Latest / StartUp Health NOW Podcast / Particle Health’s “Quark” Sandbox Gives Healthcare Companies Secure Access to Their Medical Data

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Particle Health’s “Quark” Sandbox Gives Healthcare Companies Secure Access to Their Medical Data · StartUp Health NOW Podcast

• 0:00
  [on-hold music] I was like, "Okay, if we can actually have a company type in someone's first name, last name, date of birth, and phone number and get all their medical records in a minute, I think we're gonna retire."
• 0:21
  [laughs] Like, it's never been done before. Um, it seems to be the silver bullet to healthcare interoperability. And what we quickly learned is customers need a place to build their product.
• 0:31
  Customers need standardized data. We're, we're not selling an API, we're selling the data.
• 0:36
  [upbeat music] Welcome to StartUp Health NOW, the podcast about the entrepreneurs building the future of health and the health moonshots they're working to achieve. I'm your host, Logan Plaster.
• 0:53
  This week, as 2020 winds to a close, I wanted to revisit an interview from StartUp Health TV that was one of our most popular of the year.
• 1:01
  In October, I caught up with Troy Bannister, CEO and co-founder of Particle Health, which joined StartUp Health soon after its founding in 2018.
• 1:10
  Particle Health built an API that enables healthcare companies of all sizes to access patient data quickly and seamlessly.
• 1:18
  They've done the hard backend integration work that links medical records that you typically can only access using a fax machine to app developers.
• 1:26
  It's not unlike the way the company Plaid built the infrastructure that made it possible for apps like Venmo and Robinhood to exist in the personal banking market.
• 1:36
  I dialed up Troy for this interview because he and his team had made a big announcement, one which will be just as important in 2021 as it was the week we aired this on StartUp Health TV.
• 1:46
  They rolled out something called Quark, a platform and sandbox that will make it easy for app developers to experiment with Particle's API and build creative health solutions on top of it.
• 1:58
  I hope you enjoy the interview, and if you want more stories of health moonshot progress, make sure you subscribe to the podcast on your player of choice. We'll keep bringing you health innovation inspiration in 2021.
• 2:08
  Now, over to Troy Bannister. [upbeat music] Troy Bannister, CEO and co-founder of Particle Health, great to have you on StartUp Health TV. Thanks for having me, Logan.
• 2:26
  All right. So w- we are having this call because you just came out with a press release about a new release so fresh I haven't even fully gotten to digest it myself, about something called Quark, uh, or Quark. Yes.
• 2:39
  However you wanna pronounce it. So, uh, tell us what you just released. So this is, um, what we've been building for the last two and a half years, um, kind of coming to fruition. Um,
• 2:51
  we started Particle, and the first thing we had to do was how do we get access to medical information. Mm.
• 2:57
  And what we did was we used some new legislation to get access into and integrate with most EMRs in the country, Epic, Cerner, Allscripts, Athenahealth, Greenway, so on and so forth.
• 3:08
  Um, then we realized we needed a platform to have our customers and users build something on top of. So it was just raw APIs. We needed a platform. So we built a developer portal, um, that we call Quark. Mm.
• 3:24
  That kind of plays into the whole Particle theme, right? Quarks and all these things. Uh, and, uh, that we've kind of emulated and learned a lot from Plaid and Stripe and Twilio. Um, it's a really seamless experience.
• 3:36
  You log in, there's API documents, interactive, um, tools. There's a sandbox with over 150 synthetic patient records. Mm.
• 3:45
  Um, there's a GUI where you can quite literally just type in your name, date of birth, address, phone number, click Search, and find all your medical records.
• 3:54
  Um, it's completely connected to every EMR in the country almost. Um, and then the last thing we did, which we are announcing, is we convert all the data to FHIR.
• 4:03
  Um, so when we request data from hospitals and clinics and labs, they send us back different formats and standards. Now we convert all that into FHIR R4. So it's a lot of stuff. Um- What's the...
