Healthy Roster Connects Parents to Trainers for Real-Time Care
For any parent whose child plays sports, injury is a top-of-mind concern. Even with the best training and equipment, student athletes can get hurt—from bruises to concussions and even more serious injuries.
When a mishap occurs, certified athletic trainers (ATs) are an important and effective first line of defense.
Healthy Roster, a company founded by parents of youth athletes, developed an app to help these highly qualified, skilled health care professionals better care for and manage athletes’ injuries. The Healthy Roster app allows the athletic trainer to log, track, and communicate about injuries with parents and coaches.
“We’re bringing better technology to the field of sports medicine,” said Co-founder and CEO, Nathan Heerdt. “We’re improving player health and safety through friendly and efficient communication. We can’t eliminate injuries from the sports, but we can make sure everyone has access to the best possible care.”
A year ago, Healthy Roster had less than 20 customers; today they have over 60 customers, including both large and small hospitals and health systems, and more than 75,000 athletes in their system.
Empowering athletic trainers and extending the reach of sports medicine services
Healthy Roster’s platform helps athletic trainers and healthcare organizations use technology to better support parents, coaches, and youth athletes. The platform supplies mobile injury documentation and parent communications. It integrates with electronic health records systems. Sports medicine departments receive reports and analysis to determine the most effective use ATs and other resources in expanding sports medicine services.
To serve student athletes, sports medicine departments provide athletic trainers to area high schools.
“These ATs work every afternoon taking care of athletes. In return, the sports medicine departments connect with parents to build a relationship as a provider for current and future needs,” Heerdt said. “Parents respect the process and appreciate that there is an athletic trainer on the sidelines ready to help.”
Healthy Roster makes it easy for ATs to add, track, and edit injuries. ATs can securely text, chat, and live video chat with everyone involved in the athlete’s care, from parents to coaches, to other ATs and orthopedic team members.
Parents can get their questions answered and better determine the most appropriate next step—whether that’s icing the injury, heading to the E/R, a follow-on visit with the student’s physician, or an appointment with experts at the associated sports medicine department.
Expanding product development and sales by providing end-to-end care for athletes
Next steps for Healthy Roster include incorporating orthopedic users—including orthopedic physicians, surgeons, staff, and physical therapists.
“We will be able to support athletes from the moment an injury happens all the way through pre- and postoperative care,” Heerdt said. “The beautiful thing about our technology is that it scales very well. We are a startup, but we serve a lot of big brands.”
Launched in 2016, Healthy Roster is already doing business in 26 states with health care providers and hospitals including: University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio State University and Orthopedic One in Columbus, Providence Health in Seattle, Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, Prevea Health in Milwaukee and Green Bay, Orlando Health, Children’s Hospital of Colorado in Denver, and New Orleans East Hospital.
Earlier this year, Healthy Roster announced a $1.9MM raise from Ohio-based venture capital and angel investor funds. Rev1 Ventures, Ohio TechAngel Funds, and NCT Ventures participated in the round with Cincinnati’s Queen City Angels and North Coast Angels from Cleveland.
