AdaptX CEO Warren Ratliff JD

IN THE LATE 1990s, Warren Ratliff JD, played a key role in defining and mobilizing Greater Nashville's digital and biopharma technology space.

In addition to practicing intellectual property and technology law with Nashville's former Farris, Warfield & Kanaday, during 1998-2000, Ratliff took it upon himself and some other believing citizens to set into motion a chain of events that has always seemed to this observer akin to a "Big Bang" for local knowledge-sector industries, complementing steps by others in the biopharma sector and leading to, among other things, the creation of the Nashville Technology Council.

This week, the 51-year-old CEO of Seattle-based AdaptX Inc. told VNC that while its been a few years since he last visited Music City, Nashville is increasingly on AdaptX's radar, and he's personally contemplating his next visit.

He said AdaptX's work with nonprofit systems and providers -- for example, Seattle Children's, Houston's Memorial Hermann, and USA Health in Alabama -- has been a key ingredient in AdaptX's progress.

That said, Ratliff then explained that Nashville's long-standing role in U.S. healthcare generally, the city's standing as homebase for much of the investor-owned healthcare industry, and successive investments in the market by Oracle, Amazon and other corporates have left him even more determined to expand and renew connections in the market.

AdaptX offers "self-serve" Adaptive Clinical Management(R) technology designed to enable clinical-management leaders to "assess, improve, and manage care across patients, using data from their electronic medical records (EMRs)."

AdaptX's offerings are used by adopters to "rapidly adapt treatments and workflows, improving care for patients while delivering immediate return-on-investment (ROI) for their institutions," according to its recent press release.

Seven-year-old AdaptX recently announced that it had raised $10MM in Series B growth capital, not long after completing a Series A of similar magnitude. Still earlier, a Seed round drew north of $3MM, VNC research indicates.

The B-round was led by Cercano Management, which was spun-out of Vulcan Inc., the late Microsoft founder Paul Allen's investment company. Vulcan had invested a reported $1.1MM in 2020 to lead the A-round for AdaptX (previously known as MDMetrix).

Other investors in the $10MM B-round include Memorial Hermann Health System, Morningside Ventures, Founders' Co-op, Fortson VC, Star Equity, and WRF Capital.

Ratliff several times referred to crucial role of AdaptX's early collaborations with Seattle Children's (Hospital, Research, Foundation), emphasizing the the institution was its first adopter, first customer, first investor and one of its first directors.

Brief VNC research suggests that AdaptX competitors may include San Francisco-based Innovaccer, among others.

Prior to joining AdaptX, Ratliff was co-founder and COO of Caradigm, a company then held within a joint venture of Microsoft and GE. During GE's subsequent sole ownership, Caradigm sold to Inspirata. Related coverage here.

Asked how he ended-up at AdaptX, Ratliff recalled, "After we sold Caradigm, I took time off. Later, I was introduced to [Chief Medical Officer] Dan Low by a long-time healthcare VC leader in Seattle, Loretta Little, whose WRF Capital later became an investor.

"At that point," Ratliff continued, "AdaptX had launched as a concept and was building technology, but it didn't have a commercial product.

"I was incredibly excited about the potential for AdaptX to empower clinical leaders to manage treatments, workflows, and teams in a truly transformative way. So, I joined as CEO in 2018," he added.

As reflected in his LinkedIn profile, Ratliff has long been industrious.

He earned his J.D. at Yale Law School in 1997, three years after graduating from Duke University with a degree in political science and history.

Working the career timeline backward from Caradigm, he served in executive roles with GE Healthcare Enterprise Solutions; McKesson Payer Solutions; and, McKesson Health System Solutions.

He also worked in the former Atlanta-based logistics and transportation solutions provider Velant, which VNC research indicates was once led by one H. Donald Ratliff, Warren Ratliff's father.

Don Ratliff Phd, 80, has been associated with Georgia Tech for half a century, has more recently led Atlanta-based Delivery Dynamics, and previously led Velant and Caps Logistics.

A younger Warren Ratliff told VNC in 2008 that he had grown up in his father's software company.

Ratliff and his wife have three sons and live in the city of Seattle, to which they arrived in 2009. Previous VNC coverage of Ratliff is here.

AdaptX relies for legal counsel on attorneys with Perkins Coie, Ratliff confirmed.

The abovementioned Farris Warfield Kanaday merged in 2001 with Stites & Harbison. VNC

.last edited 1830 21 November 2023