ObjectiveGI

ObjectiveGI, Inc. is an integrated research and technology services platform company based in Nashville, Tennessee, that partners with community-based gastroenterology (GI) physician practices to embed clinical research capability into routine patient care. Under a physician partnership model, the company establishes "Center of Research Excellence" sites inside local GI practices and supplies research infrastructure, optimal trial selection, study implementation and management of key research personnel. Its proprietary processes and technology are intended to remove the healthcare workflow disruption clinical trials typically create in a practice, positioning research as an ancillary service line for the physician group.

The company's initial clinical focus is nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), a chronic liver disease associated with obesity that can progress to fibrosis, cirrhosis, liver cancer and liver failure and for which no approved therapy existed at the time of coverage. Leadership described plans to broaden the platform to other "silent" chronic diseases, citing irritable bowel syndrome as one possibility. Beyond trial enrollment, the company frames its program as a value-based care offering that includes research-related biomarker monitoring, patient education, coaching and personalized service.

The company changed its name to ObjectiveHealth Inc. on September 14, 2021. Under that name it has been described as collaborating with medical professionals and healthcare institutions to build research infrastructure using proprietary technology, methods and on-site staff, with close to 25 partnered programs across 16 states and more than 400 providers.

Founding story

The company was founded in 2018 by a gastroenterologist and a research professional: Don Lazas, MD, who serves as chief medical officer and co-founder, and Colleen Garvey Hoke, president, CEO and co-founder. Both invested in the business themselves. Lazas is also founder and managing partner of NueCura Partners, a Franklin-based angel investment firm, some of whose members invested in the company. Lazas had publicly written about the growing NASH burden in 2017, and the company launched its first Center of Research Excellence in 2018.

Business model

ObjectiveGI operates a partnership model with GI physician practices. When a partner research center enrolls qualified patients in appropriate clinical trials, the center earns revenue from pharmaceutical or contract research organization (CRO) clients; ObjectiveGI staffs and supports the data, administrative and other functions of each research-ancillary program and benefits as a partner across multiple centers.

Revenue is generated through the company's participation in partner Centers of Research Excellence, which are paid by pharmaceutical sponsors and CROs for clinical trial enrollment and conduct; ObjectiveGI shares in the economics of the research-ancillary programs it staffs and manages.

Traction

By the December 2019 Series A announcement the company had opened 10 Centers of Research Excellence and, with partners, supported value-based care initiatives for more than 3,000 patients, with sites in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. In January 2020 it reported 34 full-time employees (14 in Nashville), 12 partnered provider groups in at least eight states, seven additional groups in advanced discussions or contracting, and 15 investors on its cap table, and it planned to double its number of clinically integrated research sites by the end of 2020. Under the ObjectiveHealth name, the business has been described as having close to 25 partnered programs across 16 states and more than 400 providers.

Latest developments

The company was renamed ObjectiveHealth Inc. on September 14, 2021, and continued to expand its partnered research programs. It appears in a 2026 ranking of Franklin, Tennessee startups in the healthtech category with an employee range of 101-250.