What You Should Know:
– Renee, the first-ever healthcare assistant that combines human support with advanced artificial intelligence (AI) to alleviate the burdens of healthcare, today announced the nationwide rollout of its platform.
– Founded by Dr. Renee Dua and Nick Desai, the visionary founders of the leading doctor house call company, Heal, Renee unifies the healthcare experience in a long overdue effort to give Americans, especially the aging population, the help they desperately need
Personal Healthcare Assistant to Make Healthcare Easy and Supportive
Renee is the first-ever personal healthcare assistant designed to help everyone, especially aging and polychronic Americans, with their most essential healthcare tasks. Renee is a groundbreaking combination of caring, human concierge touch and intelligent software that work together to support overwhelmed patients throughout their healthcare journey. Renee handles the tasks of scheduling doctor appointments, arranging rides, delivering prescriptions, supporting mental health, tracking patient health progress, and much more.
Upon the initial 1.0 launch, services Renee will provide include managing the scheduling all of a patient’s doctor appointments, booking rides to and from the doctor’s office, providing reminders for appointments and routine prescriptions, and free delivery of most routine prescription medications right to the member’s door. Starting today, patients can sign up on Renee’s website and initiate their seamless digital health journey for $24.99 per month. Further, for the remainder of 2022, Renee is waiving the $99.99 Personal Care Activation fee for all new members.
“The irony of American healthcare is that accessing and managing healthcare is hardest for patients who need it most,” said Dr. Renee Dua, Co-founder & Chief Strategy Officer of Renee, who named the service after herself because she became a caregiver to her own aging loved ones who would call out for her help. “A typical aging or polychronic American will have multiple doctors and daily medications to keep track of— along with a myriad of labs, appointments, vaccines, and therapy sessions involved in their healthcare. As a doctor, I can write all the prescriptions, but I can’t make patients take the medications. Renee does— which is a huge win for both patients and doctors alike.
A poll conducted earlier this year by the University of Michigan Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation found that less than one in three people over 50 currently use digital health apps for any purpose— despite the fact that Pew research has shown that 83% of people 50-64, and 61% over 65, own a smartphone. The idea behind Renee was birthed to actively close this digital divide and improve adoption rates amongst aging populations. After conducting a survey with the AARP on the specific aspects of healthcare seniors need help with, Renee was designed to fix the traditionally fragmented and siloed healthcare management experience by equipping seniors with the very services they are seeking in one easy-to-use place. The service takes the confusion out of healthcare and earned a patien satisfaction NetPromoter score of +88 during its Beta launch.
Upon signing up, the user journey on Renee begins with a 1:1 consultation called a Personal Care Activation between the member and a trained, dedicated Renee concierge. The 45-minute session works to capture all necessary health background information (including current doctors, social determinants, health goals, existing issues/conditions, ongoing medications, pharmacies, and more) in order to curate the most seamless concierge care experience. This session also serves to establish an essential bridge of trust between the member and care concierge. Once the Personal Care Activation call is complete, members use Renee’s simple and smart browser “app” to request appointments, track their medications, order refills and more. Renee’s app is built with easy, conversational AI so members rarely have to do more than touch a couple of buttons.
The company recently conducted a rigorous 90-day pilot study tracking hundreds of seniors, which found that Renee’s services improved clinical outcomes, increased engagement of patients and lowered overall healthcare costs. After the pilot, Renee went through both the US Department of Health and Human Services PandemicX and the AARP Age-tech accelerators. The AARP then joined Quiet Capital, Tau Ventures, Mucker Capital, Fika Ventures, SaaS Ventures, Global Founders Capital and Citylight Ventures as investors in Renee’s seed round— where the company raised more than $8.2 million to build a world-class team of product & engineering leaders and win early customers.
