Jennifer Schneider, cofounder of Homeward, a new venture which will offer hybrid health services in rural areas“When you look at people in rural health care markets, they have a mortality rate that is 23% higher than in people in urban markets,” says Dr. Jennifer Schneider, the former president of digital health company Livongo Health.
Her startup wants to enter the rural market with the newest telehealth technologies, with a particular eye towards improving access to specialists. The company will offer consultations to patients in remote settings via telephones, virtual meetings and in-person care when needed. “This is super important. Specialty care is eight times less frequent in rural settings than in urban areas and now a lot of it can be provided virtually,” Schneider adds.
Particularly, she says, because the Covid-19 pandemic changed the landscape of digital health. “It forwarded digital health by five or 10 years in terms of acceptance by most people.” Patients can now connect with health providers over phones, there are technologies to monitor vitals and home and even perform procedures like electrocardiograms at home.
Hemant Taneja, managing partner of venture firm General Catalyst, which led the round, was also an investor in Livongo. The investment in Homeward is the first from General Catalyst’s new $800 Creation Fund, which focuses on seed and early stage companies. Taneja says that the pandemic truly opened his eyes to health disparities between rural and urban communities, which spurred him to make the investment in Homeward. “The rural healthcare system has been eviscerated.