Phas3, a St. Louis-based company providing remote cardiac rehab, has won Colorado’s Prime Health Challenge, which will allow Phas3 to pilot its digital health platform in Colorado hospitals beginning next month. The BioGenerator-supported Phas3 provides cardiac rehab departments with the technology and services necessary for their patients to complete rehab in the privacy and comfort of their own homes through its website or mobile app.

Data shows that completing a cardiac rehab program doubles the chances for a longer life. Cardiac rehab traditionally has been expensive, time-consuming, inaccessible or underutilized – a bad combination for both patients and providers alike. Phas3 solves for these challenges by removing barriers to comply with rehab. Not only is Phas3 helping to reduce hospital admissions and improve patient outcomes, but its mobile rehab platform is also reimbursed by Medicaid, generating revenue for providers.

The Prime Health Challenge found the Phas3 solution to have the most impactful, sustainable, and commercial-ready solution to meet rural Coloradans’ health needs. Beginning January 2020, Phas3’s digital health platform will be implemented for a pilot program in several hospitals in an effort to accelerate the use of digital health technologies inside Colorado health systems to improve patient experience, provider experience, and population health, and also to lower costs.

“We were grateful for the opportunity to pitch in front of so many amazing people in Colorado and even more grateful that we were identified by providers, payers, and the Prime Health Board as a company worth funding,” said Phas3 cofounder Lucas Rydberg. “We can’t wait to demonstrate our impact on the Colorado health care system through the pilots funded by the challenge.”

BioGenerator, the investment arm of BioSTL, trained the company founders, provided Phas3 with non-dilutive grants to advance their platform, and recruited its Board Chair. Launched by Saint Louis University graduates Rydberg and Dan Ebeling, who met in the biomedical engineering program at SLU, Phas3 received entrepreneur coaching and mentorship from BioSTL Fundamentals.

“The Fundamentals team, led by Harry Arader, has been essential to our business,” Rydberg said. “They helped us understand our market, create a viable business model, connect with great talent, and learn how to be great founders. We believe that they are an indispensable and irreplaceable resource for the St. Louis startup community.”

“Phas3’s mobile app for cardiac rehab will revolutionize this important treatment for cardiac patients,” Arader said. “By allowing patients to comply with cardiac rehab safely from home, Phas3 will dramatically increase compliance with this life-saving therapy. We at BioGenerator are proud to have supported Phas3 for the last several years and are excited by this remarkable accomplishment to test their products in a hospital setting.”