On-Trend | Primary Record

Imagine a world where health information can be securely shared, empowering families, caregivers, providers, and individuals with easily accessible, secure, and accurate health data. With our latest investment at Primary Record, that world is no longer in your imagination, it is available today.

Primary Record is a mobile application that helps families organize, discuss, and easily share their health information with those who matter. It is a safe and secure way to connect the dots between health information stored in multiple places. Primary Record is a necessity for individuals or caregivers of those living with complex medical conditions. It is also a valuable tool for families who want to be prepared for any medical event, planned or unplanned.

Key Features of Primary Record

• Collect and store health information from multiple sources: Primary Record can connect to your electronic health records (EHRs), pharmacies, and other healthcare providers to collect and store your health information in one place.
• Organize and share your health information: Primary Record makes it easy to organize health information by condition, date, or provider. You can also share it with family, caregivers, and healthcare providers.
• Get access to personalized insights: Primary Record can provide personalized insights into your health, such as trends in medication use or risk factors for certain diseases.

Primary Record is a free app available for iOS and Android devices.

A Powerhouse Founding Team

Primary Record was founded by a Registered Nurse who has spent the last decade in the caregiving space, and a decade before that in the ICU, alongside an ER doctor and the Senior Product Manager of Data Products who took ExactTarget through to its $2.4B exit to Salesforce. The founding team is a powerhouse of industry expertise and proven execution.

Often, when we evaluate new investments, a common question we ask is “Why now?” In the case of Primary Record, that answer is largely due to several colliding factors.

Why Now

Today, more than one in five Americans are caregivers, defined as having provided care to an adult at some point in the past 12 months, or to a child with special needs. According to the AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving, in 2020 there were nearly 48 million unpaid caregivers in the United States, a number that swelled further during the pandemic.

Even though there has been a rise in EHRs, more often than not healthcare users never know where their data is. Data does not follow you around. If you have a child, just gathering their records for school or sports is a challenge, especially if you move, have more than one child, or change doctors. Patients are constantly going back to previous physicians to gather data. This was true even in the largest and most complex healthcare systems I was personally a part of in the Army. We hand-carried the “old school” physical version of Primary Record, affectionately called the “I love me” binder, so our medical records would be accessible. In my case, that binder traveled to 10 different locations around the globe.

Then there is the rapid increase of our aging population, and with it our necessary caregiver population:

• In 2020, 1 in 6 people were 65 or over
• 16.8% of the US population is over 65
• 41% of adults 60 and older were obese (2015)

You might think the aging trend will pass, but in fact, while the pace of individuals turning 65+ will slow, the total accumulation of those individuals will increase dramatically.

I am personally at the tip of the spear here, and openly one of the early lifetime customers of Primary Record, because of my aging parents all rapidly approaching their 80s. As I was writing this post, I got a call that my father has a wrinkle in his retina. Primary Record helps me not only consolidate those records but also understand how and where to support adherence to medication protocols and physical therapy.

The National Institute on Aging shows that 95% of the older population will have one chronic condition, while 80% will have two, leading to dramatic increases in doctor visits. According to the CDC, 83.4% of adults visited a healthcare professional in the last year. As humans live longer, the cost of care becomes more significant. The NCOA estimates the cost of Alzheimer’s treatment and lost wages at $49k per year, with diabetes at $20k. In the US, the population 55+ makes up 30% of the population but accounts for 56% of total health spending.

However, the US is facing a staffing crisis. The American Association of Medical Colleges expects a 132k physician shortage by 2032. By 2025, health systems will be short 29k nurses. As the shortage increases, the cost of care increases, through higher pay or the use of temporary nurses, which can cost 3x more than permanent staff.

The aging population does not want to be in a nursing home; they want to age in place. This has dramatic benefits for the elderly and can reduce the strain on hospital emergency rooms and long-term care. Yet there is a 400,000-person shortage of home healthcare workers.

The timing is right not only because of the personal pain point caregivers and aging families are feeling, but because the US Government has stepped in. It passed the 21st Century Cures Act, which broadly changes how medical data is shared and enables a “stick”, a $1M penalty for blocking information sharing from healthcare providers.

Primary Record helps reduce the stress around making sure your family members are well taken care of in today’s fast-moving healthcare records environment.