Perceivant is trailblazing in the rise of population health management

It’s human nature to want more — more money, more time, more nice things and more success. The drive for more is powerful and it’s probably a good thing in many cases, but it’s tricky when it comes to our health because more healthcare doesn’t necessarily equal better health in this complex industry.

Data and the technologies that make sense of it, however, are proving to be effective solutions to addressing the tricky problem of achieving and maintaining better health.

Perceivant, an Indianapolis-based company that leverages its big data heritage from being spun out of iGoDigital (before it was acquired by ExactTarget, now Salesforce), provides employers, health care organizations, and university communities the educational tools and health technology platforms they need to help their populations live healthier, more productive lives while reducing healthcare costs at the same time.

“What differentiates Perceivant from most other firms in the population health management space is our student, employee and patient engagement programs,” said Brian Rowe, CEO of Perceivant. “Whereas our competitors are publishers or well-being portals that mostly focus on health only, we have a multi-dimensional approach that is backed up by analytics.

“Perceivant helps identify areas of risk and need and then works to create the personalized educational materials and courses that will actually move the needle by reducing healthcare costs and boosting productivity.”

Perceivant Targets Wasteful “Data Dead Zones”  

Organizations that are responsible for managing the health and well-being of people are impacted by what  Perceivant calls “population data dead-zones.” These are data blind spots where little or no data is being collected about operations that have significant impact on cost, productivity, and value. Perceivant’s evidenced-based assessments and analytics provide a clear view  and give educators, employers, and healthcare providers the ability to make quick, smart decisions that  lower costs, improve productivity, and demonstrate value:

In higher education,  GPAs and test scores are used to measure students’ knowledge and abilities upon entrance to and graduation from college, but there is very little data to truly measure the efficacy of the college learning experience. Data dead-zones prevent college administrators and faculty from clearly seeing risks and designing interventions that will prevents students from dropping out and will increase graduation rates. Nearly half of employers complain that college graduates don’t have the fundamental workplace skills; colleges struggle to clearly demonstrate to students and parents a return on the tuition in which they invested.

Corporations measure employee performance, risk and well-being once a year, but corporate wellness programs fail to engage employees the rest of the year. Data dead-zones prevent companies from seeing problems that affect employees who look “healthy” but are distracted from productive work by financial stress, relationship problems, and emotional issues.

Healthcare organizations collect patient data at point of service, but fail to track what happens before or after, which is the time when patient behaviors most significantly impact healthcare costs. Data dead-zones prevent health care organizations from identifying patient behavioral risk and designing effective interventions that will reduce risk to chronic disease and injury and improve quality of care.

Academic Partnerships, Seasoned with Proven Technology

Perceivant has aggressive sales and new product launch plans in the healthcare industry and corporate markets (primarily with self-insured employers). It’s within academia that the company has focused most of its recent efforts because of its merger last August with Bearface Instructional Technologies, which offers personalized web-based learning, assessment and data analytics for higher education.

Perceivant’s Bearface products enable university faculty and administrators to measure and track efficacy of instruction in real-time, thereby demonstrating to employers that their students and graduates can communicate, solve problems, and adapt to changing environments.

There’s heightened interest from academia in population health management tools like Perceivant’s Bearface because America’s universities have a major problem they’re trying to solve. According to the U.S. Department of Education, up to 45 percent of college students drop out and multiple studies report that 50-70 percent of employers complain that graduates simply aren’t ready for the rigors of the workplace.

Chris Johnson, the founder of Bearface who now serves as president at Perceivant said during the merger: “We are investing in web-based instructional technologies that enable students to solve problems and adapt, not just memorize facts. Brian Rowe and his development team bring technical expertise and experience that enables Bearface to deliver a revolutionary learning platform for higher education.”

Smart Go-to-Market Strategy

To date, Perceivant has raised $2.5 million mostly from angel investors. According to CEO Rowe, the most recent round of $750,000 will be deployed through sales and marketing and product enhancements.

Leveraging its academic partnerships, Perceivant is now expanding into university and corporate well-being programs with a new product called “Kale.” Kale is a holistic personal development and analytics system that enables organizations to more effectively identify risks and make faster business decisions that result in lower costs, better retention of talent, and increased productivity.

Perceivant’s Data Dojo acts as the analytics and data backbone for all of the products Perceivant offers. It correlates structured and unstructured data across multiple sources to provide clarity in a complex environment.

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