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The inspiration for Joe Gough's current startup hit a little too close to home. He was working at the University of Michigan when his son had to go to the hospital. A bad discharge complicated his son’s recovery (he's fine now) and inspired Gough to launch Homeward Healthcare.

Homeward Healthcare creates a mobile app that helps medical staff better communicate with their patients and make more informed decisions about treatment and discharge. The Ann Arbor-based company's software platform enables a patient to help direct their care letting them fill out questionnaires on a mobile device where they can be free of social pressure to say certain things.

"You're trying to get honesty from a patient," says Joe Gough, president & CEO of Homeward Healthcare.

The idea is to help give medical staff the best information possible so they know when best to discharge the patient and what medical treatment would be most appropriate at which time. Today hospital readmissions are a leading cause of longer hospital stays and higher bills.

"It's a severe problem in the healthcare space," Gough says.

Homeward Healthcare and its team of eight people have built out the mobile app and are getting ready to launch it at Hurley Medical Center in Flint this fall.

"We are in one hospital right now," Gough says. "We will be going in front of patients next week."

Source: Joe Gough, president & CEO of Homeward Healthcare
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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