Star Cunningham: the female tech-genius providing at-home-care for COVID-19 patients with 4D healthware
A black-owned healthcare technology company in Chicago has launched an app known as “4D Healthware”. The invention according to Star Cunningham, founder and CEO of 4D was designed to care for COVID-19 patients at home. The app is a monitoring platform, which enables remote monitoring, physician and lab supported diagnosis and at-home home treatment.
In the wake of the continuous spread of COVID-19 virus, there is dire need to have the general public self-quarantine, remote monitoring and treatment which would be helpful in easing the work of the frontline workers whilst containing the spread as well.
“We created the COVID-19 monitoring platform to greatly reduce the demands on in-person primary care, urgent care and emergency departments across the nation; it can also minimize unnecessary risks to patients and care teams from further exposure to this deadly virus,” Cunningham, said.
According to her, “Healthcare now appreciates the importance of virtual caring for patients. You don’t want the infected patients to go out. What you want to do is exterminate a certain amount of foot traffic that’s coming into the healthcare system .”
According to the tech-company, it can also receive biometrics, like oxygenation levels, temperature and other critical figures by equipping patients with pulse oximeters, which calculates the oxygen levels in blood using Wi-Fi-enabled digital tablets programmed with 4D Healthware’s software.
The app has the capacity to service up to 500,000 Covid-19 patients across the U.S. Many patients are already using the coronavirus platform, according to Cunningham, who also said the tally is rising “exponentially each day.”
The black CEO said the 4D Healthware’s new coronavirus platform is based on its original software, which allows health data from wearable devices, such as Fitbits or Apple Watches, to help people with chronic conditions monitor their health more efficiently. Since most consumer wearables cannot monitor the illness, people infected need 4D’s hardware to monitor the illness.
“We call 4D Healthware sophisticated telehealth because it’s more than that,” Cunningham said. “The interesting part of 4D is that after the pandemic ends, we are a viable long-term solution for managing patients at home.”
The company said their Sophisticated Telehealth platform is an easy to use tech app and can be integrated with any EHR system in a twinkle of an eye, efficiently and with minimal static. It can also minimize ER visits by 25% and delivers a 95% retention rate among engaged patients. The platform uses secured HIPAA compliant 2-way 24-hour communications.
Statistically, the startup has raised over $4 million since its debut in 2012, with a primary assignment of giving physicians the power to improve the health and save the lives of millions of patients with chronic illnesses. It specifically targets Medicare patients, with an exception to private insurance patients.
The inspiration to build 4D Healthware came out of the founder and CEO, Star Cunningham’s frustration with the healthcare system’s inadequacy to appropriately diagnose, treat and monitor her care. She dealt with multiple chronic illnesses while she was a child.
Star Cunningham launched 4D Healthware in 2012 after several years at IBM. She is one of only a handful of African American female entrepreneurs in Chicago and one of the few African American female entrepreneurs in the healthcare space and in the tech-world.