Lumeon banks $30M as it adapts to support growing use of virtual care

With the rapid changes taking place during the COVID-19 pandemic, Optum is betting big on the need for automation technology to make healthcare more efficient.

Optum Ventures, the venture arm of the UnitedHealthcare subsidiary, and Endeavour Vision led a $30 million series D funding round in digital health company Lumeon.

Current investors LSP, MTIP, IPF Partners, Gilde and Amadeus Capital Partners also participated in the round announced last week.

Health technology company Lumeon helps health providers automate patient care coordination to make their operations more predictable while also improving care quality, delivering better outcomes and reducing costs.

The company has raised $79 million to date.

Lumeon launched in 2005 in the U.K. with a focus on tackling the problem of unwarranted variation in care delivery in hospitals and health systems.

Its care pathway management platform acts as like an “auto-pilot” for healthcare delivery, helping coordinate care teams, communication, tasks and decisions to increase revenue, optimize resource utilization and deliver better outcomes at less cost, according to the company.

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Lumeon’s care path management platform integrates with all electronic health record systems in addition to incorporating required clinical and administrative data from point solutions and devices.

The company says its clinical decision engine helps coordinate processes across the continuum from basic administrative tasks to highly complex clinical optimization protocols.

Lumeon launched in the U.S. in 2017. With the new funding, the company plans to expand in the U.S. and grow its sales, marketing and delivery teams in Boston, its U.S. headquarters.

Lumeon began raising its series D round at the beginning of the year and began securing investors when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.S. in March. The company closed the round earlier this summer.

“Healthcare was turned upside down and the market moved forward by five or ten years. Despite that, or because of it, the value proposition for our solutions became stronger during the pandemic,” Lumeon CEO Robbie Hughes told Fierce Healthcare.

In the past few months, Lumeon has adapted its platform to address new demands that arose during the pandemic.

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“Our solution is highly configurable so we have been able to add more use cases and pathways,” Hughes said. “Our customers have come to us and said, 'Look, we’re struggling with the problem how to manage not just in-person care and not just telemedicine, but how to manage the blend of the two, this hybrid operating model.'”

Hughes said Lumeon’s platform helps make this “hybrid” model of in-person and virtual care more reliable and efficient.

COVID-19 has accelerated the technology-driven transformation of healthcare, according to Optum Ventures principal Ashish Patel, M.D.

“Lumeon’s ability to optimize the care of every patient based on individual risk, cost, engagement and social determinants is crucial for their customers to operate effectively,” Patel said in a statement. “We believe Lumeon is uniquely positioned to help health systems unlock new opportunities in sustainable, profitable care delivery.”

Hughes said Optum’s investment in the company is a “huge sign of endorsement” for the technology Lumeon has developed.

“If there is one group in the U.S. that is able to understand the specific granular impact of COVID-19 and understand how to place a bet on the future so they can not only benefit from it but also inform and influence the outcome, that would be Optum,” Hughes said.

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He added, “Where we see the future of care going will require more predictability and the need to be less chaotic. With this new blend of virtual and in-person care, the challenge is an operational one and being able to glue these various bits together in a coherent and scalable way.”

While the markets for data analytics, clinical decision support and patient engagement are well established, what is missing today is the ability to effectively connect them to solve the problem of personalizing care delivery in a scalable way, according to Hughes.

Lumeon focuses on that “last mile” that turns insight into action, which is often the hardest part for health systems, he said.

To support health systems during the health crisis, Lumeon also developed a virtual waiting room and a virtual triage solution.

NYC Health & Hospitals, the largest public health system in the U.S., worked with Lumeon to roll out a text-message-based symptom monitoring platform for discharged emergency department patients.