Practice Fusion Founder Ryan Howard Makes A Comeback With iBeat

Ryan Howard, who was ousted as CEO of Practice Fusion last August over differences in strategy with the board, has launched a new startup called iBeat. He's currently raising seed funding.

iBeat is a watch fitted with sensors that monitor heart rate and relay the data to a cloud platform. Howard wants to sell it directly to consumers. He’s betting that baby boomers facing mortality--even those without known heart issues, will buy the device to prevent death from cardiac arrest.

Photo courtesy of iBeat

Like many healthcare entrepreneurs, Howard formed the startup because of personal experience. He was devastated by the loss of a childhood friend, who was only 40 when he passed away suddenly in his sleep last November. “Dying in my sleep is one of my mortal fears,” says Howard, who’s 41.

Still nursing his wounds from losing his job at Practice Fusion, a provider of cloud-based electronic health records, he'd sworn off healthcare. “I promised myself never to do something in healthcare again,” he says—an astonishing admission from an entrepreneur who was set on disrupting a stodgy industry.

Howard was on the verge of shutting down Practice Fusion when the HITECH Act, which provides incentives to purchase EHRs, revived it in 2009. Investors poured money into the startup. Howard signed up more than 100,000 medical personnel, who got the software for free. But generating revenue is a long slog in healthcare. Closing deals with paying customers, such as insurers, can take a year.

In 2014, following the launch of Apple’s HealthKit, Howard was skeptical of wearables, and a small Practice Fusion survey showed that only 15% of patients were asking their doctors about incorporating data from fitness trackers or health apps into their medical records.

The iBeat watch is different from the more than half dozen wrist-based heart monitors geared to fitness, or the ones that sync with Apple and Android phones, and can be shared with doctors. The self-charging iBeat watch, which Howard says will cost under $200, comes with a service. For a monthly fee, yet undisclosed, a full-time dispatch team at iBeat contacts emergency medical services if sensors signal cardiac arrest. The watch’s GPS provides location.

Howard is currently testing the monitoring system on 1,000 people before the product’s launch early next year. It is not a diagnostic tool, and he has no immediate plans to track heart rhythm abnormalities, such as atrial fibrillation, which would require FDA approval. AliveCor does. It sells an FDA-approved electrocardiogram device/app for smartphones for $99; consumers can share recordings with their doctor. An EKG band for the Apple Watch is pending FDA approval.

Although selling directly to consumers is not any easier than selling, say, to payers, a recent Rock Health study pointed at opportunities. Quantified-selfers are no longer a fringe movement. It also turns out that wearables which end up in a drawer after six months are typically presents, and therefore less motivational than buying one’s own Fitbit. For Baby Boomers, the specter of cardiac arrest should presumably motivate them enough to buy an iBeat.
