The 2016 Rappaport awardee, Rajiv Sivendran, MD, MBA, has been working extensively on the challenge of reducing healthcare costs in the United States. Dr. Sivendran’s inspiration came from the realization that the field is lacking the tools to accurately measure the time and labor costs associated with patient care. His research led him to create a suite of technologies that aims to do just that.

At the heart of the system are GPS-like tracking devices, which are small enough to be worn on the identification badges of all clinical staff—medical assistants, nurses, and physicians. When patients arrive for their appointments, they are given a similar tracker. Using data from these unobtrusive devices, the software can then provide statistics on a number of important measurements—average wait time, length of appointments, duration of surgeries, amount of time spent with care staff, etc. Because labor accounts for more than 50 percent of healthcare costs, having accurate measurements is a major step toward identifying inefficiencies and bottlenecks, ultimately leading to better cost transparency and containment.

Dr. Sivendran has since launched this project into a company, ClearViewMD, where he serves as CEO, and has already accepted a number of medical centers as clients throughout the U.S. He credits the Rappaport Award for providing critical funding that got this project off the ground.

Any piece of funding in the early stage of developing something new and transformative is helpful to de-risk the process. I am grateful to the Rappaport Foundation for funding this very important award.”
—Rajiv Sivendran, MD, MBA