Breast milk is liquid gold, especially for NICU babies. The current state of breast milk management at a hospital is extremely manual, time-intensive, error-prone, lacks real-time analytics and does not solve the baseline problem of helping mothers pump more breast milk while being away from their babies. With an innovative Software-as-a-Service approach, the Keriton Kare platform solves every single one of those problems.
Keriton Kare is a state-of-the-art breast milk management, lactation analytics and patient engagement platform for the NICUs. Co-innovated with Penn Medicine nurses, for nurses, the platform significantly improves process efficiency, saving critical nurse time and reducing errors. With built-in real-time analytics, lactation consultants can proactively counsel struggling mothers, instead of reacting when it is too late. With automated notifications and text/audio/visual patient engagement solutions, the platform also notably enhances the pumping experience for mothers, resulting in improved pumping adherence and outcomes.
OUR STORY
Keriton was born at the University of Pennsylvania in Spring 2016, where nurses from Penn Medicine shared the multi-faceted problem of breast milk management & tracking at the world’s largest hackathon – PennApps. Keriton’s founder had personally witnessed the scenario 5 years back when his sister had a preterm delivery, and his nephew was admitted to the NICU for 3 weeks. He decided to fix the problem, and his proposed solution at the hackathon won 2nd prize. Post that victory, Keriton was incorporated in 40 days and made its mission to improve the state of breast milk management across NICUs in the US.
Keriton was incubated under DreamIt ventures, a Top 10 digital health accelerator in the world, right from its inception. With financial support from DreamIt, Penn Medicine, AmeriHealth, Wharton, and Dorm Room Fund, Keriton incorporated in March 2016. Keriton has since been continuously working with the clinicians at Penn Medicine and have conducted several design thinking and user feedback sessions with them. The Keriton suite was launched in April 2017 and announced as Generally Available (GA) in August 2017.
The Keriton team spent countless hours in the NICU, listening to nurses, observing them go through the workflows, speaking with mothers and eventually running design thinking sessions with the several stakeholders to ensure that an ideal solution is devised for this extremely complicated problem. The feedback thus far has been extremely positive – “This is the best NICU invention ever!” (NICU Nurse); or “Thank you so much for building this, this is perfect!” (NICU Mom). The Keriton Kare platform is showing phenomenal results in improving quality of care, reducing costs and improving patient and clinician satisfaction.
MEET OUR TEAM
CEO – Rich Mager
An entrepreneurial leader with executive experience in industry sectors including pharmaceutical business services and business consulting services. Operational oversight of diverse delivery teams in multiple global geographies. Successful acquisition and integration experience. Extensive experience in strategic planning, operational effectiveness, change management, and technology implementation.
- Experience with IT consulting services (Accenture) in pharmaceutical sales force automation and financial services.
- Progressive leadership experience in pharmaceutical specialty services (Bracket) in project delivery/client services and gross profit management.
- Cloud-based life sciences SaaS configuration and support (Veeva).
Clinical Director – Kelley Karp, MSN, BS RN
An administrative leader of nursing for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Successful development and implementation of 24/7 operations improvements and oversight of neonatal critical care unit. Extensive experience in strategic planning, clinical, safety and administrative program development, and implementation, as well as budgetary management and staff development.
- 15 years of nursing experience at the University of Pennsylvania Health System (Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania).
- Experience as Nurse Manager of the NICU with the direction of 100+ staff members.
Founder – Vidur S. Bhatnagar
Experienced technologist with expertise in building process-oriented B2B workflow solutions, visualization/dashboard products, advanced analytics platforms. etc. Passionate advocate of design thinking.
- BS (CS), MBA (HR), MS (Robotics) University of Pennsylvania (Leave of Absence).
- Former SAP Fellow (Global).
The team further consists of Sales, Clinical Subject Matter Experts, Software & Quality Engineers, and Data Scientists.
MILESTONES
- Series A Preferred Stock Financing – September 2018
- Healthcare Innovator Award – Philadelphia Business Journal – September 2018
- Gold Stevie Award 2018 – TechStartup of the Year (Software) – May 2018
- Vizient top performers to Penn Medicine for the use of Keriton – May 2018
- Medcity Invest Pitch competition – May 2018
- Winning America’s most unique small business award by Paychex – Jan 2018
- Recognized as Top 10 Philly Startups to Watch in 2018 by realList Technical. ly – Jan 2018
- Winning Startup of the Year award, PHL Geek Awards – August 2017
- Getting selected as the Finalists at Stellar Startup Awards, Philadelphia – July 2017
- Securing a 3-year contract with Penn Medicine – August 2017
- Launching Keriton Kare platform for NICU feeding management, lactation analytics and patient engagement at Penn Medicine – April 2017
- Achieving HIPAA compliance for the Keriton Kare platform – April 2017
- Winning Impact Pediatrics Pitch Competition at South by South by West (SXSW), judged and sponsored by 8 leading US children’s hospital – March 2017
- Raising $1.1 Million in venture capital funding – February 2017
- Securing a spot at DreamIt Health Incubator (rated Top 10 Incubator in the world) – March 2016
- Winning the 2nd prize at PennApps (World’s Largest Hackathon) – January 2016
Keriton, Inc.
