Google life sciences JVs with 3M on population health management
Alphabet's Verily Life Sciences division has partnered with 3M Health Information Systems to develop technology for population health management. The platform will analyse population-level health data sets, with the aim of helping hospitals improve healthcare quality and reduce costs. Data will be evaluated from quality measures assessing mortality rates, complications and readmissions, as well as performance measures across practitioners and departments.

Alphabet's Verily Life Sciences division, formerly known as Google Life Sciences, has forged a partnership with 3M Health Information Systems to create a joint technology platform for population health management.

The platform will work to analyze population-level health data sets, with the goal of helping hospitals surface meaningful information that can be used to improve healthcare quality and reduce costs. It will combine 3M's health data coding, classification and risk-stratification tools with Verily's data analytics, software tools, and algorithms, the companies said.

Verily and 3M say the platform will address issues and inefficiencies across the healthcare system. To do so, it will analyze data from quality measures that assess complications, mortality rates, and readmissions, as well as performance measures across departments and practitioners, including specialists, home health, and transitional care facilities. In terms of cost analysis, the tools will gauge length of stay and service line costs.

"We imagine a world where providers have precise information to guide focused improvement, and can consistently access objective, actionable feedback to make informed decisions," said Tom Stanis, head of software and analytics at Verily, in a statement.

In a similar announcement Tuesday, IBM Watson Health and Siemens inked a five-year partnership designed to help meet hospital and healthcare systems' demands for analytics services specific to patient care and reporting, and patient engagement.

The health-focused alliance is the first of its kind for the companies, and also marks Siemens' first foray into population health management.