FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Faros Healthcare LLC, a spin-out of Centerstone Research Institute, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving behavioral health care through research and information technology, is bringing patent-pending artificial intelligence technology and software to health care providers through an exclusive license from Indiana University Research and Technology Corp.
“Faros provides a cloud-based platform that integrates with existing electronic health records and population health software to aid clinicians in achieving the best patient outcomes at an optimal cost,” said Jim Stefansic, president and co-founder of Faros. “Moving both sides of the cost-of-care value equation is essential in transforming our health care system, and we’re incredibly excited to bring this power to providers.”
The Faros AI & Analytics Platform is co-owned by Centerstone, one of the nation’s largest not-for-profit providers of community-based behavioral health and addiction services, and IURTC, a not-for-profit agency that helps bring Indiana University discoveries and projects to market.
“We are proud to be working with Faros and Centerstone and are excited for a startup spin-out with university technology and our graduates as founders,” said Bill Brizzard, director of technology commercialization at IURTC.
Through an exclusive license of the technology, Faros will allow a personalized approach to health care treatment through the use of machine learning. The software tools not only recommend an optimal course of treatment for complex health conditions, but also learn over time based on patient outcomes and suggest intervention adjustments while considering treatment cost in the analysis.
As health care moves from fee-for-service to pay-for-performance, more responsibility will be placed on health care providers to manage risk. For people suffering from complex health conditions, especially those with mental health disorders, the massive amount of data compiled will need to be used more effectively to treat patients at a lower cost. Health care groups that manage risk, such as accountable care organizations, have begun utilizing collected data to better identify which patients are at risk for poor outcomes, but they do not have effective analysis tools to optimize treatment and understand the overall cost.
“The ability to provide clinicians and care providers with information on whether a patient may respond to a particular intervention prior to treatment and adjust it over time will help health care providers make data-driven decisions on treatment,” said Tom Doub, chairman of the Faros board of directors and chief clinical officer of Centerstone. “We’ve seen how access to data at this level can have a tremendous impact in the field of behavioral health care, and its potential to help providers across the health care spectrum is truly paradigm-shifting.”
Faros Healthcare was co-founded by Stefansic and Casey Bennett, who also serves as the company’s chief scientific officer. Bennett invented the analytics and artificial intelligence platform as a graduate student in Indiana University’s School of Informatics and Computing. Bennett also served as a data architect, research fellow and data scientist at Centerstone Research Institute, where his contributions to analytics and data warehousing were nationally recognized, including in IBM’s Smarter Planet series.
“With this technology, we can provide clinicians and patients with not only static information about the best route to get from point A to point B, but constantly updated, real-time information about effectiveness or treatment changes during the journey,” Bennett said. “It’s an exciting time as data analytics and health care converge, and we look forward to transforming the way individuals receive care.”
About Indiana University Research and Technology Corp.
IURTC is a not-for-profit organization that helps IU faculty and researchers realize the commercial potential of their discoveries. Since 1997, IURTC’s university clients have accounted for more than 2,000 inventions, nearly 1,900 U.S. patent applications and more than 75 startup companies. IURTC is part of the Innovate Indiana initiative, which engages strategic partners to leverage and advance IU’s intellectual resources and expertise, enhance Indiana’s economic growth, and contribute to the overall quality of life for Hoosiers. Indiana University is designated as an Innovation and Economic Prosperity University by the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities. This recognizes IU’s commitment across all its campuses to being a leading institution in fostering regional economic development.