21 Feb IU Angel Network Invests in Primary Record, an Indiana-Based Healthcare Company Simplifying Medical Information For Families
Indianapolis, Ind. — The IU Angel Network, an investment vehicle of IU Ventures, is proud to announce an investment of $65,000 in Primary Record, an early-stage healthcare technology company on a mission to simplify medical information for families.
Primary Record is a medical health app designed for individuals and families to document, organize, and share healthcare information. Primary Record makes it easier for caregivers to track their loved one’s health information and share it with their care team and other family members. 
The company was co-founded in 2020 by Jean Ross and Jim McIntosh, neighbors in Fishers, Indiana. Ross, a native of Indianapolis, Indiana is an IU alumni who received her B.A. in Sociology from The College of Arts and Sciences at IU Bloomington. After obtaining a master’s degree in healthcare administration in North Carolina, she returned to Indiana to work at IU Health in HR and patient financial services before then earning her nursing degree from IU Indianapolis’s accelerated nursing program.
“After six years in the hospital I started a nurse care coordination business because I saw an increasing number of older adults and overwhelmed family caregivers trying to navigate care,” Ross explained. “Families do not have an easy system to tap into to document their medical story and use it for getting care or services in their community. This is the problem that Jim and I decided to solve with Primary Record.”
Ross believes Primary Record has the potential to reduce medical costs and reduce the mental load that caregivers face when managing support for their loved ones.
“In my experience as a nurse I know that healthcare professionals are often flying blind because we don’t have the information or records we need,” Ross explained. “So, part of the value that Primary Record brings will come from stopping redundancies and reducing costliness around healthcare because we don’t have access to someone’s medical records from another institution and must run tests again. The other part of the value will be in reducing the mental load on caregivers, who are primarily women, by putting the whole family on the platform so everyone is aware of what is happening or changing for the patient.”
Primary Record will use the IUAN funding to expand beyond its app to build a platform that allows care managers and patient advocates to securely connect with their clients and family caregivers. It will also begin to raise awareness of their services so that it can develop partnerships within the community.
“Primary Record is providing a tool that will support not only enhanced health outcomes for our most medically fragile populations, but also provide a better quality of life for their caregivers,” said Jason Whitney, Executive Director of the IU Angel Network and Chief Venture Officer, IU Ventures. “When adding the potential societal benefit to the passionate and experienced founding team it resulted in a platform IU Ventures just had to support.”
Looking forward, Ross is most excited about how Primary Record can help families to better understand their health.
“There are some other platforms out there that collect data, but what we want to do is help families to understand the data,” Ross explained. “We are implementing some AI and large language models that will check against your own medical data and history. This will provide caregivers and patients much more customized guidance than plugging a question into Google.”
The Primary Records app launched to the public on December 1, 2023. For more information about Primary Record please visit www.primaryrecord.com.
If you are an investor interested in learning more about the IU Angel Network, please apply on our website. If you are an IU Entrepreneur looking to meet with the IU Ventures team, please apply for funding on our website.
About Primary Record
A healthcare technology company established in 2020 by Indianapolis-based co-founders Jean Ross, RN, and Jim McIntosh, Primary Record champions the belief that better care begins with knowing the full health story. The company released in December 2023 a secure app designed for families to organize, collaborate, and share health data, consolidating invaluable information previously scattered across patient portals, three-ring binders, and post-it notes. In 2024, Primary Record is expanding to include a platform that enables care managers and patient advocates to securely connect with their clients and family caregivers on Primary Record. By facilitating better sharing of health information and communication within care teams, Primary Record aims to improve the coordination of care and reduce costs. The company’s commitment to data security, privacy, and transparency in sharing healthcare information sets it apart in an industry marked by fragmentation and complexity. To learn more or contact Primary Record, visit https://www.primaryrecord.com.
About IU Ventures
IU Ventures invests in and supports IU-affiliated early-stage companies. Its investment programs include the IU Philanthropic Venture Fund, IU Angel Network, Shoebox Fund and Innovate Indiana Fund. It further supports IU founders through the Executive in Residence Program and IU Founders and Funders Network. Student support is provided through a variety of engagements, including the new IU Venture Fellows Program. Each program takes unique approaches to accelerate and support the positive impacts that entrepreneurs affiliated with IU already achieve across the world. IU Ventures is a recognized leader in increasing opportunities for diverse and historically underserved entrepreneurs and investing in Indiana startups with a shared commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.
Investor Contact
IU Ventures
ventures@iu.edu