• 4:13
  What, what- There's even more, but I'll stop there... What's, what's the significance of converting it to FHIR? Why is that important? Um, it makes the data, uh, use and build tools with.
• 4:24
  Um, if you imagine if you're building a healthcare solution and you a- uh, pull, you know, 100 records on pa- different patients that are using your solution, and each one comes back and it's a different version- Format...
• 4:36
  standard, format, you're like, "Okay, how do I put this into my product? How do I take the right data out of it and put it where I need it to go?" Now it's all standardized. Um, it's- So in the pa-...
• 4:46
  a familiar format... so in the past you, i- in the past you would've had to have someone on your team who was, like, this integration whiz, and you would have to write all of your own integrations, right?
• 4:54
  So you're stepping in- Right... and you're doing that for the developer, right? Correct. Okay.
• 5:01
  So we now have access to the data, we have a platform to build on and prototype on, and we are converting all the data to a FHIR standard. Okay.
• 5:10
  So you are enabling, uh, health tech startups to come in and get creative and get innovative. So who, who are you- Yeah... anticipating will use this? There's kinda two buckets.
• 5:23
  There's the incumbents in the industry that are doing this in some way today that just doesn't make a lot of sense. A lot of them are doing it by fax machine, right? Um, one of our mottos is destroy the fax.
• 5:34
  Um, it's kind of the fun mission. Um [laughs].
• 5:38
  So those companies can benefit a lot by, instead of faxing for medical records, typing somebody's first name, last name, date of birth, phone number into a form, and then three minutes later getting all their records back.
• 5:49
  Mm-hmm. So that's kind of the, the old way of just making old systems better. The new ones are what we're really excited about.
• 5:55
  Um, what could be created now that you can access standardized data across the United States. Um, in the same way, I always say this, but in the same way that Plaid came into the market and Venmo popped up. Yeah.
• 6:07
  Venmo could not exist without Plaid, right?Um, I don't think it's gonna be- For-... our job. Yeah. For our, for our viewers, someone watching who doesn't know why Plaid enabled Venmo, explain.
• 6:19
  Um, Plaid was the group that was able to sit between the banks and create a standardized development platform for startups in the fintech space. And so Venmo built their product on top of Plaid.
• 6:32
  Robinhood built their product on top of Plaid. Mint built their product on top of Plaid. Those companies couldn't exist without Plaid.
• 6:38
  They took care of the integrations, the permissions, the security, all of that foundational infrastructure, right? Yep, and the connections to all the fragmented banks, right?
• 6:49
  And that's very similar to what we're doing in healthcare. Okay. W- where are you at right now? It's a, I know it's a long process to lay all of that groundwork.
• 6:59
  Um, I don't know, what's the next big challenge in terms of, um, uh, gaining access, you know, to all those different systems and, and really making it accessible? Yeah, so, um, there's kinda two things going on here.
• 7:14
  Um,
• 7:15
  one is now that we have access, now that we have a platform, now that we have a data transformation pipeline to standardize the data, um, the next big thing on our chopping block is we wanna go out and get more access to more data.
• 7:28
  Okay. Um, we just announced our partnership also just today with Ribbon Health and with a company called Curator. Um, Ribbon Health has access to provider information, cost estimations, coverage, eligibility.
• 7:41
  Um, and Curator has access to most pharmacy medication data.
• 7:47
  Um, so now we can take these APIs, plug into our platform, and you, the, the innovator, the developer, the startup, the incumbent, have one contract, one platform, one integration, and you have access to a wide variety of types of data that are all standard on FHIR.
• 8:03
  So we're continuing to go out to market and find more innovative API partners to plug into this. For the customer, the more we add, you don't have to do anything. It just pops up. Got it.
• 8:12
  You can just now get access to this data. Got it. Um, so that's the new big challenge that we're working on. Got it. Just more, more, more. More data, more lives integrated. Um, when did you start this company?
