Listen to this article 5 min
Seattle-based health care startup PreemptiveAI is trying to build off its momentum after launching from stealth earlier this month.
PreemptiveAI co-founder and CEO Jamien McCullum said the startup has eight full-time employees, all but one of whom is based in the Seattle area. The company plans to roughly double its team in the next year, he said.
PreemptiveAI is also looking to raise new funding after launching with $6.4 million.
"We have a team of machine learning scientists. We're doing a lot of data collection, which costs," McCullum said.
He added that the company is still working through how large the new round will be and when the company plans to raise it.
Related coverage
PreemptiveAI takes health data from smartphones and wearable devices to help clinicians make real-time, predictive diagnoses. The startup uses the example of determining whether someone is likely to have a heart attack in the next month or whether someone is showing signs of an undiagnosed cancer. PreemptiveAI's tech is aimed at providers, pharmaceutical companies and payers.
McCullum said health care professionals have little info on patients when those patients leave a health care setting, and it will be hard to make predictive models without better data. The startup is working with Duke University to focus on predicting hospital readmissions and identifying rising health risks. According to McCullum, the trial will follow 2,000 patients as they discharge from the hospital, as hospital readmissions are a massive problem in health care.
PreemptiveAI is a spinout of the Seattle-based Allen Institute for AI, and McCullum said the startup still works out of that space. Although Preemptive AI will likely outgrow the space soon and start looking for a new home, he said there are no concrete plans to find a new space.
McCullum was an entrepreneur-in-residence at the Allen Institute for AI for more than two years, and he was the vice president of business development at the remote patient monitoring company Optimize Health for more than a year before that.
PreemptiveAI's investors include Inspired Capital, Meridian Street Capital and Precursor Ventures.
Looking ahead, McCullum said PreemptiveAI is building the model needed for health care innovation.
"All of those things that we aspire to do in health care, effectively transitioning from this very reactive health care system to one that's very proactive and predictive, requires better data and better models," McCullum said. "We want to be the entity that enables and unlocks that future."
