There is Only One Pretty Child in the World, and Every Mother Has It

There is only one pretty child in the world, and every mother has it.  ~Chinese Proverb

Nobody ever thinks their kids are ugly, but it is especially gratifying when you get independent verification that they are, well, awesome.

As a venture capitalist, my portfolio companies come to feel like my kids.  I am invested in them, financially and emotionally.  I care about what happens to them.  They always need more money than I expected and sometimes don’t want to listen, even when I am right.  When they make great strides forward, I feel proud.  When they stumble, I feel protective and concerned.  Occasionally they infuriate me, but I love them all the same.  When people speak ill of my portfolio companies, I get protective.  When people say they are awesome, I get that special little glow.

So today I am glowing because the Wall Street Journal published their  list of the Top 50 Venture-backed Companies and lo and behold, number 18 is Patient Safe Solutions, Inc., one of my “kids” and a company that truly deserves the honor.   The entire article and list of the Top 50  can be found here at this link.

I have written about patient safety before (see prior posts here and here).  Patient Safe Solutions, based on San Diego, CA, is an investment I championed at Psilos Group made because the company provides a solution to one of the problems in our healthcare system that most bothers me:  avoidable medical errors. Depending on which study you read, somewhere between $20 billion and $60 billion dollars are spent every year in the U.S. alone on avoidable medical errors.   One study estimates that in 2008 there were 6.3 million hospital-based patient injuries of which 1.5 million were the result of avoidable medical errors.  In that study, the authors acknowledge that this is not a full count of errors since many errors would not be detectable due to the methodology they used (reviewing medical claims).  Note to self:  don’t get hospitalized.

Patient Safe Solutions provides nurses with an easy to use, intuitive, iPod-based device and software, together called the Patient Touch System, which enables them to reduce or eliminate errors that can result from medication administration, hospital-acquired infections, patient falls and many other common medical errors that occur at the patient bedside.

Nurses tend to love this product because it helps them deliver high quality, patient-centered care and avoid making accidental mistakes that could cause serious harm.  It’s like a real-time clinical guardian angel.  Hospitals love this product because it eliminates the costs that result when those accidental errors are made.  In a world where hospitals are being forced to take on more and more financial risk and find methods to cut costs in order to thrive and survive, it is easy to like a product that saves you money by improving quality and customer (patient) care.  What’s not to like?

Patient Safe Solutions won this honor, in part, because they have a first class CEO and management team.  Other things that went into the WSJ selection process were the quality of the investors’ track record (aw shucks), the amount of capital the company has been able to attract, the recent growth in value of the company, and last but not least, the subjective opinion of the editorial staff and researchers that combed through the bona fides of 5700 companies (companies with more than $1 billion in revenue were excluded).

Only 3 healthcare companies made the Top 50 venture-backed companies list, so the honor is especially significant given the number of healthcare companies that have received venture funding over the past three years, which is the period of time included in the analysis.

Congratulations to everyone at Patient Safe Solutions for a well-deserved honor.  Any chance you can get that $1 billion revenue exclusion next year?