Digitizing health
Houston health care data company grows with new medical device partnerships
Educated as an engineer, Chris DuPont has stepped outside his professional comfort zone to generate funding for his Houston-based startup, Galen Data Inc. DuPont's pool of technical contacts in Houston is "wide and deep," he says, but his pool of financial contacts had been shallow.
Overcoming obstacles in Houston's business waters, DuPont has raised two rounds of angel funding — he declines to say how much — that have enabled Galen Data to develop and market its cloud-based platform for connecting medical devices to the internet, including pacemakers and glucose monitors. DuPont is the startup's co-founder and CEO. Galen Data's platform meets compliance standards set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPPA), cybersecurity organizations, and others.
Galen Data's patent-pending technology lets medical device manufacturers tailor the cloud-based software to their unique needs. DuPont says his company's software is geared toward medical devices that are outside, not inside, hospitals and other healthcare facilities. He declines to divulge how many customers the startup has.
Among the startup's customers is San Clemente, California-based Fresca Medical Inc., developer of a device designed to treat sleep apnea.
DuPont says his company's software allows Fresca to perform such tasks as proactively diagnosing problems with the battery in a sleep apnea device or collecting patient data to back up insurance claims. The software even can monitor trends among various medical devices, he says. Galen Data also is helping Fresca develop its mobile app for patients.
Another customer is Friendswood-based Spark Biomedical Inc., developer of a smartphone-connected device, called a neurostimulator, that eases the symptoms of withdrawal from highly addictive opioids.
Hatched within Houston-based Tietronix Software Inc., DuPont's previous employer, Galen Data launched in 2016 but didn't roll out its first product until 2018.
Galen Data's emergence comes as the market for internet-connected mobile health apps keeps growing. One forecast envisions the global space for mobile health exceeding $94 billion by 2023.
"We want to be at the forefront of that technology curve," DuPont says. "We might be six months early, we might be a year early, but it's starting to happen."
Galen Data vies for customers in a largely untapped market, since the majority of medical devices still aren't connected to the internet, according to DuPont. As a whole, medical device makers have been reluctant to delve into connectivity, given the compliance headaches, DuPont says. That's where Galen Data steps in. It's the startup's job, he says, to ensure its tech platform adheres to myriad compliance regulations.
DuPont says a medical device manufacturer easily could spend $250,000 to $500,000 to create its own compliant, connected tech platform similar to Galen Data's offering — and that doesn't include ongoing operational expenses. Galen Data's platform delivers the same benefits at a fraction of that cost, he says.
The startup strives to accomplish its mission with minimal staffing. Between full-timers (including the three co-founders) and contractors, Galen Data employs fewer than 10 people, DuPont says. As needed, Galen Data taps the software development talent at Tietronix, which owns a minority stake in the startup, according to DuPont.
"I'm very, very capital-efficient with our cash," he says. "I don't like layoffs. We'll never have planned layoffs."
If Galen Data continues to achieve its financial goals (it's not profitable yet), DuPont says, the company's workforce could total 20 to 30 within three years. He foresees opening satellite offices in Austin (a tech hub) and Boston (a life sciences hub) at some point.
As for additional products, DuPont wants to eventually build on Galen Data's existing platform by paving the way for data to be securely transferred from medical devices to electronic medical records.
Anchored in Houston, Galen Data hopes to be a player in what DuPont calls "the next biotech corridor of the United States," encompassing not just Houston but Galveston, Austin, Dallas, and San Antonio.
For Galen Data to thrive in that environment, though, it must conquer what DuPont classifies as his biggest hurdle: raising money from investors in a region rooted in the oil and gas industry. In the first quarter of 2019, Houston startups collected less than 6 percent of the venture capital reported throughout Texas — far below what startups in Austin and Dallas reaped during the same period.
Ramping up investment in Galen Data will require educating local investors about the promising potential of the medical device sector, DuPont says. Meanwhile, he's begun hunting for funding outside Texas.
"It's challenging for a startup to raise money in Houston," says DuPont, who praises local entrepreneurs for their support of Galen Data. "We've done it, but it's been hard."
"If Galen is super successful, hopefully we can invest in other early stage companies," DuPont adds. "That's part of the vision."
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