Xealth to expand digital prescription platform with fresh funds
Cloud-based medtech Xealth has received funding of $8.5m to expand its platform. Xealth allows doctors and clinicians to prescribe exercise programmes, educational videos, apps and services and is in use in medical facilities in Seattle and Pittsburgh. Its investors include DFJ Venture Capital, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), Minnesota’s Hennepin Healthcare System and Froedtert Health in Wisconsin. New digital offerings from vendors can easily be added to the platform, according to Xealth. “Xealth can accelerate the development and adoption of healthcare solutions throughout our more than 25 hospitals and 500-plus outpatient sites,” said Tal Heppenstall, president of UPMC Enterprises. 
Xealth, which offers a cloud-based technology that enables physicians and clinicians to prescribe customized digital healthcare content, such as exercise programs, educational videos, apps and services, has received $8.5 million in new funding.

The startup will use the money to further grow its technology platform.

Xealth, which is already in use at Seattle-based Providence Health and at UPMC in Pittsburgh, has financial backing from DFJ Venture Capital and UPMC as well as from Minnesota’s Hennepin Healthcare System and Froedtert Health in Wisconsin. All four health systems are Epic shops.

The startup can quickly add new digital offerings from vendors, integrate the patient experience into a health system portal, such as Epic’s My Chart, and gauge efficacy and engagement across patient populations.

[Also: UPMC launches app-based ER telemedicine program]

“Xealth can accelerate the development and adoption of healthcare solutions throughout our more than 25 hospitals and 500-plus outpatient sites in a scalable, consistent manner, while helping our physicians engage patients more effectively,” said Tal Heppenstall, president of UPMC Enterprises, the innovation and commercialization arm of UPMC.

Xealth launched in 2016, led by CEO Mike McSherry and COO Aaron Sheedy, both former Swype executives. Swype, which offered an alternative to typing phone messages, was sold to Nuance in 2011.

McSherry and Sheedy and a team of several former Swype employees regrouped to tackle healthcare problems that Providence, UPMC – and other health systems encounter today.

They joined Providence last year as executives-in-residence to find new innovations in healthcare. McSherry and team founded Xealth as a result. The startup was incubated within Providence’s Digital Innovation program.

“Xealth will dramatically improve the connection between patients and clinicians,” Rod Hochman, MD, president and CEO, Providence St. Joseph Health, said in a statement. “Xealth extends the patient and physician relationship outside the walls of a traditional care setting by making it easy for clinicians to prescribe digital content, services, and apps for their patients.”

Twitter: @Bernie_HITN

Email the writer: bernie.monegain@himssmedia.com

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