Philips expands its Population Health Management business with the acquisition of VitalHealth
M Neelam Kachhap
Recently, Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA), a global leader in health technology, announced that it has acquired VitalHealth, a leading provider of cloud-based population health management solutions for the delivery of personalized care outside of the hospital, for example, in regional care networks. Headquartered in the Netherlands, VitalHealth’s products and services are being used by more than 100 healthcare networks in various countries including the US, India, China, Sweden, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. The company was founded in 2006 by Mayo Clinic (US) and Noaber Foundation (the Netherlands) and employs approximately 200 employees. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.“This strategic acquisition complements our current offering in population health management, and supports our commitment to deliver integrated solutions for care providers and patients to improve people’s health,” said Carla Kriwet, Chief Business Leader of the Connected Care & Health Informatics Businesses at Royal Philips. “As a pioneer in comprehensive population health management solutions, we are committed to help drive business transformation for providers, health systems, employers, and payers transitioning to value-based care. VitalHealth will help us deliver on that commitment by strengthening our offering for care coordination, outcome management and patient engagement.”
“We are delighted and proud to become part of Philips,” said Laurens van der Tang, CEO of VitalHealth. “It will accelerate our mission to enable better health for millions of people around the world. Our digital health solutions are highly complementary to the ones that Philips provides. Together, we have the potential to become the undisputed global leader in population health management. This is a very positive development for VitalHealth’s customers and employees.”
As care moves from the hospital to lower cost settings, including the home, there is a need for a more holistic approach to healthcare. Population health management is a proactive approach to improving health and reducing costs for entire patient populations. It involves the aggregation of patient data across multiple health IT sources, smart analytics to understand the health needs of the population, navigation and coordination of care within that population, and engagement with each individual patient to improve both clinical and financial outcomes. In line with its strategy to deliver integrated solutions across the health continuum, from healthy living and prevention to diagnosis, treatment and home care, Philips has been expanding its population health management business.
Building on the acquisition of Wellcentive in 2016, Philips already successfully offers health informatics to import, aggregate and analyze clinical, claims and financial data across hospital and health systems. Its offering also includes patient engagement programs involving telehealth, personal emergency response and medication management. VitalHealth has a successful portfolio of telehealth applications to give patients the tools they need to play a more active role in their own care. Additionally, VitalHealth has a care coordination platform for care providers to integrate patient information across care settings, and it has the capability to aggregate data from different information systems to provide quick insights into the total population. VitalHealth’s offering will complement Philips Wellcentive’s solution to help improve patient outcomes, as the combined portfolios will enable healthcare providers to better identify and manage high-risk, high-cost patient populations. Moreover, VitalHealth’s platform will strengthen Philips’ HealthSuite digital platform, the company’s digital enabler for the next generation of connected health solutions.
