The waiting room is a boring place. You wait for the doctor, and you fill out forms. And you usually forget all of the information you give or receive while you’re there.
Epion Health sells a patient engagement platform (as a software as a service) that replaces clipboards with iPads and can send patient information into the electronic health record. This is more fun for the patient and improves record accuracy and compliance. Patients can even take care of their payment using the iPad.
Epion has its believers. The company has taken a $4.5 million funding round, its first, from Deerfield Management Company, a New York City based investment firm.
The new funding will be used to scale up Epion's iPad-based platform to reach far more waiting rooms across the U.S., the company says.
As a result of a recently announced partnership, Epion's service is now live and available to Athena's network of 52,000-plus care providers.
“This additional capital comes into the company at an exciting time. We now have the necessary resources for the foreseeable future to capitalize on a very
large market opportunity,” said Epion CEO Joe Blewitt in a statement.
“In addition to growing our sales and operations teams, a portion of the funding will be used to continue to enhance our product for our rapidly growing network of providers,” he said.
HealthBeat — VentureBeat's breakthrough health tech event — is returning on Oct 27-28 in San Francisco. This year's theme is "The connected age: Integrating data, big & small." We're putting long-established giants of the health care world on stage with CEOs of the nation's most disruptive health tech companies to share insights, analyze trends, and showcase breakthrough products. Purchase one of the first 50 tickets and save $400! 
