Northwell Health Leads $8M Series A Funding Round for Conversa
Investor syndicate including Epic Ventures & Healthgrades accelerates Conversa's growth position in patient engagement marketplace
May 17, 2017, 08:00 ET
SAN FRANCISCO, May 17, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Conversa, healthcare's conversation platform used for improving the doctor - patient relationship, today announced it has secured $8M in Series A funding from a syndicate of top healthcare investors led by Northwell Ventures, the corporate venture arm of Northwell Health, New York's largest healthcare system with 22 hospitals and a nationally-recognized innovator in the area of delivering world-class patient centric care. Additionally, Epic Ventures, Healthgrades, and current investors contributed to the round of funding which will be used to expand Conversa's product capabilities and clinical conversation library, enhance its customer and distribution partner operations, and scale its team to meet the market's growing demand.
Conversa also expanded its Board of Directors with the addition of Northwell Health Solutions' Executive Director, Joseph Schulman and Steven Lindseth, serial entrepreneur and advisor to several leading academic medical centers and Triple Tree Capital Partners.
"We will be using Conversa to greatly enhance our ability to do what we set out to do each and every day at our organization: Empower patients, families and providers to improve patient-important outcomes through a focus on access, coordination, activation, integration and alignment," said Schulman. "Conversa is enabling Northwell to use innovative, scalable technology to improve care coordination, patient satisfaction, and ongoing patient relationship management resulting in the improved well-being of our customers while also reducing costs."
"Conversa is a pioneer in the on-demand care space, and has recognized that to meet consumers' healthcare expectations today, it's imperative that providers embrace convenience and 'always-on' accessibility," said Lindseth. "Conversa is leveraging real-time patient generated data and insights to meet individuals where they are, thereby creating a more personalized and proactive engagement experience."
A recent industry report by Frost & Sullivan stated that Patient Engagement is one of the most important drivers of the transformation of healthcare. The report states that there will be a significant shift from manual to automated patient engagement enabling care management programs to be dynamic, evidence-based, and personalized, creating new value opportunities in healthcare. The Conversa Conversation Platform™ directly advances this transition improving how patients and care teams communicate around key health experiences like chronic condition management, post discharge, pre- and post-surgery, patient education, medication adherence, scheduling appointments, and lifestyle health coaching.
Conversa is being adopted by leading health systems including Northwell, Ochsner Health System, Citrus Valley Health Partners, and Centura Health's Penrose St. Francis to enhance how care teams communicate with patient populations by delivering smart, automated and patient profile-driven conversation experiences. Sourcing from more than 400 biometric devices combined with clinical, claims and patient-generated data, providers receive data in real-time allowing for more informed allocation of resources and ongoing adjustments to care and treatment plans as needed. Actionable data is populated into a patient's existing electronic health record and/or care management system, allowing care teams to quickly address immediate care needs and monitor individuals' health over time.
Health systems are seeing impressive results using Conversa's Conversation Platform™. For example, one customer cited a 20% reduction in costly, post-acute care among joint replacement (CJR) patients, leading to an average $3,400 savings per patient over 90 days. In addition, over 80% of its patients stated that they felt more engaged in their care using Conversa's automated conversation experience.
Recently, Conversa unveiled a partnership with Healthgrades to power its new CareChats™, a digital solution that allows patients and care teams to communicate between visits. Conversa's technology is helping Healthgrades and its clients (some mentioned above) monitor and manage patient populations more efficiently than ever before. Additionally, earlier this month Conversa announced two key executives hires, and is poised for a series of significant additional business growth announcements in the coming months. "Cleary, the traction and momentum Conversa is experiencing underscores their significant value to the industry," said Nick Efstratis, Managing Director of Epic Ventures. "We have successfully invested in West and his high performing teams before, and we are excited to be involved again."
"Having these thought leaders around our table is unique, as each one of them live and breathe the changing dynamics of healthcare every day," said West Shell III, Conversa's CEO and co-founder. "Their commitment to Conversa as investors and operating partners reinforce the proven value of our strategy for driving personalized, clinically-intelligent conversations throughout the industry. We are excited that they embrace the importance of innovative patient engagement, and share our passion for transforming the relationship between care teams and patients."
About Conversa
As healthcare's conversation platform, Conversa delivers an easy and meaningful way for care teams and patients to communicate. Conversa has an extensive library of over 50 clinically-intelligent conversation programs that include asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), congestive heart failure (CHF), diabetes, hypertension, joint replacement, and many more. Using Conversa's innovative and scalable technology, healthcare organizations can deliver automated, personalized doctor - patient conversation experiences that lead to more informed and meaningful patient relationships, efficient population management and, ultimately, better clinical and financial outcomes. For more information, visit conversahealth.com.
About Northwell Health
Northwell Health is New York State's largest health care provider and private employer, with 22 hospitals and over 550 outpatient facilities. It cares for more than two million people annually in the metro New York area and beyond, thanks to philanthropic support from our communities. Its 61,000 employees – 15,000+ nurses and nearly 3,400 physicians, including nearly 2,700 members of Northwell Health Physician Partners – are working to change health care for the better.
About Northwell Ventures
Northwell Ventures (NV), the corporate venture arm of Northwell Health, launched a fund to invest in and actively manage companies that represent a current or future strategic interest. The NV fund seeks to identify and invest in novel technologies and business models that have the prospect to advance Northwell's growth and generate attractive returns. The group, as a whole, works to accelerate Northwell's broader strategic healthcare focus by utilizing Northwell as a laboratory to rapidly validate technologies, new business models, and conduct research to build profitable companies and increase the quality of care for our patients.
About EPIC Ventures
EPIC Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm located in Salt Lake City, Utah. Founded in 1994, EPIC Ventures' mission is to find and support great entrepreneurs regardless of location. The firm focuses primarily on Series A investments across the IT stack, from SaaS to networking technologies.
About Healthgrades
Healthgrades is the leading online resource for comprehensive information about physicians and hospitals. Today, more than one million people a day use the Healthgrades website to search, compare and connect with hospitals and physicians based on the most important measures when selecting a healthcare provider: experience, hospital quality and patient satisfaction.
SOURCE Conversa