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Catching Up with Pathagility: New Pivot Leads to New Clients

3 min read

Pathagility, an Innovate Arkansas firm based in central Arkansas, is a Software-as-a-Service and integration platform for pathology laboratories and their health-care partners. 

IA recently caught up with Pathagility’s Mark McCuin, who told us how a ‘pivot’ led to new clients and how all the recent health-care hubbub is affecting the firm. 

For those not familiar with your firm, tell us how Pathagility works.

Pathagility is a software company focused on servicing medical laboratories. We recognized an industry that needed smarter laboratory management systems, so we developed a subscription-based software solution that easily connects referring physicians and healthcare institutions with the lab. Our clients can simply login to Pathagility to manage their patients’ clinical data and produce dynamic lab reports that ultimately elevate patient care.  

Give us the latest. You’re currently at seven employees…..any growth plans?

Recently, we made a pivot that has translated into several new clients and the most fruitful sales pipeline we’ve seen in our existence. While we continue to work with anatomic pathology labs (our original focus), we are seeing great growth opportunity in laboratories that are focused on personalized medicine (e.g. molecular diagnostics, cytogenetics, genomics).  We are still in the early stages of the startup life cycle where we are very pragmatic and conservative about bringing on new team members. That being said, as we continue to realize the potential of this new growth opportunity, our staffing needs will increase more rapidly. Stay tuned…

[See this related Arkansas Business piece on IA’s Arkansas Genomics.]

How has health-care reform affected your firm?

The uncertainty of health-care reform, especially with respect to reimbursement, caused many of our prospects to hold off on making decisions such as purchasing software.  As more clarity is being revealed, we are seeing more opportunity. Obviously, labs with higher reimbursement levels (and confidence that these levels will be in existence for awhile) tend to have more available budget for software and services like ours. We are also seeing labs adding new tests to their offering to generate additional revenue to counteract decreases in reimbursement.

What will health care look like in 10 years?

We will continue to see a movement towards more personalized medicine and treatment. Patients will have more self-serve medical options and will be more educated about his/her specific health care. This shift will involve the patient more in his/her custom health care decision process.  

NWA gets all the headlines it seems — what’s the current startup vibe in central Arkansas

It’s great to see those headlines, isn’t it?  No matter what part of the state it is coming from. People are so accessible in Arkansas, which is special. There’s a lot going on in central Arkansas these days. Collaboration has dramatically increased between entrepreneurs, state agencies, universities, city chambers, etc. You can feel the entire startup community pulling for your success and celebrating with the company that is announcing a new funding round, product introduction or successful exit.    

How is the startup ecosystem different in the state from when Pathagility was launched?

A higher number of startups are being launched and there are more accessible resources today. There is an organized group of early stage investment funds and options. More resources to help guide startups through the pitfalls in the early stages are available. Obviously, Innovate Arkansas has been a great example of this type of guidance. Now early stage companies can pick from a big listing of mentors that look forward to helping new entrepreneurs through the early stages. 

One more…how many wins for the Hogs this fall?

The OPTIMIST in me says 6.  By the way, the UCA Bears win 10-plus with a big postseason run in the playoffs!

 

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