• 8:25
  Early 2018. 2018. So, you know, at the time, you were an entrepreneur with an idea, a dream. Um- [laughs] Ha- have the last two years unfolded the way you expected in terms of being able to- [laughs]...
• 8:40
  accomplish, like, like build the API, get this data? I mean, at the beginning, it was just really a concept. You hadn't done it yet. I think I underestimated the complexity of healthcare data a bit. Okay.
• 8:53
  In my mind, I was like, "Okay, if we can actually have a company type in someone's first name, last name, date of birth, and phone number and get all their medical records in a minute, I think we're gonna retire."
• 9:04
  [laughs] Like, it's never been done before. Um, it seems to be the silver bullet to healthcare interoperability. And what we quickly learned is customers need a place to build their product.
• 9:14
  Customers need standardized data. We're, we're not selling an API. We're selling the data. The data is what's being used to create new value props and to, um, you know, do all sorts of, of new and interesting things.
• 9:27
  So data as... I shifted my thought process from it's API as a product to it's the data as, as a product, and that's kind of what we've been focused on a bit with this whole FHIR standardization piece. Hm.
• 9:40
  I know regulations have shifted a lot in the last nine months, even really recently. Uh- Yeah... w- how has the regulatory picture, um, shaped what you've done with this most recent, uh, rollout?
• 9:54
  So this announcement does not come by coincidence. Um, in two weeks the anti-information blocking legislation is set to start.
• 10:03
  Um, and what that means is through a platform like Particles, um, you can pull your medical record for any use case, um, as long as you, the, the customer, or, I'm sorry, you, the consumer or patient, requesting it.
• 10:16
  Um, basically what the government said is, um, EMRs can no longer block information. That's why they call it anti-information blocking.
• 10:23
  So if you, a patient, request data through our APIs into Epic, they're not allowed to say no anymore. Hm. And so for any application or ins- you know, any solution out there, if you, the patient, are connected,
• 10:36
  um, and request information into that app or into that insurance company or into your provider's office, we can then pull that to, for you instantly. So things are about to change. Let's just make up a case study.
• 10:48
  Let's say that a simple app, uh, is built that wants to show me all of my, I don't know, my x-rays. [laughs] Yeah. Or it wants to give me a, uh, a list of all the tests that I've had done, it would- Sure...
• 11:01
  for myself in the last 10 years, and it's just that's it, just an app that just shows me what, uh, what tests I've had done. Um, they, can they use your API to, to build something like that?
• 11:14
  Like in the past, that would've been locked up in Epic or something, and now it's not? Yeah.
• 11:21
  So today, if you sent Epic a request for all your labs, they'd say, "Come request it by a fax machine," or, "Come into the hospital and get it with a paper, um, request form," or maybe, "Log into your patient portal if you remember your password."
• 11:35
  [laughs] Right. Not great. Um, and then if you wanted to get that information into the app, you'd either have to download the data from the portal and convert it to a different standard and then upload it to the app.
• 11:46
  It just doesn't make any sense. Mm-hmm. In two weeks, and I will say with an asterisk, these rules always get pushed, so especially with the COVID, I, I'm assuming the deadlines are gonna get pushed, but
• 11:56
  to- as of today, in two weeks, if that app, it requests information on your behalf, Epic is no longer allowed to say no. Mm.
• 12:02
  So we can download all those test results, convert them to FHIR, and then upload them within minutes to this application for you. Mm.Now, this has got to be a, an explosive industry now.
• 12:15
  Uh, you're, you're on the front end of it, but it's gotta be a lot of people getting into it. So where do you see- Mm-hmm... the sort of industry as a whole moving, and is there just...
• 12:25
  Is there a lot of energy in this area? We say internally all the time that access to data's gonna get commoditized really fast as soon as these regulations hit. Wh- what do you mean by that?
