Aubrey Kelly’s son was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in 2017, a shock that left Kelly and her family searching for relevant and trusted information about the condition.
During their search, a new problem presented itself.The vastness of the information found in search engines, medical websites and social media was overwhelming and imprecise. It was information overload during a time when Kelly and her family sought information tailored to her son’s cancer journey.
Her solution for others in a similar situation – an app that cuts through the noise and delivers personalized information to improve health care literacy – set the stage for her to move on from Thousand Oaks-based Amgen Inc. to become the founder and chief executive of Rabble Health, a digital patient engagement company based in Thousand Oaks.
Rabble Health’s primary product line comes in the form of myRabble, a free health care app that supports cancer patients with a personal and professional care team, connects them with others who have had a similar experience and gives them information on treatment options.
As users progress through diagnosis, treatment and recovery, the app adjusts its services, content and targeted communications accordingly.
Health care professionals, advocacy groups and life science companies can also use myRabble to better understand and manage patients› medical diagnoses.
“Through our digital platform, myRabble, we hope to help individuals (and their caregivers) diagnosed with cancer improve timely access to these resources and tools in a more personalized, appropriate and empowering way,” said Kelly in a statement.
She cited a report from health information tech company IQVIA that underscores the importance of the myRabble app. According to the report, it takes about five years on average for 80 percent of oncologists to use the appropriate biomarker test.
Biomarker testing is a method of identifying genes, proteins and other substances that can provide information about a certain cancer. Every person’s cancer is unique, which creates a need for precision medicine and precise information resources, the latter of which Kelly aims to supply with myRabble.
“We’re trying to position ourselves as a much more effective way of tying metrics around patient empowerment for standard marketing and patient engagement campaigns,” Kelly said.
Marketing revenue Founded just last year, Rabble Health has accessed seed capital from friends and family is currently working with ScaleHealth, a health care hub that connects startups and business.
Although the COVID-19 pandemic has shaken up businesses worldwide, Kelly recalled a positive aspect of the pause that came along with it.
“For an early-stage company, it has given us the appropriate time to really do the deep thinking that’s needed at this stage,” she said. “Now we are in a position kind of post pandemic to really start taking a more vocal and active kind of role in (developing).” The myRabble app was developed and scaled in 10 months. The company brings in revenue from marketers and medical leads of oncology life science organizations that want to market their health care tools or treatments. The treatment or tools’ benefits and fundamentals are evaluated by Rabble and if Rabble decides to proceed, it then implements or adds to a module on myRabble for whatever particular illness is addressed by the health care tool or treatment.
Essentially, Rabble provides a marketing service for treatments while simultaneously bolstering the myRabble app with more illness and treatment information for users. myRabble operates within a health care advertising market that in 2020, was valued at nearly $69 billion according to Expert Market Research.
Breast cancer study In late June, Rabble Health, West Cancer Center & Research Institute and Memphis Breast Cancer announced results from a partnership designed to evaluate disparities and enhance the quality of breast cancer care at the Memphis-based West Cancer Center.
The partnership specifically looked at matters such as how many days ensue throughout a patient’s transition from mammogram to biopsy to surgery and if there were any variations in care based on race, ZIP code and other factors.
“We had an opportunity to essentially take the data and compare it to national benchmarks, and we’re really excited to actually show to West Cancer that they’re running a pretty amazing and efficient operation,” Kelly said.
The partnership’s overarching goal is to reduce breast cancer-related mortality disparity rates of Black women in Memphis. The current disparity rate of 70 percent reveals that Black women are dying from breast cancer at approximately three times the rate of White women, according to the press release.
On July 13, Rabble Health was announced as one of five winners of the CDC Foundation’s Empowered Health Cancer-Free Challenge. The challenge was launched on April 13 and called for revolutionary ideas that could empower people to prevent, treat and beat cancer.
Ideas for the challenge were evaluated on relevance, impact, creativity, and whether they are actionable and equitable. The five winning ideas will support the elimination of preventable cancers and improve cancer outcomes for all. Amgen was one of the challenge’s sponsors.
“Our mission is to help democratize information, but also connect and empower individuals and help people to manage through better, and we can’t do that alone,” said Kelly. “We have to do that by recognizing and leaning on other people.” In addition to breast cancer, Rabble Health is looking at the lung cancer market. Currently the company is seeking partnerships to build out its lung cancer module.
Startup Guides Cancer Families
