Topography Health Emerges From Stealth With $21.5 Million to Help Patients Access Life-Saving Clinical Trials

Topography works with physicians by offering them various clinical trials to enlist their patients in. If a gastroenterologist has a patient with a chronic, treatment-resistant gut problem, that doctor can recommend enlisting them in a drug trial potentially addressing the condition, while continuing to monitor the patient. Topography takes care of all the administrative work involved with the clinical trials, like coordinating with pharmaceutical companies and assisting with patient recruiting.

The startup’s “north star,” co-founder Andrew Kirchner told dot.LA, is to eliminate the “negative connotation of regulatory burden and complexity” often associated with clinical research.

Clinical trials are one of the first steps toward getting a new drug or treatment into the hands of patients, but they usually cater to the white and wealthy due to the nature of participating in them. They force participants to drive long distances, spend time in research facilities and follow protocols requiring flexibility in their everyday lives—all of which can exclude people who are poor, disabled or live in rural areas from accessing potentially life-saving treatments.