Virtual care company eVisit has acquired tele-consult technology from UPMC to expand its telehealth capabilities at the bedside to serve health systems across ambulatory and inpatient care settings.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
UPMC Enterprises, the health systems' innovation, commercialization and venture capital arm, made an undisclosed investment in eVisit. The company also secured an investment from MedStar Health, adding to its $45 million series B fundraising led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management in 2021.
The organizations will also respectively pursue co-development opportunities with eVisit, according to a press release. MedStar Health has used eVisit-related technologies since 2018, first to support teletriage and provider-to-provider consultations and later to enable scheduled telehealth visits starting in 2020.
Developed by UPMC in 2020, during the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, the teleconsult technology enables virtual clinical specialists to consult with bedside clinicians about inpatient care. Since the pandemic, UPMC continued expanding the technology into other clinical spaces including stroke, neurology, critical care, psychology and toxicology.
The health system built out the virtual consulting technology over the past four years as it could not find a commercial solution able to connect clinicians at patient bedsides fast enough, according to UPMC.
Since its inception, 40,000 consults have been delivered via the teleconsult technology platform, resulting in a 92% decrease in wait times.
"Our guiding mission at UPMC Enterprises is to develop solutions to the clinical needs identified by the thousands of physicians at UPMC who provide lifesaving care to our patients," said Brent Burns, executive vice president at UPMC Enterprises, in a statement. "When we create something like the teleconsult technology that so brilliantly achieves that goal and becomes a vital part of our clinical operations, we look for partners who can help us make it available to clinicians and patients outside our walls. We're excited to have found that partner in eVisit. Bringing these two technologies together creates a powerful end-to-end virtual care platform."
Founded in 2014, eVisit started with the goal to simplify the way healthcare organizations deliver care to their existing patients. The company partners with health systems and complex healthcare delivery organizations to support virtual care services.
"We've built more than a technology platform at eVisit," said Sachin Agrawal, CEO of eVisit, in a statement. "This is a partnership and a growing community of health systems who are learning from each other and scaling their achievements to enhance care for their patient populations. The impact on large metropolitan areas like D.C., Pittsburgh, Dallas, Phoenix, New York, and Chicago is substantial, but it's also felt in areas where someone might be 30 minutes away from their nearest emergency department or two to three hours away from a specialist."
UPMC Enterprises Technology Services will provide technology advisory expertise to eVisit. MedStar Health also provides eVisit with ongoing clinical expertise, product development support and go-to-market advisory services to advance enterprise telehealth solutions.
Andrew R. Watson, M.D., UPMC Enterprises senior medical advisor and past president of the American Telemedicine Association, and Ethan Booker, M.D., chief medical officer for telehealth at MedStar Health, will both join eVisit's clinical advisory board.