ARTICLE SUMMARY:
In its quest to deliver digital solutions to stroke survivors, Kandu Health believes it can provide the greatest value by embracing, rather than avoiding health system regulations. Excerpted from “Kandu Health: A Stroke-Focused Digital Health Company Leans Into Regulation.”
Until recently, Imperative Care might have been regarded as a medical device company singularly focused on developing thrombectomy treatments for acute ischemic stroke. Founded in 2016 by the serial medtech entrepreneur Fred Khosravi and Nick Hopkins, MD, a pioneer of endovascular treatments for stroke, the company developed the Zoom Stroke Solution, a next generation thrombectomy platform for faster and more effective clot removal. In 2021, the company’s $260 million Series D round enabled it to acquire and continue to fund Truvic Medical, the developer of an alternative thrombectomy technology called Prodigy, which removes peripheral vascular thrombus by aspiration.
But the company’s name always contained its broader vision for stroke care, for, as its website says, “reimagining the entire stroke continuum.” The large Series D round also allowed it to launch a major initiative within that strategy. In February 2023 Imperative Care announced the formation of the digital health start-up Kandu Health, which is focused on delivering care to people affected by stroke while they are in their homes. The first commercial product is designed for the post-acute phase of stroke, to improve what happens to people after they’re discharged from the hospital.
Through this tech-enabled healthcare service, each stroke survivor is paired with a clinically-licensed Kandu Navigator, who guides them through the 90-day recovery program. Kirsten Carroll, an early employee of Imperative Care and now CEO of the majority-owned subsidiary, notes, “When I joined [Imperative Care] in 2017, thrombectomy was going through explosive growth, and there is still excitement because it is such an effective procedure for large vessel occlusion. But even then, we knew that beyond the plumbing of stroke, there was much that needed to be done for stroke patients.”
To approach this, Kandu Health chose not to simply build apps that connect its target population to healthcare, or to only provide healthy choice advice through health coaches. To provide the quality and innovation the population needs, rather the company has gone in the direction of providing technology-enabled, regulated, licensed healthcare services in partnership with hospitals.
The start-up is making its initial play to hospitals and hospital systems that are part of payor provider networks or are participating in value-based care models with incentives that align with improving 90-day post-acute stroke care. That requires close attention to system rules and regulations.
“People mistake compliance, regulation, and process with a lack of innovation, and I really hope that we can prove that you can be incredibly innovative, focus on evidence, and offer well-done processes and compliance,” which sets the company apart from many digital health companies that try to avoid regulation, says Carroll. “We aren’t scared of it. We anticipate it and design for it. We hope that by creating high-quality products and services, we’ll be setting a high bar.”
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