, CEO of Cielo MedSolutions.
The company, founded in 2005, has grown to 10 employees today and expects to expand to 60 to 80 employees, primarily in Ann Arbor, within four years. It expects to accomplish this by taking its product national.
In 2006, Cielo licensed its software and slowly began selling it in Michigan. Within 18 months Morin and his partner Jim Price realized their product's potential market was a lot bigger than expected.
It probably helped that the company claimed that their software, if used properly, could help cut down on unnecessary procedures and provide doctors with up to a 200 percent return on their investment. Cielo is now planning to sell its health management software in eight states outside Michigan.
"In January we said this is real," Morin says. "If we make sure a diabetic gets his feet examined every year it's cheaper than having to amputate it."
Source: Dave Morin, CEO of Cielo MedSolutions
Writer: Jon Zemke
Enjoy this story?
Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.