Hero, A New Healthcare Company That Puts Family Caregivers And Their Loved Ones First, Launches Today

NEW YORK, Oct. 16, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Hero, the company empowering caregivers and helping to solve the complex issue of medication management and adherence, is announcing its public U.S. launch today with its eponymous product: Hero.

After four years of development and testing, the simple yet comprehensive, integrated and automated in-home system includes a beautiful and easy to use interface equipped with never before seen levels of flexibility and transparency. Objective, real-time notifications and reporting from Hero assures caregivers that loved ones have the right medications and that they are taking these medications at the right time, so they can spend their valuable time together sharing experiences instead of frustrations.

Hero is the first and only in-home medication manager that intuitively sorts and dispenses medication; has audible and digital reminders; automates refills; and provides real-time as well as historical adherence data at your fingertips. Leveraging years of user research, testing and feedback, Hero prioritizes what matters most to caregivers and helps improve the lives of their loved ones. The system includes the:

• Hero Device: a passcode-protected, countertop device that eliminates pre-sorting while automatically storing, dispensing, tracking, reminding and intelligently ordering refills based on doses remaining and/or expiration of medication.
• Hero App: for iOS and Android, a modern app that creates and manages all medication regimens; sends notifications to caregivers and loved ones regarding dispensed, skipped and additional doses; provides real-time access to drug information; and tracks adherence over time.
• Hero Fill Service Option: prompts and manages the delivery of prescription medication, over-the-counter medication and supplements directly to the home, with no extra charge for delivery.

The inspiration for Hero stems from Founder and CEO Kal Vepuri's own experience of caring for his mother who, even as a highly regarded primary care physician, struggled to adhere to her own complex medication regimen after undergoing a severe cardiac procedure.

Vepuri said, "Hero has been a personal journey for me. No pill box, pill dispenser, app, mail-order provider, nursing care service or combination thereof improved my mother's adherence over time. I felt helpless in improving her well-being, happiness and sense of independence. It felt like I had failed at caring for the most important person in my life."

He went on to learn that millions of families shared in his frustration with the lack of solutions to such a stressful and emotional problem. Vepuri said, "I knew there had to be a way to use technology to ease the daily burden of managing multiple medications and to provide reliable support to caregivers, while addressing some of the obstacles in place from our challenged healthcare system."

Vepuri used a combination of his engineering skills, user feedback and personal experiences to create a seamless way to help those suffering from chronic conditions such as Heart Disease, Diabetes, Parkinson's Disease, Cancer and Depression to easily adhere to a prescription medication plan each and every day. For a caregiver whose time and resources are limited, and whose day is filled with competing priorities, Hero delivers a dose of calm.

Medication nonadherence affects everyone. According to The National Institute of Health, hundreds of billions of dollars in annual costs and over 1 million hospital visits each year are attributable to nonadherence, accounting for over 10 percent of all emergency room hospitalizations. Overall medication management often brings crippling stress to those caring for their loved ones. This pervasive and growing problem directly results in the deaths of more than 125,000 Americans each year (similar in magnitude to Stroke or Alzheimer's), and burdens more than 45 million unpaid family caregivers in the U.S. every day.

What started as an idea to solve a singular problem resulted in Hero's ethos and driving force to empower caregivers and those they love. At its core, Hero is a people-first company -- relentlessly developing and refining products and services to directly solve the most challenging healthcare problems with user-centric, frictionless solutions for those who need them.

A seed-stage angel investor in Warby Parker, Allbirds, Sweetgreen, ClassPass, Color Genomics, Oscar, Quip, Mirror and over 125 other companies, Vepuri worked for over four years to develop an affordable, accessible and scalable product for caregivers and patients, everywhere. Hero closed a $12 million Series A round of funding from leading technology, healthcare and ecommerce investors. Participants in the round included Brainchild Holdings, Naval Ravikant, Box Group, Third Kind Venture Capital, Refactor Capital, Spider Capital, Stewart Butterfield, Alan Patricof, David Stern, Jen Rubio and Brad Fluegel, among others.

Hero launches today in the U.S. and is available online at www.herohealth.com. The system is being offered with a subscription plan. It can be purchased for as low as $19.95 per month for two years (and $9.99 per month, thereafter) or for $299.00 plus a one-year pre-paid subscription (valued at $120).

Media Contact: Max Lifton, [email protected]

SOURCE Hero