Gratia Health is an Austin-based health-tech startup that turns everyday clinical work into measurable results. Its Workforce Activation Platform uses behavioral-science-designed incentives, real-time recognition, and gamification - points, badges, streaks, and patient shoutouts - to help hospitals keep nurses engaged, cover shifts, and cut spending on expensive contract labor. Emerged from stealth in November 2023 with seed funding led by JumpStart Capital and a launch partnership with ScionHealth's 70-plus specialty hospitals.
Shawn Dastmalchi is a serial healthcare-technology entrepreneur and the CEO of Gratia Health, an Austin-based startup that uses behavioral science and incentive design to keep nurses on the job. A UC Berkeley PhD in vision science, he co-founded and led Apixio, a clinical big-data company later acquired by Centene, then built Ark.one Health out of an entrepreneur-in-residence stint at Sutter Health. Across 25-plus years in life sciences, medical devices and health IT, his throughline is turning messy clinical data into decisions - and, at Gratia, turning the daily grind of a hospital floor into reasons for nurses to stay.