SeniorMetrix, the Brentwood firm that provides predictive modeling and data analytics for managing care of the frail elderly, is projecting roughly $6 million in revenue fror 2008, with topline growth expected to be as much as 50 percent greater in 2009.

CEO Rick Glanz (at left) told VNC during an interview Friday that SeniorMetrix has required no infusions of outside capital since its birth nine years ago, following a management-led buyout from Novacare. Glanz said the company's margins range 20 to 30 percent. Such financial results afford the company freedom, for example, to reinvest capital into research and development, the sort of expenditure that does not always please outside investors.

Glanz said his bullish outlook is largely a result of the fact that "our [signed-customer] pipeline is just much fuller than it's ever been." He said continued strengthening in federal reimbursement regulations that require increased efficiency among providers has helped the business.

The frail elderly are only 10 percent of the Medicare population, but account for 60 percent of Medicare expenditures, which total more than $300 billion annually. SeniorMetrix says its customers realize as much as 1,600 percent return on their expenditures on SeniorMetrix services.

At its inception, SeniorMetrix established near-instant momentum by buying Novacare software assets and retaining a large Novacare HMO client. Novacare had concentrated on physical, speech and occupational rehabilitation.

Today, SeniorMetrix provides health plans and disease-management organizations the objective measures and standards for care and rehabilitation of the frail elderly under a myriad of health conditions. The empirical basis for the company's products and services is derived from data drawn from thousands of databases.

In interpreting data and linking it to treatment – and, ultimately, to reimbursement – Glanz said SeniorMetrix "is always looking for ways to make our science better," even while the complexity of healthcare means continually working to understand and explain variations in outcomes. For example, Glanz said the company is currently analyzing data related to how depression affects surgical outcomes.

Glanz noted that the spread of evidence-based medicine and related data and technologies could improve prediction of patient's recovery needs. Among other benefits, progress on this front could enable families to provide more care for the frail elderly at home.

SeniorMetrix has 35 employees, two-thirds of whom are stationed at client sites, where they provide information and counsel to providers, patients and families. ♦