Modern hospitals and clinical institutions have become increasingly reliant on healthcare software systems. Touch screens, tablets, and internet reports have quickly replaced paper-based files and written patient information. All of this has been made possible by huge advances in the realms of information technology. Technological improvements have made life easier for hospital administrators around the world.
The requirement for a comprehensive patient information system spawned the concept of healthcare management platforms. The primary focus of these platforms is managing patient records. The demand for healthcare management solution is attracting many entrepreneurs to develop such platforms. To cater to this demand, Maree Baeree an enthusiastic entrepreneur established her companies Wanngi and Clinials, to track and communicate the health of people.
Maree Beare is a sector leader in HealthTech, Femtech, and Biotech, and has been listed by Forbes in the top 50 women-led startups disrupting Healthtech. She has over 30 years innovation experience, navigating global software companies and executed many large and high-profile projects to meet company and government strategy. Maree now brings this leadership to the Startup and Innovation sector and the healthtech, femtech, and biotechnology sectors globally.
The Inception Story of Wanngi and Clinials
In 2017, Maree created Wanngi when she realized that it was a problem for consumers to make decisions about their own health when they had no access to their own health data. “I imagined a world where people could improve their chances of being diagnosed by providing their health history to the various doctors and hospitals they might see during their life,” says Maree.
Maree is of the opinion that hospitals and doctor’s health systems are not connected, resulting in people having to repeat their health history over and over at each health appointment leading to miscommunication and misdiagnosis.
Fast forward to 2020, Maree’s husband went on a clinical trial and was required to report any adverse events by completing a paper form. Opening Maree’s eyes to the issues with participating on clinical trials where lifesaving treatments are not making it to market as 80% research trials fail to find enough people.
In 2021, Maree launched Clinials, providing efficiencies in the $47 Billion clinical trials market by disrupting the existing study participant recruitment process, so people are getting access to more effective treatment sooner. “We aim to Enhance patent recruitment per clinical trial to improve site economics for clinical trials leading to Improved treatment and patient outcomes and for many, this means improving life quality (QALY),” shared Maree.
Braving the Pandemic
During the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Maree and her team switched to working from home and returned to the office only when officials allowed. Maree believes that the pandemic has sped up innovation in healthcare due to the dire necessity. It led to the increased use of telehealth for safety and convenience of continued care.
The pandemic has escalated the need for decisions around a person’s health status and the requirement for access to COVID-19 test results and vaccination status. There’s a great deal of noise and uncertainty about accessing this data for consumers.
However, Wanngi is fit for purpose as a consumer personal health record, so it was ready and able to store and provide evidence of COVID-19 tests and continues to help people provide their health history during a telehealth appointment.
However, with the focus on COVID-19, the health management of people with chronic illness declines and the aftermath of pandemic will see a burden of late-stage chronic illness on the healthcare system. Clinials will provide the platform to connect these patients to any clinical trial relevant to their health conditions, where they meet the inclusions and exclusions of the study.
Leveraging Technology
When asked for her opinion on the importance of technology in the healthcare industry, Maree says, “Companies seek to be economically sustainable, and healthcare is no exception. Technology will drive efficiencies in healthcare as well as improving patient outcomes with AI and innovation, and in the future, it will continue to develop in dramatic ways.”
“While we can take a glimpse and debate the details of future trends in healthcare, we need to be clear about the drivers so we can align with them and actively work to ensure the best outcomes for society as a whole,” adds Maree.
Maree aspires to overthrow the misconception that investment cycles in healthcare are the same as traditional investments. “History tells us that it takes 10 years to be an overnight success in Healthtech,” she added.
Envisaging Future Endeavors
Clinials is uniquely positioned to secure product led growth moving forward into 2022 and beyond. Having raised pre-seed funding in 2021 and preparing for a larger raise in early 2022, the company is ready to expand the team to support its customers. It is focused on building the innovation roadmap to decrease cost of trial marketing, recruitment and leveraging Machine learning and AI to accelerate product-led growth and continue Clinials customer retention.
“I have already delivered on the future strategy by launching Clinials this year in response to the opportunities of Australia being relatively COVID-19 free, and there being a verified problem to solve with participant recruitment in clinical trials to enable Australia to be globally competitive in research of new treatments,” concludes Maree.
