The onset of a global pandemic provided challenges for people across the globe. While it’s not good for anyone to catch COVID-19, the risks are heightened when it comes to people who’ve been diagnosed with cancer. Working to help improve health outcomes for these individuals with its informative mobile app is Outcomes4Me.
Having just announced the close of its $12 million oversubscribed Series A round, the Cambridge-based startup is now making plans to expand its tech. It offers an AI- and machine learning-powered platform that allows cancer patients to contribute to a regulatory-grade data set. Outcomes4Me then combines that data with a patient’s medical records to provide them with personalized info to help them manage their care effectively.
“It helps people understand what their treatment options are, and this is based on the latest treatments that are available,” Dr. Maya Said, CEO and co-founder of Outcomes4Me, told Built In. This includes matching patients with clinical trials going on nearby. “The National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines are typically only written for providers. [We are making] patient-facing material for the first time.”
The company got its start after Said experienced her own cancer scare back in 2016. Though it ended up being a false alarm, she said the six-month period of testing, research and back and forth was an ordeal, even with her extensive background in the medical field. Said grew up in a family of medical doctors and came to work in the pharmaceutical industry herself.
“I could either be dying tomorrow, or this is nothing,” Said said of her thought process while researching the mixed results she received from physicians and specialists amid her cancer scare. “I realized that I became a patient for the first time in my life, and that was an extremely overwhelming experience.”
Outcomes4Me aims to alleviate that feeling for cancer patients by providing them with the power of up-to-date information, according to Said. For instance, when COVID-19 began to spread a year ago, Outcomes4Me made updates to include details on what the virus meant for those with cancer. Today, it provides information on things patients should keep in mind after getting vaccinated.
Currently, Outcomes4Me serves patients who have been diagnosed with breast cancer, and Said considers this to have led to the company’s high rate of growth since its founding in 2017. The platform is available across all 50 states as well as five Canadian provinces. With this new round of funding, Outcomes4Me is looking to expand its services globally, starting with Europe, as well as expand the platform to cover all types of cancer.
The growth doesn’t stop there. Right now, Outcomes4Me is planning to triple the size of its 12-person team over the next 18 months. It’s looking to fill remote-friendly roles in the Greater Boston area across engineering, product, data science, clinical operations, regulatory and quality compliance, business development and marketing.
