CITING what they describe as the healthcare industry's "failure to support the real-life workflow" documentation needs of clinicians who work in surgical operating rooms, the founders of GownCard announced Feb. 20 they have secured an undisclosed amount of pre-Seed funding via their partnership with the Hashed Health venture studio, based in Nashville.
In an effort to surmount the industry failure they assert, GownCard says it is focused on providing a "collaborative knowledge" application for perioperative workers.
The app is designed to help OR Staff "transform scattered notes, binders, and verbal preferences into a permanent institutional asset" that serves as "the definitive playbook for every team" working in the OR suite -- with particular attention to the needs of newly appointed OR staff or traveler-nurses who must continually adjust to OR teams' practices and preferences.
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| A. Langerman MD |
GownCard Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer Alexander Langerman MD MPHS explains on his personal website that his longstanding interest in "surgical transparency" has led him to seek solutions that "enhance the transfer of information into and out of the operating room for the benefit of patients, hospital staff, and the healthcare system."
Langerman has served more than a decade as a head and neck surgeon within Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and has long been an active researcher with respect to ethics, safety, data science, surgical efficiency and team dynamics in the OR context.
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| Z. Smith BSN RN |
Langerman's Co-Founder and CEO is healthtech veteran Zach Smith BSN RN, who resides in Washington State, a short drive from Portland, Ore.
Earlier in his career, Smith was a founding member of NurseGrid (dba of HcT2 Co.), which sold to Nashville-based HealthStream (HSTM) in two phases during 2019-2020, for a total $25MM cash.
GownCard, per se, has not yet registered as a freestanding business in Tennessee, Delaware or elsewhere, because it currently operates under the Hashed Health umbrella.
Hashed Health provides teams with heavily vetted startup plans the support they need for de-risking, building, re-building and raising capital among Hashed Health members, venture capital firms and family wealth offices.
GownCard is now being piloted within at least two prominent health systems that were not identified in the GownCard press release on Friday.
VNC research found that during an earlier phase of GownCard development, VUMC nurses, scrub nurses, surgeons and anesthesiologists were invited to comment on perioperative issues and VUMC staff were encouraged to exchange views on workflows and related matters with Langerman and VUMC Associate Chief Medical Information Officer Jon Wanderer, MD, MPhil.
Both Langerman and Wanderer are listed on a Vanderbilt site as Vanderbilt Innovation Ambassadors. In 2023, Langerman and GownCard were awarded an undisclosed amount of startup funding through the Vanderbilt Innovation Catalyst Fund.
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| John Bass |
See earlier reporting on Hashed Health leader John Bass, investors and more here.
A November 2021 SEC filing by Hashed Industries LLC (dba Hashed Health) showed north of $9MM raised from sale of equity and-or other forms of securities, with 33 investors then involved.
Other data sources indicate Hashed Health's capraises have totaled at least $12MM since its inception in 2016. State of Tennessee records online today indicate that during 2020-2021 Hashed Industries LLC's member count rose from 2 to 36.
Related: NCBI + NCBI2 | ORMgr | SurgDir | QVentus | Steris | HMS | Stryker | 25Mad VNC
.last edited 1700 23 February 2026