Startups To Watch<\/em>.<\/p>\nIn 2016, biospatial\u2019s co-founders started the company for data-based bio-security threat detection with the help of a grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and UNC\u2019s Gillings School of Global Public Health.<\/p>\n
It quickly became evident that the EMS data\u2014which was being quickly and consistently documented by ambulances, paramedics and other emergency services personnel on a national scale\u2014could have far-reaching impacts. Investors, including BCVP, agreed; within four years of its founding, biospatial had raised $3.4 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw an opportunity to actually leverage this data to help in national missions beyond just bio-surveillance,\u201d Woodworth said. \u201cWe could both help in the EMS community, and also serve use cases in the commercial space.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of biospatial\u2019s main differentiators is its unique level of access to EMS data, which is signed over by individual states. With each set of EMS data comes individual electronic patient care reports (ePCRs), which biospatial\u2019s platform cross-references with other sources of healthcare data using artificial intelligence (AI) to find trends.<\/p>\n
In exchange for signing over their EMS data, state and local health departments receive free access to biospatial\u2019s data management platform to perform a number of functions, including the ability to query and visualize data, generate reports, and receive alerts of possible clusters.<\/p>\n
\u201cEMS medics, they\u2019re on the front lines with Covid-19, and they have been since the beginning,\u201d Woodworth said. \u201cWe were uniquely positioned to work with our EMS data partners to understand how they are documenting Covid-19-related issues within their records, and using our access to that data in our platform to help track Covid-19 for early warning of new hot spots and for understanding the situation on the ground with respect to acute conditions related to Covid-19.\u201d<\/p>\n
Helping with EMS crisis<\/h5>\n As public agencies combat a pandemic and a nationwide EMS crisis\u2014due to a surge in call volume exacerbated by staffing limitations\u2014biospatial\u2019s platform has been a godsend.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur work with the local EMS agencies is certainly not going to overcome staffing problems they have on the medic side,\u201d Woodworth said, \u201cbut in the back office and understanding what\u2019s going on in their environment, we believe our platform is able to help, and can be a force multiplier.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Jones and BCVP as well, biospatial has provided pandemic relief, consistently doing well as its tools have become crucial to Covid response, proving his \u201cthesis\u201d that an excellent team and business model is always a good investment.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of companies, even some of our companies, were struggling during Covid,\u201d Jones said. \u201cHere is a company that was kind of feeling a tailwind because of Covid, and being able to do something about it by being able to help around this pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Woodworth and his team, the future of biospatial lies in expansion. While the company currently collects about two-thirds of EMS data nationwide, it still hopes to make that figure 100%. It is also looking to raise a $5 million Seed A funding round to expand its team and scale its hybrid operations while remaining headquartered in the Triangle.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not going anywhere,\u201d Woodworth said. \u201cMy co-founders also have deep roots in the Triangle. We plan to expand significantly post-financing, with a primary focus in the Triangle.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Led by CEO Jon Woodworth, biospatial applies the cutting-edge machine learning and AI technology developed by its executive team of data analytics vets to its unique collection of aggregated EMS data for use cases ranging from Covid-19 contact tracing to early bio-terrorism threat detection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1119,"featured_media":124,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","ncst_content_audit_display":false,"ncst_backToTopFlag":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[154,155,175,176,47],"class_list":["post-1345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-biospatial","tag-durham-startups","tag-wolfpack-investor-network"],"displayCategory":null,"acf":{"ncst_posts_meta_modified_date":null},"yoast_head":"\n
Durham-based biospatial Helps Make Sure No Emergency Goes To Waste - Wolfpack Investor Network<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n