WelVU raises $1.25 million to help you remember the doctor’s orders

How much do patients remember about the information they receive on their way out the door of a doctor’s office or a hospital? Not much, according to Portland, Oregon-based WelVU, which announced today it has received initial seed financing of $1.25 million to expand its business of personalized patient education. In fact, CEO and founder Mark Friess told VentureBeat, patients remember less than 20 percent of what they’re told by nurses or doctors. The company launched its integrated patient engagement platform earlier this month. It combines such multimedia content and data as medical illustrations, videos, voiceover from the medical provider, vital-signs, scheduling, X-rays, blood results, and notes that doctors and nurses add. Each presentation is specific to a patient, a direct benefit of the electronic health records that the U.S. health system has begun to adopt.