Image Credits: HealthLeap
Malnutrition is very common among hospitalized patients in the U.S., and its coded prevalence is increasing. Amid this problem lies an opportunity to optimize the overall quality of patient care, improve clinical outcomes and reduce costs.
That’s the drive for South Africa-based health tech startup HealthLeap, which focuses on a global healthcare market starting from the U.S. The startup provides a clinical assistant for dietitians working in hospitals. It’s emerging from stealth to announce its $1.1 million pre-seed round led by deep tech investor Fifty Years.
Malnutrition happens when there’s a deficiency, excess or imbalance of nutrients in people’s bodies. This can cause significant adverse effects on people’s physiology and clinical outcomes.
People with diseases can develop malnutrition when they cannot consume adequate quantities or quality of food, or their diet does not reach the proper levels of nutrients to compensate for the specific nutritional needs created by the disease.
HealthLeap says it is building AI-assisted tools for healthcare professionals to better address hospital malnutrition.
“As a clinical dietitian, I saw many patients suffer due to malnutrition being insufficiently addressed in hospitals, partially because clinical dietitians are understaffed, and other clinicians are not adequately trained in clinical nutrition,” clinical dietitian and chief research officer Jemima Meyer told TechCrunch....