WVV’s Investment in Blueberry Pediatrics
This article is written by Matthew Maurer, principal partner at WVV Capital (WVV).
It is currently healthcare’s cliché du jour to say that COVID-19 changed everything (at least we’re past the days of hearing ‘healthcare data lives in silos’, right?). And it’s true; as a result of COVID, many aspects of the healthcare system were strained to their breaking point, while others showed surprising agility and elasticity. We saw the government rapidly suspend rules and license restrictions, old tools were allowed to be used in new ways, and all of it rolled up into what many have called a decade’s worth of technology acceleration in 18 months. The real question is: where does healthcare go from here?
One of the lower-hanging fruit has been found in the rapid acceleration and re-imagination of telemedicine. What used to feel novel as a FaceTime call with your doc, has snowballed into dozens of fresh takes on telemedicine with a dispersion across specialty focus, patient UX, and business model.
Boundaries are blurring with regard to what level of care can and should be delivered directly in the home, and we’re still in the early innings of figuring out where those lines will settle. And it needs some time to resolve — it’s not easy to balance broad accessibility, efficiency, affordability, and comfort with the very real fact that healthcare consumers are human lives in need of care. Procedures or judgments often demand life-long experience; not to mention the institutionally-entrenched infrastructure for moving data and payments around.
One company I’m particularly excited to see pushing these boundaries with an ambitious but thoughtful approach is Blueberry Pediatrics. Blueberry transforms the family home into a virtual urgent care center, with at-home medical devices and unlimited 24/7 access to pediatricians via text, call, or video. This differs from ‘traditional’ telehealth which may only link a parent to a nurse, medical assistant, or a doctor not trained in pediatrics for short, 15-minute visits. Blueberry’s medical kit of diagnostic devices redefines what can be done where and by who — enabling the pediatrician on the other side to make decisions with hard quantitative data instead of just subjective descriptions. Blueberry’s multifaceted go-to-market approach offers enhanced service, faster care, and lower medical costs for both patients and our healthcare system as a whole.
WVV’s theses around transformative medicine and cross-industry innovation, not to mention the top-caliber team it found in Blueberry, ultimately led to our investment. In this post, I’d like to introduce Blueberry Co-Founder and CEO Harrison Gordon to share a bit more about what makes Blueberry so special.
Harrison, could you please introduce yourself and tell us more about Blueberry Pediatrics? What problem is the Blueberry team looking to solve?
Blueberry’s mission is to provide high-quality, personalized care for every family. As the healthcare industry adopts traditional telemedicine options, we’ve found this approach isn’t optimized for parents: their children are being misdiagnosed due to lack of doctors trained in pediatrics, they are referred to expensive short-term care at emergency rooms and urgent care facilities, and ultimately they stop using these telemedicine options out of frustration — resulting in no actual benefit to parents or to their health plan.
Blueberry acts like a pediatric concierge for when a child’s pediatrician isn’t available, providing parents with 24/7 access via chat, call, and video to a team of board-certified pediatricians. The best part is that through our technology we can provide unlimited care, treatment (including prescriptions when appropriate), and advice with a flat monthly fee, making concierge care accessible to every family. Families will never have to go into an urgent care or ER just because they wanted to get in front of a pediatrician quickly.
What is unique about what Blueberry is doing?
First, Blueberry is the easiest way to talk to pediatricians. We built our service from the ground up to make pediatricians as easily accessible as friends and family. Have a question or need to talk to a pediatrician? Text your Blueberry team and get answers in minutes. There are no hoops to jump through, phone trees, or nurse lines.
In addition to 24/7 access to our team of pediatricians, our members also receive a home exam kit. The kit includes:
- Ear scope / smart otoscope: This device can record a video of a child’s ear drum, allowing our pediatricians to diagnose ear infections
- Pulse oximeter: By providing our pediatricians with heart rate and oxygen level readings, they are able to make more accurate medical diagnoses
- Flex-tip thermometer: While most parents do have one in their home, we include one in our kit for good measure
By including the same items in our home kit that are used in medical clinics, our pediatricians are able to treat twice as many issues as other telehealth services — all without requiring a child to leave their home.
How is your product being received so far in the marketplace?
We recently received some preliminary results from a pilot we are running with medicaid managed care plans that show some really exciting data about Blueberry’s user engagement and utilization rates:
- Effectiveness: Claims analyses show that Blueberry users reduce their Emergency Room utilization by 40% compared to non-users
- Scale: Compared to existing telemedicine, Blueberry resolves 100% more cases without referring to in-person care
- Access: 70% of usage occurs on nights/weekends, when pediatricians are less available
- Engagement: Blueberry has a 15% monthly engagement, compared to traditional telemedicine services which are 2–3%
We were also pleased to learn that the Blueberry platform was recently named ‘Best Baby App for On-Demand Medical Care’ by Good Housekeeping and ‘Best Online Doctor for Pediatric Care’ by Verywell Health.
What made you decide to take an investment in WVV?
WVV is a great match for us on multiple levels. The first is getting to work with and have you, Matt, on our Board of Directors. Your decade-long career in healthcare that spans startups to multinational corporations brings a unique perspective to innovating in an incredibly complex industry.
Then there is the layer of WVV’s corporate partners. As a healthcare organization that also understands the value of virtual care, we see great value in the opportunity to align with Advocate Aurora Health as we continue to evolve. In addition, WVV’s other corporate partners (Foxconn, Johnson Controls and Northwestern Mutual) can serve as a great sounding board as we continue to expand our offering for employee benefits programs.
What’s next for Blueberry?
Our mission is to ensure every family, regardless of income, has high-quality, pediatric-focused urgent care in their living room. Not only do we provide the best possible care for families, we also save healthcare payers (insurance companies, Medicaid plans, and company benefit plans) hundreds or even thousands per family. As such, we are excited to continue building out our capabilities and expand on partnerships that will make Blueberry a must-have component of any health plan.
I hope you enjoyed learning more about Blueberry Pediatrics. If you’re working on a healthcare startup, I’d love to hear from you — especially if your solution is geared toward a mix of providers / payers / consumers / employers. Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn, or drop the WVV investment team a line at info [at] wvvcapital [dot] com.
The content contained herein (Content) is provided by CVC Manager, LLC (CVC), an exempt reporting advisor for the venture fund, Wisconn Valley Ventures, LP (WVV). Opinions offered herein belong to the personnel of CVC, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of CVC. Some of the Content contained in this site is provided by third-parties, and no warranties are offered with respect to the adequacy, accuracy or completeness of the Content. The Content is made available solely for informational purposes, and does not contain tax, legal, or investment advice, nor is it intended to be an offering or marketing for the purchase or sale of securities (including the companies mentioned or any fund). Investors should always consult with financial professionals when evaluating any tax, legal, financial or investment decision.
