Company Description
How often do you go to a doctor? Chances are you’ve made a visit at least once, potentially multiple times, within the last year. In 2021, an average of 267.1 doctor visits were made per 100 persons, indicating that many individuals took multiple trips during the year.i While a visit to the doctor may be an ordinary experience for some, many difficulties including cost and potential discomfort may lead people to avoid making these visits. For example, nearly 1 in 4 Americans reported they skipped a medical visit because of the cost of care.ii These results can be amplified for patients with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDDs) and sensory processing issues. According to the National Council on Disability, individuals with disabilities may “utilize the healthcare system for disease management instead of disease prevention and can view the healthcare system as a source of potential harm.”iii Furthermore, some healthcare providers may even deny access to careiv and patients with disabilities may experience higher cost of carev and face medical environments that could result in unequitable outcomes.Sensory Health is aiming to make healthcare more equitable for everyone, regardless of limitations, by revolutionizing the way patients with IDDs and sensory processing difficulties receive medical treatment. It’s doing this by transforming healthcare spaces to become sensory-adapted environments through the installation of tactile, visual, and auditory stimuli designed to help improve healthcare access and outcomes of patients with sensory needs. In addition to sensory adaptation services, Sensory Health trains care providers on how to deliver care to its patients who have sensory needs. Combined with its eDirectory, a product in development that is intended to serve as a care provider search engine for individuals with sensory needs and care providers, Sensory Health is attempting to make access to healthcare and healthcare outcomes better for patients with IDDs.Led by Ben Hudson, a business consultant, CPA, entrepreneur, and advocate for individuals with sensory needs, the company has already begun turning healthcare clinics into sensory-adapted environments, where care is delivered by trained providers ready to serve all of their patients’ needs. In particular, it is currently working with the Delta Dental Foundation to deliver sensory training, implement environment adaptions, and design process improvements to dentistry organizations in partnership with the American Association of Multi-Sensory Environments (AAMSE.)Additionally, the company built a sensory room at the Orange Grove Center, a non-profit organization that serves approximately 1,000 adults and children with IDDs and was selected as one of seven trainers to participate in NYU Dental’s “Unit Zero” program. The program seeks to train other New York-based dental professors and students on equitable dental care, and was held over three weekends in the fall of 2022, with plans to continue the program in 2023.vi Sensory Health is seeking capital to build out its team and to develop its eDirectory, the Sensory Health Provider Directory.
Key Deal Facts
Contracted by the Delta Dental Foundation to work with Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) Dental Clinics, performing environmental interventions, & delivering sensory-integrated training modules, Built its first sensory-adapted environment in a behavioral health unit at Orange Grove Center in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Partnered with the American Association of Multi-Sensory Environments to deliver specialized sensory needs training for participating clinics part of the Delta Dental Foundation, Selected by the NYU Dental School to give training to New York-based dental school professors & staff to help them understand effective methods to deliver dental care to individuals with disabilities
