Dan Gilman is co-founder and chief information officer of RxVantage Inc., a Providence-based startup founded last year that has developed software to help physicians’ offices coordinate with medical-product companies. The Slater Technology Fund invested $500,000 in the firm last summer.
PBN: What exactly is RxVantage? Who uses it?
GILMAN: RxVantage is a free, Web-based software application that enables medical providers and medical sales representatives to more efficiently schedule educational interactions and share information and ideas that improve patient care.
On the provider side, it is used all across the spectrum of care, from small private practices to hospitals, clinics and large independent practice associations, or IPAs. On the manufacturer side, it is in use by all of the representatives who visit the offices that have already implemented RxVantage.
Hundreds of companies use RxVantage to help their highly trained reps keep the medical community abreast of the latest breakthroughs and newest FDA-approved indications for products that lengthen and improve patients’ lives.
PBN: Where did the idea for it come from?
GILMAN: While working as a rep, I noticed very quickly that the various “systems” – mostly pen, paper and lots of staff time – that offices used to manage their community of reps was incredibly inefficient.
Most doctors barely have enough time in their day for their patients, but because the info reps bring is valuable, they often set aside a few specific times to meet with reps. Office staff and reps had to spend time managing these appointments and there was a lot of confusion. Appointments would often get missed or go unfilled, which was a huge loss for both sides. It was a major problem that needed a solution, so, we set out to solve it and RxVantage was born.
PBN: How long have you been signing people up for it? How many do you have now?
GILMAN: We started signing people up for our closed beta test just over two years ago. The beta filled up very quickly and was closed to new users until the release of version 2.0 in early 2009. We do not release specifics about our user community, but we have thousands of users from across the country, with many more signing up every day.
PBN: What sort of response are you getting? Any success stories?
GILMAN: The response has been overwhelmingly positive from both providers and representatives. We have found that more than 90 percent of offices who see a live demo will implement our solution. For them, it is a simple decision because they can save time, get better access to their rep community when they need it, and eliminate the hassles and distractions that used to be involved in this process.
For reps, they also save time and money (not to mention gas) but, most importantly, they can uncover opportunities to educate their providers that they would not have previously. Reps believe passionately in their products and their ability to help patients, so one more opportunity to talk to a provider could mean one more patient helped. That’s what drives them, and we’re happy to facilitate that process.
PBN: The president is expected to sign some version of health care reform in the next two months or so. Do you expect the new law to have any impact on RxVantage?
GILMAN: It is difficult to know exactly what will be in the bill that President Obama signs, but it is clear that one of the main goals is to use technology to drive efficiencies and cost-reductions into the health care system. RxVantage was born out of a need for efficiency in medical offices and has been running with this idea ever since. The health care debate has brought this idea to the forefront and anything that helps people to think in terms of efficiency helps us to expand our potential customer base. Additionally, we have a robust pipeline of products that can help drive efficiency for our customers in new and exciting ways. We look forward to seeing how the debate turns out, but, either way, we will continue to drive efficiency into our market so we can help improve patient care. •
