This morning Sentinel Healthcare, a Seattle-based remote monitoring platform for patients with hypertension or other chronic diseases in need of management, announced that it has raised $2 million in new funding. The round was led by PSL Ventures.

What they do

Sentinel provides a wearable blood pressure cuffs and patient smartphone app that transmit data to the company’s wider service. This data is collected and displayed to the company’s physician team, who can help flag high-risk patients and coordinate an appropriate intervention with the patient’s care team. The platform also facilitates two-way communication between the patient and their provider, and handles insurance billing for its customers.

“Hypertension is a silent epidemic that kills more people each year than cancer. Despite the existence of multiple effective medications for the disease, most hypertensive patients struggle to achieve blood pressure control,” Dr. Nirav Shah, CEO and founder of Sentinel, said in a statement. “Sentinel leverages the power of digital health devices to connect patients, doctors and health systems on a single platform that enables us to better manage hypertension patients, improve physician efficiency and reduce healthcare costs.”

According to a release, Sentinel’s platform is currently providing support to more than 500 patients across three states and has remained revenue positive since the enrollment of its first patient.

What it’s for

Sentinel said it will be putting the new funds toward continued development of its commercial platform.

Market snapshot

Connected blood pressure cuffs such as those from Withings or Philips have been available to providers and consumers alike for some time, with Omron’s HeartGuide wristwatch being among the most recent offering. In terms of high blood pressure support services, Omada Health and Livongo both updated their platforms last year to include hypertension support.

On the record

“We believe Sentinel is a game changer for both population health management and the care and treatment of patients with chronic diseases,“ T.A. McCann, managing director at PSL Ventures, said in a statement. “Sentinel’s platform provides a solution for managing hypertension and other chronic diseases that is easy for patients and clinicians to use, and brings in recurring revenues for health care systems. Seattle is a growing hub for companies working at the intersection of health and technology. We are incredibly excited to back the Sentinel team in its efforts to transform wearable devices into new and powerful tools in doctors’ arsenals.”