October 1, 2017, BioEnterprise
Manoj Jhaveri and Dr. Faris El-Khider are co-founders of Hyr Medical, which has developed a web-based platform to directly, efficiently and transparently connect freelance healthcare practitioners (locum tenens) and facilities (initially hospitals), leading to significantly higher billing rates for doctors, and a faster process for credentialing, scheduling and screening for practitioner quality.
Jhaveri, a former management consultant in product development and innovation, and El-Khider, a Cleveland-based gastroenterology fellow, met at a startup weekend competition held at Cleveland State University in the fall of 2016. At the competition, the entrepreneurs worked together to pitch a business idea improving the scheduling of residents at hospitals. They won first place.
Jhaveri and El-Khider decided to build on this success. They hired coders and created a web application for sale to 30 different medical school residency programs. Soon after, they quickly discovered residency programs were not very interested in improving residency scheduling – and that the market size and price point was too small for the product they developed.
Matthew Miller, BioEnterprise’s former vice president for Health IT and Services, met with Jhaveri and El-Khider in December 2016, confirming that the project could never work. “We learned from him the critical difference between a good product and a thriving business,” said Jhaveri.
When Miller asked if they had any other ideas, they showed him a few slides on an idea they had to significantly improve the “locum tenens” industry – freelance work by physicians.
“I was increasingly frustrated with the months it takes to get properly credentialed and scheduled at hospitals where I was working in my spare-time,” said El-Khider. “Moreover, the only way for a physician to take additional shifts is through a locum agency, a third-party recruiter between the doctor and hospital system, and the entire transaction is non-transparent, paper-based and massively inefficient. It felt like I was stuck in the 1960’s.”
Jhaveri and El-Khider had the idea to create a web-based platform for hospitals and physicians to match up and communicate directly: physicians would know exactly where and when shifts need to be covered, and hospitals would know which physicians are available and qualified to cover the shifts. Physician billing rates would be set by an algorithm; credentialing would be digital and very fast.
Based on BioEnterprise’s urging, Jhaveri and El-Khider launched Hyr Medical in January 2017 to further develop and commercialize the platform. Jhaveri serves as president and CEO; El-Khider is chief medical officer.
Since starting the company, the entrepreneurs have developed their software with LeanDog, a Cleveland-based firm, and are beta-testing it at 12 different healthcare facilities. Additionally, they entered into strategic partnerships with the Martin Healthcare Group, based in Cleveland and are raising an initial round of seed funding. They are also planning to finalize an agreement with a major healthcare provider to co-develop Rocket Credentialing™, an automated system for practitioner credentialing, quality scoring and screening.
Jhaveri and El-Khider also returned to their competition-winning ways, entering and earning third place in the Open Division at the inaugural Medical Capital Innovation Competition in April 2017.
Their strategic advisors include Charlie Loughheed, co-founder of Explorys; Nick Barendt, a local software development expert and thought leader; and, BioEnterprise former VP Matthew Miller.
