Having spent her entire career in health communications, Adrienne Ammerman recognized the growing problems in the field over the past few years, from the field not keeping up with new technology to communicators often being disconnected from their audiences.
As her frustration grew, Ammerman took the initiative to solve those problems by founding Arclet, a software as a service platform providing health communicators with accessible, research-backed communications assets that are easy to use.
Ammerman was named a 2023 Information Futures Fellow at the Brown University School of Public Health’s Information Futures Lab, paving the way for her to develop the original prototype for Arclet. She started working on Arclet full time in July of 2024, and the platform came out of beta earlier this year.
Simplifying health communications
The health communications industry is comprised of a variety of types of organizations and communicators, from local hospitals and public health associations to marketing agencies and community organizations. Arclet’s communications asset library makes communications resources easily accessible for everyone in the field.
Health communicators using Arclet can access an array of social media-geared communications assets that cover a range of health topics. Users can also customize these materials to tailor the messaging to a specific region, health topic or audience.
One common issue in the health communications field is that of campaigns not resonating with their intended audiences due to a disconnect between communicators and the audience. But Arclet’s “reviewer groups” feature provides users with a simple fix: The users can set up reviewer groups and invite those they are seeking feedback from—whether an advisory board, local community members or health experts—to view their planned communications and give feedback in real time.
“It’s so important that we have a tool that makes it easier to engage communities in a really meaningful way,” Ammerman said. “That’s the only way we’re going to actually create and share health information that helps people.”
Arclet’s website features a dashboard that compiles information on the reach and interaction statistics of users’ posts, helping communicators to understand what types of messaging are working without relying on a separate software.
Arclet primarily gears its tools toward local and state public health agencies and organizations—which together comprise a national industry the startup estimates to be a $1.38 billion market—rather than large hospitals or private health groups. It is an accreditation requirement for public health agencies to share health information in their communities, Ammerman said, and Arclet gives them the tools to do so.
Accessible subscription model
Arclet operates with a tiered subscription model, with rates increasing based on the population size that an agency serves.
This model helps to ensure that Arclet is sustainable and can continue to provide its tools to help improve the health communications industry, Ammerman said.
Additionally, the tiered subscription model helps the startup meet its goal of making its assets accessible to health communications organizations of all sizes.
“Our goal is also around being accessible, whether you’re a small and rural health department or a well-funded state agency in an urban area, you have an option to access Arclet in a way that’s going to be around for the long term,” Ammerman said.
QUICK BITS
Startup: Arclet
Founder: Adrienne Ammerman
Founded: 2023
Team size: 3
Location: Asheville
Website: www.arclet.com
Funding: Bootstrapped
In North Carolina, Arclet has partnered with state health organizations to help make the platform accessible to all of the state’s local health organizations without requiring those local organizations to individually cover the subscription costs. Ammerman hopes to expand this partnership model to other states.
Arclet was recently chosen as one of six startups being awarded $50,000 through NC IDEA’s latest SEED grant cycle. The startup was also awarded a Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Science Foundation in 2024 and is leveraging the funding to incorporate AI into its software.
“There’s no other platform that exists that’s been designed for public health communicators by public health communicators, and so this is filling a big need in our field,” Ammerman said.
