Improving patient care with data-driven insights

“How do you really know if you’re good at what you do?” 

This simple question sparked a major shift for Shawn Mondoux. In fact, it’s what turned the medical doctor into a tech startup founder.

“I had no good real metrics, anything that really anchored my experience as the way that I impacted patients,” said Mondoux. “It also struck me that maybe that was part of the wellness disconnect as it related to health-care providers. If you don’t understand the impact that you’re providing on a population or even an individual patient, it’s really difficult to buy into it moving forward.”

While industries like finance and retail have long used data to track performance and customer satisfaction, Mondoux said he hasn’t seen health care take on a similar data-driven approach to measuring patient outcomes. This realization, along with his background as an emergency clinician, inspired Mondoux to found Prognostiq in 2021. The company uses electronic health record (EHR) data to offer clinicians valuable insights into their practices, optimize workflows and improve health system profitability.

Mondoux envisioned creating a system that takes existing data embedded in health-care platforms and brings it to the forefront for clinicians. This would allow them to see the impact of their care across the spectrum of their patients. So far, Mondoux’s team has analyzed over a million patient encounters and shared data with more than 100 physicians.

“If you can, imagine we get millions of data points about physician practice every day and provide them with that data,” said Mondoux. “But we can also really try to spot trends across the entire population, which leads us to thinking about deeper applications of the technology.”

Mondoux said this data analysis could lead to actions that reduce wait times in emergency departments, for instance, or help predict staffing needs before they turn into crises.

“If we know specific practice patterns for clinicians over the last three years and things start to change, that might be an early flag from a wellness challenge perspective across a department,” said Mondoux. “There can be interventions to create space or dialogue to extend the workforce and provide value or create different schedules.”

With over 13 years of experience in emergency medicine, Mondoux is an attending physician at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton. He is also an Associate Professor at McMaster University and an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto. 

Mondoux believes we’re on the cusp of a transition to more value-based care. This means ensuring everyone is extracting the most amount of benefit from health care as possible. For patients, it’s about maximizing the positive impact of care. For health systems, it’s about ensuring that money spent delivers the highest possible benefit, even from an insurer’s perspective.

Mondoux recognizes the profound impact that innovation can have on health care. However, he points out a significant challenge for medtech startups in Canada: accessing investment opportunities throughout their development lifecycle. Securing enough investment can be competitive, especially for early-stage startups. The medtech sector often requires substantial upfront investment for research, development and clinical trials before generating revenue.

“The return on investment is not always as evident as it would be in other places,” said Mondoux. “A huge part of being successful in this space is having a person who deeply understands how to navigate the needs and pressures within health-care systems.”

For example, understanding the hierarchy within health organizations is key, said Mondoux. When selling to hospitals, it’s important to know who can build relationships beyond just business deals and who understands the factors that influence return on investment. 

As hospitals embrace innovation, a unique opportunity is emerging in Waterloo Region as a new hospital is set to be built on land owned by the University of Waterloo, with completion expected by 2034-2035. The facility will be a joint venture between Grand River Hospital and St. Mary’s General Hospital. It will include about 1,200 beds and modernize health-care services as the region anticipates a population of one million residents by 2051.

“Over the course of the next year or two, with a merger of two hospitals that are already known for innovation themselves, this could define a new territory for opportunity in innovation, at least in Southwestern Ontario,” said Mondoux. “It would be a colossal benefit to the healthtech sector as well as to health care in general.”

As health care innovation evolves, new initiatives are opening up opportunities, and founders like Mondoux and his team at Prognostiq are stepping in.

Prognostiq is one of eight medtech startups selected for the inaugural cohort of the Communitech MedTech Accelerator Program. Launched in September, this program supports founders as they revolutionize health care and scale their companies. Participants benefit from sessions with growth coaches, networking opportunities with health-care professionals and access to personalized action plans and resources.

“I think it’s really cool that there are organizations like Communitech that are reading the cards in the sector right now,” said Mondoux. “They understand how difficult things are, but are still trying to build initiatives like this to support founders with a good mission and a good idea.”

This article is part of a Tech News series featuring profiles of the founders selected for the inaugural cohort of the Communitech MedTech Accelerator Program.