Without a doubt, one of our favorite aspects of the SEMDA conference is meeting scores of young, investible companies that attend and pitch to the whole of the Southeastern medical device ecosystem. On day two of the conference, five startups pitched their companies reinforcing the strength of the technologies coming out of the Southeast. Congratulations to each of our PitchRounds finalists Myolyn, SweetBio, Patientory, Demore MUSC, and Contego Medical. The competition was exceptionally tight but at the end of the day, Patientory claimed the top prize.

Accepted as the first healthcare transformer in Boomtown’s Healthcare Accelerator, in partnership with Colorado Permanente Medical Group, Patientory is the first and only distributed blockchain cybersecurity technology for healthcare. They combine the power of rapid and secure medical record access with a patient community platform to reduce healthcare data breach and provide a centralized patient record depository- connecting the provider with the entire patient history to enable better chronic care management.

As we all know, patient history storage is fragmented. Each healthcare provider has their own Electronic Medical Record (EMR) vendor and platform. Those systems do not speak to other hospitals, practices, or specialists making it difficult for all parties to achieve care coordination. Patientory changes that by utilizing blockchain technology.

Patientory CEO, Chrissa McFarlane, recently shared with us a few insights about the company’s SEMDA 2017 experience.

What was your experience at SEMDA 2017 like?

“SEMDA proved to be a very worthwhile experience. Not only did our team feel a real sense of validation upon winning the SEMDA PitchRounds $10K cash prize and invitation to attend AdvaMed 2017, we were able to meet many industry leaders and investors which made our time at the conference an experience of high value. Let me say, it was an overwhelmingly positive experience.

I have presented our company during multiple pitch competitions but SEMDA was by far the most healthcare focused I have experienced. It was amazing to explain Patientory’s solution without needing to explain the current state of healthcare or the dated standard of EMR keeping. And because SEMDA is THE place for medtech leaders in the SE, I received quality feedback from industry mavens that are well versed in the space- SEMDA was a valuable experience for our team.”  

What were the results?

“Everyone I spoke to following the PitchRounds and throughout the entire conference were savvy healthcare leaders who could see right off the bat that we were meeting a real need. We had meetings with multiple investors and vendors during SEMDA- and the connections we made during those two days are continuing to evolve.”

What advice would you give medtech startups considering attending?

“Definitely utilize the resources provided by SEMDA and take full advantage of the annual conference as a place to meet vendors and potential partners. SEMDA is a great networking opportunity and by far the premier medtech event in the Southeast. I know SEMDA is an event that we will continually attend in the years to come.”

The company recently announced a raise of $7.2 million in an “initial coin offering” crowd sale. WOW! Driven by 1,728 investors, the company reached it’s funding goal in three short days- changing the game and utilizing an innovative funding model. The funds raised will be used to officially launch the Patientory platform.

Congratulations and thank you, Chrissa! We can’t wait to see Patientory grow and what you will have in store for us at SEMDA 2018 and beyond!

We are already counting down the days until SEMDA 2018 in Greenville, SC. In the meantime, follow SEMDA on LinkedIn and Twitter to stay up to date with the latest southeastern medtech news and events like our Medtech Women@SEMDA conference.