Can this startup save lives by making medical records more accessible?

Cliff Cavanaugh has heard the stories over and over again.
There was the woman whose medical record had her down as a smoker, even though she had never smoked a day in her life. Or the 20-something who was denied insurance because his medical record mistakenly said he had chronic heart failure. And, the one that hits closest to home, his mother, who needed access to her MRI results if she was to get an immediate plan of care from her specialist. Otherwise, she’d have to wait months for another appointment.
The point is that medical records are fallible. That, and the average person doesn’t know what’s on their numerous medical records, doesn’t even know how to access them. These types of problems can be deadly: a 2014 report named medical mistakes as the No. 3 killer in the U.S.
That’s the problem Cavanaugh, 34, wants to fix with his startup, Healthjump.
Healthjump, based in Phoenixville, pulls together a patient’s disparate health records into one master record. That record, in turn, goes to the patient and the patient’s doctors. Cavanaugh, the company’s CTO, and his cofounders believe that they can lower the number of medical mistakes this way, by making medical records accessible, by giving them back to the people whose lives and bodies they chronicle.
The product has been live for a year and a half, and anyone can sign up to get their medical record for free, though Cavanaugh says that the product is still in beta and they’re working on improving the experience. (If your doctor isn’t a Healthjump doctor, Healthjump requests the records from your doctor. They’re legally bound to release your records if you ask for them, Cavanaugh said.)
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The company has raised $1 million from angel investors, like Saleh Daher of Boston angel group Walnut Venture Associates, and strategic investors like Premier Orthopaedics.
Healthjump has its big vision — making health records accessible — and then it has its service side, which is how it makes money. The company offers services like data integration and analytics for medical providers, like Virtua and Trinity Health. The company’s 30 customers cover about 1.2 million patients, Cavanaugh said.
Healthjump has its roots in Cavanaugh’s first company, DataTrade Solutions, which did custom software development for health systems. Cavanaugh, a former developer at Wynnewood’s Lankenau Hospital who implemented the hospital’s electronic health record system, and his cousin, Jim Rowland, ran the company but were itching to do something that could scale and tackle the problems they saw in the healthcare industry. Healthjump recently acquired DataTrade and most of its employees.
Healthjump’s CEO is Martin Aboitiz, who splits his time between New York City and Buenos Aires. Cavanaugh met Aboitiz at a 2013 healthcare IT conference.
The company employs 11 and Cavanaugh plans to move the Phoenixville office into Philadelphia as he grows his team. As for Cavanaugh, who grew up in Norristown, he used to live in Center City but said his wife convinced him to move out to Limerick in Montgomery County.