Kurt Roots of Bend Health
An exclusive Tech Tribune Q&A with Kurt Roots (co-founder and CEO) of Bend Health, which was honored in our:
- 2025 Best Tech Startups in Wisconsin
- 2024 Best Tech Startups in Wisconsin
- 2023 Best Tech Startups in Wisconsin
We last spoke to the company (Monika Roots, co-founder and president) in 2024. What has Bend been up to since then?
Since we last connected, we’ve made significant progress on our mission to make high-quality, accessible mental health care a reality for kids, teens, and families across the country.
To address growing gaps in youth mental health care, we’ve launched several critical services including Psych Urgent Care to help keep kids in crisis out of the ER, and our Virtual Intensive Outpatient Program for youth ages 8–25 who are stepping down from inpatient care but still need structured, intensive support.
We’ve also deepened our partnerships with pediatricians, health systems, and health plans to strengthen early intervention and better serve youth with more complex mental health needs. We are supporting this work with our AI-powered system, which continuously monitors patient data to flag when a child may need more or less intensive care, helping clinicians adjust treatment plans in real time.
We’ve continued to invest in the science behind our model as well. We recently announced our 10th clinical study, reinforcing our commitment to building a robust, evidence-based foundation for our pediatric mental health care mode program that results in better outcomes for young people and their families.
In addition to being recognized by as one of the Best Tech Startups in Wisconsin by Tech Tribune, we were honored to be named to Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies of 2025 and included on Fierce Healthcare’s 2025 Fierce 15 list, affirming the impact of our team’s work in tackling the youth mental health crisis head-on.
What’s new with the future mission or goals of the company?
As we continue to grow, we remain focused on delivering faster access, better outcomes, and personalized, team-based care that meets families where they are. But we’re also thinking bigger about what the future of pediatric mental health care should look like.
We want to move beyond a system that waits for kids to be in crisis before they get help. Mental health is health, and just like we don’t wait for something to go wrong before getting a physical checkup, we shouldn’t wait when it comes to mental health either. Preventative care needs to be part of the conversation from the start.
That’s why we’re continuing to expand services that support a full range of needs, from early signs of anxiety or school avoidance to more complex challenges and neuropsychological testing. We’re also building stronger partnerships with pediatricians, and making sure our technology helps us deliver more responsive, real-time support.
We’re doubling down on science too and will keep investing in research to define what high-quality, outcomes-based care really looks like for kids, teens and young adults.
Long term, our goal is a system where mental health care for young people is proactive, personalized, and as routine as a well-child visit, because that’s exactly how it should be.
What have you learned or has surprised you about the industry since we last spoke?
What I’ve been thinking about and have learned most over the past year is how far we still have to go in designing mental health care that truly works for kids and families, and how powerful the role of thoughtful, responsible technology can be in helping us get there.
As someone who comes from a data science background, I believe AI can be a game-changer in healthcare, but only if it’s built with trust, transparency, and equity at the core. That’s why I’m proud that Bend Health is part of the Coalition for Health AI (CHAI) Applied Model Cards initiative, joining health systems and AI partners to push for clearer standards and more accountability in health AI.
At Bend, we’re not using AI to replace human connection, especially not when we’re serving vulnerable kids. But we are using it to support clinicians, reduce the administrative burden, and make sure care is delivered earlier and more effectively.
One example is BendAccess.ai, a new tool we recently launched for our clinical teams. It helps determine what level of support a child or teen might need, whether that’s routine therapy or more intensive care, and flags changes in acuity before things escalate. We estimate that it’s doing the work of nearly four full-time clinicians each week. That’s huge in a system facing a national shortage of providers.
The lesson for me in this is that innovation in mental health doesn’t mean moving faster—it means moving smarter, with the right safeguards, and always with the human at the center of care.