• 12:37
  I- I mean that it will be a commodity just to be able to get access to data. There will be a lot of cu- customers in...
• 12:42
  Or, sorry, a lot of companies providing access to medical data very quickly after these rules, um, take root. Mm. Right? So the thing is w- how do you stay ahead?
• 12:52
  How do you create something more special than the other ones?
• 12:55
  And that's where this conversion to FHIR happens, and that's where these partnerships with other API companies like Ribbon Health and Curator start to really make sense, where it's not just access to EMR data, it's, it's, um, converted data.
• 13:07
  It's analyzed data. It's value-added services. It's a unique set of different API partners where you can look and combine different data sets and do even more unique value propositions all on one platform.
• 13:20
  So we're trying to always stay ahead of the game and think, how do we stay unique, how do we stay different, and how we can create more value than just the access? Mm.
• 13:30
  Yeah, I mean, do you see yourself always staying in that central sort of plaid position, or is there a temptation to create the Venmo, to extend that metaphor, to, to, to make one of the killer apps?
• 13:44
  I don't think we're ever gonna be better than a different startup out there doing just the Venmo for healthcare. Got it.
• 13:51
  They're gonna be the best at that, and we don't wanna create a mediocre solution, um, that just happens to, you know, do something. So it's our job to go support those companies. Mm.
• 14:01
  And we don't make money unless those companies make money.
• 14:04
  It's the only way our business model works, so it's our number one priority to go find those innovative companies and s- support them with data, um, rather than competing with them.
• 14:15
  So it's like a fee per transaction sort of setup? Yeah. If you... The more you use us, the, the more we charge. Um, so it's we, we grow with you. Got it. How many companies are currently using the system?
• 14:28
  I mean, are, I assume you're out in the market and it's being utilized. Yeah. We have, I think, 25 signed contracts as of today. Um, some bigger companies, um, Oak Street Health, IPO-ed this year, um, is using us.
• 14:41
  Um, Medley Pharmacy is using us. Um, Curator is using us. Nice. Um, I've got... I think in Q4 we'll announce a few more very big ones, publicly traded companies that, um, will... are piloting with us right now.
• 14:54
  Very nice. Last question. What are you most looking forward to about 2021? [laughs] Gosh, the way things are headed, who knows? Um, I'm ready for a fresh start, um, a new year.
• 15:10
  Um, I'm hoping life can return to normal in some capacity, because I think everyone's getting really tired of this, this lifestyle we are living in right now. Yeah.
• 15:20
  Yeah, I see you're good and socially distanced at whatever office you're at. There's nobody within sight. There's no socializing. [laughs] I have [laughs] the entire city block, uh, floor in the...
• 15:29
  or office building [laughs] completely to myself right now. So yeah, I'm pretty, uh, [laughs] pretty insulated. Well, I'm with you there.
• 15:36
  Troy, very excited, uh, to learn more about Quark as it, as it rolls out and as it makes more headlines. Uh, really excited for the kinds of startups and applications that it can enable.
• 15:48
  It's just the, it's just the beginnings of something, you know? It's just like the- Yeah. It's all-... foundations of some very exciting things.
• 15:54
  So I applaud you for doing all of that hard back-end work, um, that, you know, often goes, can go unnoticed. Uh, it can go less appreciated. So, uh, I appreciate what you're building and, uh- Thank you...
• 16:08
  and how it enables so many other things. Thank you. Yeah, it's gonna be super interesting to see what happens in 2021, so keep an eye. Awesome. All right. Thanks, Troy. Be well.
• 16:20
  [outro music] Startup Health invests in health transformers from around the world who are committed to achieving audacious health moonshots.
• 16:34
  If you wanna learn how you can join this community of entrepreneurs, or if you wanna connect with one of our 330 companies, go to startuphealth.com. Thanks for listening to Startup Health NOW. We'll be back next week.
• 16:46
  [outro music]