Verizon and Health Evolution Partners Join Forces to Accelerate Connected Health Innovation and Adoption

NEW YORK and SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Health Evolution Partners and Verizon Enterprise Solutions have established a strategic relationship to encourage innovation and adoption of connected health information technologies that help drive patient care improvements and better manage costs.

Under a new multiyear agreement announced Monday (Feb. 6), Health Evolution Partners (HEP), a health care buyout firm, and Verizon Connected Healthcare Solutions, the company's health IT practice group, will collaborate to identify and work with companies to spur the development and adoption of advanced IT solutions and applications in areas such as mobile health, telemedicine and health data management to help transform health care delivery in the U.S.

Demand for connected health technologies is expected to grow rapidly as the industry seeks to better manage costs and improve patient care by facilitating real-time care coordination, increasing patient engagement and enabling information portability. The firms will leverage HEP's unique health care insight and Verizon's platform-based health IT portfolio of mobility, cloud and IT offerings to accelerate transformative change by providing innovators with the ability to develop and scale connected health IT solutions and applications.

"The next generation of health IT will not be anchored to a desk," said Dr. David J. Brailer, chairman of Health Evolution Partners.  "Clinicians and patients will expect technologies that support mobility and virtual care.  Advanced broadband, video-based technologies and wireless devices that incorporate geo-location capabilities and sensors will change the landscape of health care from development to delivery. Our relationship with Verizon demonstrates the importance of bringing these innovations to market."

Dr. Peter Tippett, vice president and chief medical officer, Verizon Connected Healthcare Solutions, said: "Strong collaboration across the health care ecosystem is essential to enabling health IT transformation. Verizon is committed to building strategic relationships to help spur the adoption of connected health technologies. Health Evolution Partners stands out because of the firm's deep understanding of the health care industry and its proven ability to invest in innovative companies that are poised to play important roles in the future of health care."

Executives from HEP and Verizon Enterprise Solutions will discuss market opportunities in connected health during a session on mobility at this year's HEP Leadership Summit, an annual gathering of 350 world-class health care CEOs, innovators, investors, policy makers and thought leaders, to be held April 25-27 at the Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel, Calif.

About Health Evolution Partners

Health Evolution Partners buys and operates rapidly growing companies that are commercial leaders in the health care industry.  We invest around the globe and across the health economy, including services, information technology and life sciences.  We form close working partnerships with outstanding management teams and connect our companies to our network of CEOs, policy makers and thought leaders. For more information on Health Evolution Partners, visit www.healthevolutionpartners.com.

About Verizon

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ), headquartered in New York, is a global leader in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to consumer, business, government and wholesale customers.  Verizon Wireless operates America's most reliable wireless network, with nearly 109 million total connections nationwide.  Verizon also provides converged communications, information and entertainment services over America's most advanced fiber-optic network, and delivers integrated business solutions to customers in more than 150 countries, including all of the Fortune 500.  A Dow 30 company with $111 billion in 2011 revenues, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of nearly 194,000.  For more information, visit www.verizon.com.

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SOURCE Verizon