Mobile software startup echoBase has struck a deal that brings its mobile capabilities to doctors and patients in more than 600 rural hospitals across the country.
Wake Forest-based echoBase is getting into those hospitals through a partnership with a company called MergeMD. MergeMD is a systems integrator for hospital systems that helps hospitals make all of their software work together. Under the partnership, Merge will use echoBase’s software.
Hospitals have multiple systems to run various aspects of health care, explained Brent Miller, president of echoBase and one of the company’s co-founders. X-rays run on one system; electronic medical records run on another, and so on. EchoBase has developed software that enables a desktop application to run on mobile devices. Through echoBase’s software, called Resonate, the different hospital software applications will be accessible on on an array of mobile devices.
“What Resonate does is it provides a single user interface that can talk to all these systems,” Miller said.
Resonate brings desktop apps to mobile devices without the need for additional programming or an additional mobile interface. The software also stores data securely on the mobile device and keeps data in sync with the desktop or cloud application without depending on a constant network connection. MergeMD says echoBase’s technology will allow it to offer a less expensive and more secure method of providing doctors and patients access to medical images and other records on mobile devices.
No financial terms of the partnership were disclosed. But it’s just the latest deal for echoBase, which also has partnerships with IBM and Oracle to use the company’s software in its health care contracts. Miller said it’s hard to get into hospital systems as a small startup. He sees the company growing by targeting vendors large and small that already have a business relationship with a health care system.
Privately-held echoBase, which employs 18, was founded in 2009.
The company is targeting the booming market for mobile apps, which are increasingly requiring greater mobile and security capabilities.
At the CED Tech Venture Conference in Raleigh last week, echoBase said it has 12 contracts spanning North America and around the world. The company, which has raised $3 million total to date from angel investors. Miller said echoBase is seeking about $5 million in investment to scale up sales and marketing as well as for additional software engineering.
“Does it come from a VC, does it come from the investment arm of a large company, does it come from a bunch of angels?” Miller said. “It depends. The door is open.”
