Center City’s Phrase Health raises $3 million, led by LionBird

Three-year old Phrase Health, a maker of SaaS-based electronic health record data tools, raised $3 million round lead by VC firm LionBird, with participation from Vizient and BioAdvance.

The 2001 Market St.-based company was founded by clinical informatics physicians and spun out of technology developed at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in 2018. Its software provides web-based analytics dashboards and collaboration tools to better understand clinical processes and electronic interventions such as alerts and order sets.

“We found several compelling reasons to invest, but principally were impressed with their clients’ strong descriptions of ROI from Phrase’s solution and the team’s deep knowledge about the issues their clients are facing,” Robert Lord, partner at LionBird, said in a statement. “The company’s efforts linking health systems’ EHR interventions to quality measures is a compelling shift at a time in which the industry is moving towards value-based care.”

This round of fundraising will be used to support the company’s growth initiatives and further its mission of improving the “quality of clinical care delivery through optimization of workflows and management of electronic health records data,” it said.

“Our platform empowers hospitals to gain insights on their processes and workflows and easily makes that data actionable,” Dr. Marc Tobias, CEO and cofounder of Phrase Health, said in a statement. “With this support from knowledgeable leaders in the health IT space, we are in a position to accelerate growth and focus on additional research and development to enhance our current capabilities, ultimately improving the experience for clinicians and quality of healthcare for patients.”

The startup recently was awarded $1.7 million in a Phase 2 Small Business Technology Transfer Program (STTR) grant from the National Institute of Health, after it received a $225,000 Phase 1 STTR grant last year. This most recent proposal builds on its Phase 1 work, with a goal to reduce clinical variation, and the end result of the research is its new product, Phrase Health Outcomes.

Phase 2 research will include researchers from CHOP, Emory University and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and the University of Vermont Health Network.