SiftMed Announces $2.7M Seed Round

February 7, 2023

Company develops automation tool to organize and review medical records.

February 7th, 2023 – St. John’s, NL, Canada – Today, SiftMed (formerly Report Mate), announced its seed round of $2,728,000 (CAD), led by Sandpiper Ventures.

SiftMed (www.siftmed.ca) is an Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) platform that uses artificial intelligence to automate the organization of medical files. The platform automatically sorts files by date and type, removes duplicates, and processes handwritten documents, making it easier for insurance, legal, and medical professionals to review files for relevant information.

Early users of the SiftMed platform have reported that it cuts the time needed to review files by 50%, resulting in more efficient and accurate processing.

The insurance market currently spends an estimated $15 billion per year to manually organize and review medical files. Yet, SiftMed reports that 1 in 5 medical insurance claims are still processed incorrectly. 

Holly Hill, originally from Campbellton, NL, is Co-founder and CEO of SiftMed. She says, “We’re building a world-class company with the help of a world-class tech ecosystem in Atlantic Canada. The programs, investors, and talent that’s available have allowed us to reimagine how medical records are gathered, organized, and used. We want to change the way the world organizes medical files and the insurance market is just the tip of the iceberg for us”.

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Rhiannon Davies, Co-founder and Managing Partner of Sandpiper Ventures adds, “Holly and her team have developed a compelling digital health solution. This is a really important problem that needs solving in our world – efficiency and accuracy in medical document reporting - and we are looking forward to seeing SiftMed’s impact.”

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Other key investors in the seed round included Pelorus Venture Capital and a handful of strategic angel investors and industry experts. 

Since its start, the company has also benefited from support and investment from the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, through the Department of Industry, Energy, and Technology (IET), and the Government of Canada through the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) and National Research Council (NRC).

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Honourable Andrew Parsons, Minister of Industry, Energy and Technology comments that “SiftMed is positioned to bring tremendous innovation, efficiency and service improvement to the health care system and we are delighted to support companies like SiftMed which embody innovation and efficiency. In recent years, our government has supported a number of hugely successful start-ups, both directly and by providing funding to venture capital firms, such as Sandpiper Ventures, that can support the growth of promising companies that embrace entrepreneurial talent, like SiftMed.”

The Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) invested $236,000 in SiftMed to help it acquire a data security certification and add three new skilled positions to grow the business.

“Start-ups like SiftMed are a key part of the digital economy and are using innovation and ingenuity to solve problems in many different industries. Our investment is helping this company access new markets and opportunities to grow its business and contribute to our province’s thriving technology industry,” said Joanne Thompson, Member of Parliament for St. John’s East, on behalf of the Honourable Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Minister of Official Languages and Minister responsible for ACOA.

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About SiftMed

SiftMed is a medical software company with a proprietary AI platform that accurately reviews and analyzes unstructured medical data. With 1 in 5 medical insurance claims processed incorrectly, SiftMed is on a mission to transform, accelerate and improve medical file processing through AI. By turning medical data into smart documents, SiftMed can review patient files and histories and help its users find the facts that matter with accuracy and speed. By improving accessibility to critical information, SiftMed helps improve patient outcomes and reduce costs driven by time and access complexities.

The SiftMed platform solves three key problems of medical file processing:

• ‍Slow review process: Medical records are often delivered as unstructured, large, messy files. As a result, re-viewers spend significant time manually organizing files page-by-page. ‍

• Missed details: The size, volume, and complexity of medical files make it hard to find important facts that are sometimes hidden as unreadable handwritten text. ‍

• Complexity in claims: Pre-existing conditions can drastically change the scope of a claim, making it hard to identify the level of complexity and whether an expert is required to tackle it.

Learn more about SiftMed

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Background

• McKinsey research estimates that “by 2030 more than half of current insurance claim activities could be replaced by automation”, and that “over 65% of executives are stepping up investments in automation”.

• Hub reports that the number of medical malpractice claims in excess of $10 million is rising every year. Since 2015, the number of claims filed in the US has risen more than 125%.

• Transparency Market Research reports that the global electronic health records market was valued at $26.1 billion in 2018 and is estimated to be valued at $42.3 billion by 2030. This represents a CAGR of 4.8% during the period.

• Innovation in the market will likely involve the integration of natural language processing to allow users to engage more effectively with electronic medical data​.

• SiftMed’s customer base includes medical professionals, lawyers, and insurance companies and is operating in multiple jurisdictions throughout Canada and the USA.

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Contact

Kelsey Lomond

kelsey@siftmed.ca