Boston-based Candescent Health has its sights set on improving workflow and processes for arguably the most important — and nearly 100 percent digital — function in most hospitals: radiology.
"Candescent Health is enabling real transformation in healthcare. We have spent the last 10 years re-engineering a physician practice to produce quantifiably better results. Based on that experience, we know that great people, great software, great process and great data can fundamentally reshape the care delivery model," Scott Seidelmann, CEO of Candescent, wrote in a September blog post. "We have codified our experience into a solution that enables all healthcare stakeholders to drive and realize greater healthcare value."
According to Mr. Seidelmann, focusing on enabling transformation in radiology is crucial because it is an enormous industry and one that touches most patients and disease categories. Radiology has a significant impact on patient outcomes and financial outcomes for providers.
Candescent announced a partnership with Cleveland Clinic in October aimed at transforming radiology care at the clinic by improving quality standards, enhancing workflow and creating an efficient nationwide cloud-based radiology network through its RadPerform platform.
Scott Seidelmann, CEO of Candescent Health, took time to talk about the startup, its RadPerform software and the future impact of improving radiology care with Becker's Hospital Review.
Q: What is the unmet need Candescent hopes to address? What is unique about the solutions the company offers?
Scott Seidelmann: Healthcare as an industry has great intentions, but lacks the tools and knowledge to consistently deliver on those intentions. We at Candescent Health want to enable real transformation by improving healthcare value through defined quality standards, enhanced workflow processes and the creation of an efficient, nationwide cloud-based radiology network.
Our solution, RadPerform, is more than just software. It includes three critical, integrated components including a cloud-based and data/rules driven workflow, a 24/7 workflow monitoring support center and ongoing performance analytics. Through this solution, we enable radiologists to provide better care, increase efficiencies and improve healthcare value.
Q: How does acting as a startup position your company to fix this issue? Are there disadvantages or advantages to working in the startup sphere?
Mr. Seidelmann: When our parent company, Radisphere, was sold to Sheridan Health this past January, we were able to retain the intellectual property of software and then commercialized the Radisphere experience, technology, business processes and data into our software-enabled service. While most startups start from the ground up, we were able to hit the ground running and immediately start to implement change within radiology care delivery. That said, being a startup gives us the flexibility to deliver IT as a service and align our business model with the success of our clients.
Q: What challenges do healthcare startups face that are different from young companies in other sectors?
Mr. Seidelmann: Healthcare has been a notoriously slow moving industry. Regulatory, payment and cultural complexity make healthcare an exceedingly difficult industry to change.
Q: How does your solution fit into the bigger picture of healthcare?
Mr. Seidelmann: Health systems today need to improve quality, lower costs, increase revenue, and when at risk, lower the total cost of care. Because radiology touches almost every patient and every episode, we enable radiologists to impact quality, cost, revenue and value.
Q: What projects or expansions are you planning for in the near future?
Mr. Seidelmann: Today, we improve quality, productivity and satisfaction. Tomorrow, we will enable radiologists to quantifiably improve emergency department throughput, lower lengths of stay and lower the cost of care in a value-based environment.