Today we’d like to introduce you to Meri Clare.
Meri, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Igor, Ravi and I all come from families with strong medical backgrounds – we learned the importance of supporting our communities by providing care to our neighbors, generation after generation. Our parents, grandmothers, grandfathers, great-grandmothers and great-grandfathers taught us the importance of contributing to our community well-being by keeping families safe, supported and healthy. After watching families struggle to make decisions when their children were sick, feeling that the ER was their only choice for a multitude of reasons, Nella’s cofounders Igor and Ravi decided to do something about it. Once they finished their combined Boston Children’s Hospital/Boston Medical Center residencies they officially started Nella Health, a tool for families to put them in immediate contact with a nurse when they were concerned about what to do with a sick child using smartphone technology. Nella Health was accepted as an innovation team to Harvard’s Innovation Lab in Allston last year, and has since then been growing the team to include three nurses and two interns. Additionally, Nella’s pilot launched March 1st.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Nope! Like any startup, we jumped off the cliff and have been building the airplane on our way down – which for medical professionals, feels very counterintuitive. We’ve learned a tremendous amount about team building, user outreach, building company culture, how to gracefully hear more “no’s” than you’d ever expect (but also humbly accepting an incredible amount of support and enthusiasm along the way) and an incredible amount of basic business skills that they don’t teach you in health care.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Nella Health – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Our goal is to improve upon current triage practices by embracing technology, while providing compassionate, family-centric medical support. By using smartphone technology, we allow families the opportunity to contact a nurse quickly, safely and efficiently with their concerns. The nurse can then assist them in making the best decision for their family, saving time, undo stress and anxiety, and a host of other difficulties. We believe in holistic care, and we believe that disrupting a families routine – especially something like an unnecessary visit to the emergency room – has a compounding impact in our communities. We want to support families in making safe decisions; we know how stressful having a sick or injured child is and how important it is to have a reliable and trustworthy source of information. We are proud of our mission, we are proud to serve those who are underrepresented in our communities – we are free of charge at this time, and want to reach families who feel that the ER is their best option for healthcare service. Nella is taking advantage of technology in a way that brings concierge support to everyone – we aim to build a sustainable model for this healthcare service to be accessible to everyone.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
Nella’s plans are to continue building on our model of service to keep children and families safe and healthy. We plan to take advantage of existing community services in a way that will support families to live healthier lives in their own homes and neighborhoods. We also hope to expand outside of Massachusetts to bring Nella nationwide!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.nellahealth.com
- Email: info@nellahealth.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nellahealth
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nellahealth/
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