Twin brothers Xing and Yang Su have shaped their careers around each other and have long wanted to start a company together. As they were deciding what to build, their three living grandparents — who had helped raise them — were experiencing significant health issues.
“We really struggled as a family just to be able to take care of them and find the right resources,” Xing said. “That’s when Yang and I spent a lot of time diving into the ABCs of healthcare, really looking at all the different models that are out there.”
They found the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) model, which began in the 1970s in Asian and Pacific Islander (API) communities in San Francisco. PACE provides an alternative to nursing homes and helps seniors stay in the home. It connects them to a care team that includes a social worker, dietitian, primary care provider, nurse and more. However, fewer than 5% of seniors are enrolled in a PACE program. That’s why on Monday, Xing and Yang launched Seen Health, a startup that builds on the PACE model, with $22 million in funding to date.
“When we found PACE, we absolutely fell in love and saw the enormous potential. But beyond everything else, we saw that this is how we wanted to take care of our family,” Xing said.
Seen Health is opening its first center in Los Angeles County’s San Gabriel Valley, and will focus on supporting the local API community. The center will have providers and staff who speak patients’ native languages, involve family in care and incorporate Eastern medicine and cultural activities. It also has a day room for activities and meals, an examination room, a health clinic and a physical therapy room. In addition to the center, Seen Health can provide care at home. To make revenue, the company contracts with Medicare and state administering agencies.
Seen Health also has a technology arm, including an EHR system that was built in-house, Yang said. In addition, the company has a wander guard system, which monitors the movement of patients and is helpful for individuals with dementia.
“One of the core challenges given this population is that a number of folks really suffer from dementia and we are actually required by law to have a wander guard system to make sure that we protect folks from wandering risks,” Yang stated. “We have actually deployed a real-time location tracking system that allows us to design geofences around folks that really need help or need to stay in a particular area and readily alert our staff as soon as they leave.”
The company’s Series A round was led by 8VC and included participation from Basis Set, Primetime Partners, Virtue and Astrana Health. The financing is supporting the development of its first center, as well as building out its team and technology platform.
“Seen Health modernizes the PACE model, combining clinical and operational excellence with breakthrough technologies that automate back office tasks and empower care teams,” said lead investor Sebastian Caliri, partner at 8VC, in a statement. “Xing and Yang have staked out an inspiring vision of what senior care can be and cleared every hurdle in their path to reach this point. We couldn’t be prouder to support their mission.”
There are about 180 different PACE programs across the country. Another in the Los Angeles area is AltaMed, which serves a large Hispanic population. However, Xing and Yang don’t consider these other programs as competitors because each center can only serve a few hundred seniors at most, and Seen Health is focusing on the API population. The company is also providing an alternative to traditional nursing homes, which very few are designed for the API community.
Looking ahead, the company hopes to expand into additional markets, as well as empower others to launch similar programs, Xing and Yang said.
Photo: diego_cervo, Getty Images
