Shareable Ink

Shareable Ink, founded in 2009 by Stephen S. Hau and Vernon Huang, established itself as a specialized technology provider in the healthcare sector. The company, which is now inactive, was conceived to bridge the gap between traditional paper-based clinical documentation and modern electronic health record (EHR) systems. Hau, a serial entrepreneur with a background in engineering from MIT, had prior success in the healthcare software space, having also founded PatientKeeper, which was later acquired by HCA. This experience directly informed Shareable Ink's mission to digitize handwritten information from paper forms, converting it into structured data for EHRs and other information systems.

The company's core offering was an enterprise cloud platform designed for healthcare organizations. This platform addressed the persistent challenge of capturing clinical data at the point of care, particularly in environments slow to adopt fully electronic systems, such as anesthesiology and emergency rooms. The technology utilized a unique digital pen and specially printed forms with a distinct background pattern. A camera in the pen would record what was written and its location on the page, allowing for the recreation of the document electronically upon syncing. The system could also convert handwriting to text and process information from checkboxes, effectively transforming natural inputs into codified data. This hybrid approach allowed clinicians to maintain their familiar paper-based workflows while still enabling the benefits of digital data capture, such as analytics and data mining.

Financially, Shareable Ink attracted significant venture capital, raising a total of $24.8 million over seven funding rounds from investors including Lemhi Ventures, Founder Collective, and The Heritage Group. The company's business model was based on providing its cloud-based software platform to healthcare clients. Originally started in Boston, the company relocated to Nashville to be closer to the city's dense healthcare industry ecosystem. Despite its efforts, the company ultimately ceased operations and is now considered deadpooled. The company's assets were eventually acquired or merged.

Keywords: clinical documentation, healthcare data capture, electronic health records, digital pen technology, handwriting recognition, health IT, medical records systems, structured data, point-of-care documentation, anesthesiology documentation, emergency room records, cloud platform, venture capital-backed, Stephen S Hau, Vernon Huang, Lemhi Ventures, Founder Collective, The Heritage Group, Nashville healthcare, deadpooled startup