Best Buy is ramping up its healthcare strategy and its focus on delivering healthcare to people's homes by scooping up Current Health.
Current Health provides an enterprise remote care management platform that combines connected health devices, telehealth and patient engagement into a single solution for healthcare organizations.
Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. Best Buy expects the deal to close by the end of the fiscal year, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
“The future of consumer technology is directly connected to the future of healthcare,” said Deborah Di Sanzo, president of Best Buy Health, in a statement. “We have the distinct expertise in helping customers make technology work for them directly in their homes and by combining Current Health’s remote care management platform with our existing health products and services, we can create a holistic care ecosystem that shows up for someone across all of their healthcare needs.”
There has been an increasing focus on bringing healthcare into the home with the aim of providing patients better access and quality of life while helping reduce costs. According to Best Buy executives, this trend has accelerated the reliance on the consumer-friendly technology that the retailer offers, allowing the company to play an even more crucial role in bringing virtual care to life.
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During an earnings call back in March, Best Buy CEO Corie Barry outlined that the company's health strategy focuses on three areas based on its strength in retail and with an eye toward connecting patients and physicians. Beyond consumer health, the retailer also is focused on active aging with emergency response devices and services for seniors and virtual health to connect patients and physicians, including remote patient monitoring, Barry said.
In the next year, Best Buy plans to expand its consumer health products with additional devices and services as part of its active aging business and will add more remote monitoring tools, Barry said.
"We plan to invest in people, product development and the ongoing development of our health technology platform and our data analytics and intelligence engines," she said during the earnings call.
In 2018, the consumer electronics giant acquired connected health company GreatCall for $800 million. GreatCall provides health and medical alert services to older consumers. At the time, the deal might not have seemed like a natural fit for a brick-and-mortar retail store, but Best Buy officials said the acquisition would augment the company’s existing efforts in the health space and help fuel Best Buy’s growth in the consumer and commercial markets.
In a continuing effort to grow its at-home health services business, the electronics retailer acquired remote monitoring company Critical Signal Technologies in 2019.
Best Buy also has a retail partnership with TytoCare, maker of an at-home medical exam and telehealth device kit.
Current Health, which launched in Scotland in 2015 and now has offices in Boston, has seen tremendous growth during the pandemic. The company reported 3,000% year-over-year revenue growth and 400% growth in new customers, including Mount Sinai, Geisinger Health and the U.K.'s National Health System.
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The startup recently pulled in $43 million in series B financing from top healthcare and pharmaceutical venture capital investors such as Northpond Ventures, LRVHealth, OSF HealthCare, Section 32 and Elements Health Ventures. The company has raised $92 million to date, according to Crunchbase.
In August, the company rolled out a network of in-home service partners starting with in-home blood draws and medication delivery. Current Health planned to first provide platform integrations with Workpath for in-home blood draws and also with ScriptDrop to enable medication delivery.
Christopher McCann, CEO of Current Health, said joining Best Buy will enable the company to scale up its at-home healthcare services.
“Best Buy has unparalleled physical reach, world-class supply chain logistics, and trusted support services–allowing us to provide a high-touch consumer experience, at scale. We’re excited to join with Best Buy Health to move safe and effective healthcare into the home globally," he said.
Current Health’s platform integrates patient-reported data with data from biosensors—including their own continuous monitoring wearable devices—to provide healthcare organizations with actionable, real-time insights into patients' conditions. Leveraging clinical algorithms that can be tailored to the individual patient, Current Health identifies when a patient needs clinical attention, allowing organizations to manage patient care remotely or coordinate in-home care via its integrated service partners, according to the company.
“Over the coming decade, significantly more healthcare can be delivered in the home. We started Current Health to make that exciting transition radically easier for healthcare providers to achieve,” McCann said in a statement.