Thalamus Secures New Funding for Premier Medical Residency Management Platform

FrescoCapital, 37 Angels, Kapor Capital, and Jason Calacanis’ LAUNCH Fund Lead Round

Cloud-basedSystem Cuts Costs and Increases Efficiencies at Top Hospitals Nationwide

Santa Clara, CA – (December 12, 2019) – Thalamus, (www.thalamusgme.com) a cloud-based SaaScompany and creator of the premier platform for hospital residency applicationand interview management, has secured more than $1.5 million in early-stagefunding from a group led by Fresco Capital, 37 Angels, Kapor Capital and JasonCalacanis’ LAUNCH Fund. The additional capital will support technologydevelopment, sales, and marketing efforts as Thalamus expands its footprintwhich already includes more than 125 of the country’s top teaching medicalcenters.

Thalamus is the foremost web-based, recruitment managementand interview scheduling software specifically designed for application tograduate medical education (GME) training programs. The platform streamlinescommunication by allowing applicants to self-schedule interviews, eliminatingunnecessary phone calls and emails. Thalamus handles all of the confirmations,cancellations, and rescheduling, functioning as a process-specific applicanttracking system saving healthcare institutions months of workflow management.

“We are delighted to receive the support from our investors,as we continue our mission to streamline the application and interview processfor applicants and programs,” said Jason Reminick, M.D., founder and CEO ofThalamus. “The cost of training and placing doctors in residency programs inthe United States is staggering for residents and those costs in time and moneyultimately trickle down to affect patient care. A single hospital may spend millions of dollars recruiting residents,while shifting faculty from clinical duties to interview candidates. With morethan $80 million spent annually on residency application costs, and billions moreon travel and hospital administrative expenses, we are confident that this is amarketplace suitable for innovation with a cloud-based solution.”

Thalamus was created in 2013 by Dr. Jason Reminick, then aresident in pediatrics and anesthesiology, and Dr. Suzanne Karan, ananesthesiologist with more than 10 years of experience directing residencyprograms. The platform has already been proven to significantly reduce costsand increase efficiencies for residents and teaching hospitals engaged in the applicationprocess.

Thalamus is currently in use across more than 70 medicalspecialties at graduate medical education programs throughout the U.S.including Stanford, The Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins, Cleveland Clinic, ColumbiaUniversity, Cornell University, Northwell Health, New York University,University of Pennsylvania, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Massachusetts GeneralHospital, Yale University, University of California Los Angeles, DukeUniversity, Washington University in St. Louis, and the University of Chicago.Approximately 80 percent of all medical students applying to residency programsare already using Thalamus, including more than 100,000 newly minted physicianssince 2013. 

“Since we first piloted Thalamus more than five years ago,residency and fellowship applicants have overwhelmingly endorsed the platformfor its convenience, allowing them to easily manage their search and interviewscheduling process,” Dr. Karan said. “At the same time, residency andfellowship program administrators have lauded Thalamus as a significantcost-saving tool with direct benefit to the efficiency of their recruitmentprocesses.”

The new investment coincides with the start of the 2020Residency Application and Match season, administered by the Electronic ResidencyApplication Service (ERAS)/American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) andthe National Resident Matching Program (NRMP). This process is one of the mostimportant and demanding periods in medical education. In total, the processtypically costs medical students an average of more than $10,000 in applicationand out of pocket fees, as well as travel expenses, according to the AmericanAssociation of Medical Colleges (AAMC). While teaching hospitals and medicalcenters spend a median cost of $14,162 in recruiting costs for eachNRMP-matched position.

“Thalamus is positioned to be the dominant player in anemerging market for SaaS solutions in the medical administration space,” saidStephen Forte, managing partner of Fresco Capital. “Jason and his team havealready secured relationships with the best teaching hospitals in the country.We are thrilled to be co-leading this round of capital raising and look forwardto their continued growth.”

Historically, efforts by the American medical community to improvethe residency and fellowship recruitment experience, while reducing administrativecosts, have been elusive. Since the development of the NRMP in 1952, therecruitment and match process has remained largely static. A recent study of theresidency application process published in The Journal of Graduate MedicalEducation noted that scheduling interviews and engaging with potential matchesin a time-sensitive manner creates “a cumbersome and labor-intensive step forthe residency staff, which is associated with long delays in interview dateconfirmation after preferences are sent by applicants.”

“Thalamus is developing and deploying technology to createnew ways for teaching hospitals and residents to connect with each other” saidAngela Lee, founder and CEO of 37 Angels. “We applaud their novel approach tosimplifying this entire process and are proud to be among the first investorsto validate their bold strategic vision.”

About Thalamus

Established in December 2013 and based in Santa Clara,California, Thalamus was created through a grassroots collaboration of programdirectors, program coordinators and applicants/medical students to address theinefficiencies in the residency and fellowship application and interviewprocess. Founded by a pediatrics-anesthesiology resident and an anesthesiologyresidency program director, Thalamus provides a comprehensive online interviewreservation and travel experience via a real-time scheduling system – onlineand mobile. For more on Thalamus, please visit https://www.thalamusgme.com or connectwith us on LinkedIn,YouTube,Facebook, or Twitter.

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CONTACT: Bennett Kleinberg, bkleinberg@jupiterstrategies.com,917-416-4012

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