Stay up to date on the latest in health tech, digital health and health AI news with this weekly brief. Read below for news from the week of Aug. 31 to Sept. 4.
Vitality acquires Icario to create ‘industry-first’ member experience platform
Vitality announced Thursday the acquisition of digital-first health action company Icario to expand its capabilities to engage more patients and turn around measurable health outcomes at scale.
The acquisition creates a connected, end-to-end model with an emphasis on prevention, early intervention and long-term behavior change and engagement. The combined organizations will reach 19 million members and cover 30% of U.S. health plans, including eight of the 10 largest in the nation, executives say.
Moreover, the acquisition will give health plans access to an AI-powered personalization platform.
Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
“Health plans have invested billions in identifying risk, but this is only valuable if members take action,” said Maia Surmava, Vitality U.S CEO, in a statement. “By bringing Icario and Vitality together, we will help health plans connect member activation to sustained health improvement. Together, we will build stronger member relationships, close more care gaps, improve quality performance, and ultimately deliver better health outcomes at scale.”
LeanTaaS acquires care transition platform Aidin
LeanTaaS announced Tuesday the acquisition of care transition platform Aidin to expand its patient flow capabilities throughout the entire care journey.
The acquisition will expand LeanTaaS’ iQueue for Inpatient Flow by connecting information on discharge readiness and barriers with the workflows required to move patients to the appropriate next setting of care.
Aidin serves more than 200 hospitals across 20 health systems, coordinating more than two million referrals annually across a network of more than 21,000 post-acute care providers. Executives say the solution reduces length of stay by an average of 0.86 days, cuts placement time by 50% and saves an average of $1.7 million per hospital annually.
LeanTaas CEO and Founder Mohan Giridharadas said in a statement the company’s vision is to “become the central nervous system for health systems.”
“This acquisition brings that vision to life by helping health systems manage patient flow from admission through transition,”Giridharadas said. “By bringing Aidin’s care transition capabilities together with iQueue’s inpatient flow intelligence, we can connect intelligence with action beyond the four walls of the hospital, helping health systems identify needs earlier, orchestrate the work required to move patients forward, reduce avoidable days, and unlock capacity for the patients who need it.”
Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Healwell AI to deploy solutions across Iowa health info exchange
Healwell AI entered into an agreement Tuesday with Converge Health Iowa, the state’s Health Information Exchange (HIE), to deploy its search and summary solutions across the statewide network.
The AI company’s DARWEN-powered SMART Search and SMART Summary technologies surface relevant clinical information across patient records. A February demonstration involving the Canada Health Infoway and 50 providers found that 90% rated the solution's usability as a 4 out of 5; 85% rated accuracy as 4 or 5 out of 5 and 79% reported they would recommend the technology to colleagues.
“A statewide HIE can bring together an extraordinary amount of information, but connectivity alone isn’t enough,” said Laura Young, Converge Health Iowa executive director, in a statement. “Our goal is to make that information genuinely useful to the people delivering care. These SMART tools are expected to help clinicians more quickly identify the information that matters within a longitudinal record while preserving the ability to trace that information back to its source. That is an important next step in making statewide interoperability more actionable.”
Hims expands to Australia
Hims & Hers Health announced Monday that it will now serve patients in Australia, marking the company's first expansion into the Asia-Pacific market.
The expansion follows the health and wellness platform’s June acquisition of telehealth provider Eucalyptus, which has since been rebranded to Pilot. The company says the market expansion supports its goal of $1 billion in international annual revenue within the next three years.
“Eucalyptus started in Australia, and it feels right that our journey with Hims starts here too," said Tim Doyle, Eucalyptus founder and former CEO, in a statement. “Pilot proved that Australian men want a different model of healthcare: one that’s proactive, personal, and built around their lives. Responding to that demand is the next step of our journey. We’re taking everything we learned in Pilot’s first years and using it to help even more men get the care they need, in Australia and beyond.”
Doyle will serve as senior vice president of international at Him & Hers.