Accelerating the Pace of Medical Research with Crescendo

We are thrilled to announce our partnership with Crescendo Health — a clinical research platform that is custom-built to help life science organizations utilize real-world evidence (RWE). Define Ventures led Crescendo’s Seed round.

Data access and liquidity is a massive pain point for the $40B+ clinical research industry. For most prospective research, sponsors are limited to patient data collected during the study period and localized at the trial site, neglecting a wealth of longitudinal data from a patient’s comprehensive healthcare encounters (e.g., claims data, EHR data, labs, etc.). With the passage of the 21st Century CURES Act, patients are now empowered with more rights to collect and use their health data. These regulatory tailwinds, the digitization of health information, and the proliferation of new APIs in our space, create a ripe opportunity to reshape how we collect, normalize, and apply patient data to generate clinical insights.

Crescendo Health is a category-defining company that accelerates the pace of medical research by empowering sponsors to generate robust evidence in a patient-centric fashion. By bringing some of the most innovative digital health technologies that are transforming patient care to life sciences research, Crescendo helps life sciences manufacturers advance life-saving therapeutics in more efficient and cost-effective ways.

Core to our thesis in pharma tech is the increasingly important role data platforms will play in informing decisions across the value chain — from clinical trials to post-market surveillance — and the need for regulatory-grade solutions that are purpose built for the life sciences research use case. As the industry seeks to reach more diverse populations, we also believe that a more decentralized, patient-driven data collection approach is both a critical value-driver and an imperative for life science organizations.

Crescendo is led by Sam Roosz — a co-founder of Datavant (merged with Ciox as part of $7B deal) — co-founder Michael Glassman (ex-Product at Grand Rounds), and a seasoned exec team with relevant product and sector expertise. Given the team’s relevant industry experience, we have strong conviction in their ability to scale infrastructure required for bringing therapeutics to market faster and cheaper. The Seed round of financing was used to complete validation studies with proven results for clinical research organizations during its early-access period. Define’s work with Crescendo has involved supporting business development, go-to-market strategy, and talent needs.

“In each conversation with Define, it was clear to us that they are not only experts in the realms of digital health and the life sciences, but also deeply committed to quality patient care. Together we’re excited to accelerate the pace of medical innovation, expanding available treatment options and improving patient outcomes.”

— Sam Roosz, Co-Founder & CEO

We could not be more excited to play a part in Crescendo’s continued success as they redefine how life science organizations leverage patient data and build a new operating system for clinical research.