Physicians Interactive Targets Consumer Health with MedHelp Acquisition

READING, Mass., June 25, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Physicians Interactive (PI), a leading provider of online and mobile clinical resources and solutions for healthcare professionals, today announced the acquisition of MedHelp, the online health community and health application site.

"The merger with MedHelp matches Physicians Interactive's vision of empowering healthcare professionals and consumers with mobile and online healthcare applications to improve the healthcare experience," said Donato Tramuto, CEO and Chairman of the Board at Physicians Interactive. "MedHelp's rapid growth in the consumer health space is exciting. Together, we hope to deliver better patient experiences by matching MedHelp's healthcare quantification and socialization solutions for consumers with PI's solutions for physicians, such as Omnio, our peer-to-peer healthcare content-sharing app."

John de Souza, the President of MedHelp, will continue in that role, reporting to Tramuto.

"MedHelp has dedicated itself to helping consumers take charge of their health. We are excited to join with Physicians Interactive to leverage technology to deliver better results through more informed insights and to work together to create strong physician and patient offerings," said de Souza. "Our consumer-tracking applications, social communities and Red Urchin enterprise platform align with Physicians Interactive's innovative solutions for healthcare professionals. By helping consumers and doctors communicate better, we hope to make a significant impact in patient adherence to drug therapy regimens to help patients."

More than 14 million consumers use MedHelp's web and mobile applications each month to receive support, research information, share knowledge and track their health. MedHelp's popular mobile apps have been downloaded more than 7 million times, and its trackers help users manage a variety of health concerns and goals, ranging from weight loss to infertility and diabetes. MedHelp also integrates with health devices, such as Fitbit and Jawbone, to provide a central hub where consumers can track, analyze and share their health data with their doctors, caregivers and others. MedHelp is powered by Red Urchin, an enterprise software platform that provides mobile, social and data solutions to leading employers, retail pharmacies and health plans to improve consumer engagement, provide more personalized services and lower healthcare costs.

The acquisition was financed by Merck Global Health Innovation (GHI), a growth venture capital organization that invests in breakthrough healthcare solutions. Terms of the deal were not released.

Physicians Interactive is a leading provider of online and mobile clinical resources and solutions that fit within the medical professional workflow to provide better patient care, with more than 300,000 active physician users. PI's customers include healthcare professionals, major global pharmaceutical companies and select healthcare IT companies.

About MedHelp

MedHelp is the world's largest online health community and consumer health platform, empowering 14 million unique users a month to better understand and better manage their health. MedHelp is powered by Red Urchin, an enterprise health platform that provides mobile, social and data solutions to leading employers, retail pharmacies and health plans to improve consumer engagement and achieve meaningful behavior change. For more information, visit www.medhelp.org and www.redurchin.com.

About Physicians Interactive

Headquartered in Reading, MA, PI aspires to use the power of worldwide networks of healthcare professionals and life sciences companies together in ways that will change the practice and business of medicine for the better. PI's value proposition is to offer the life science industry a low-cost, virtual, multi-channel marketing approach that can be used to supplement currently promoted products, as well as non-promoted and orphaned products, that deliver benefits to physicians and patients. A key focus is providing services that fit into physicians' and healthcare professionals' daily workflow at the point-of-care when they make diagnosis, treatment and prescribing decisions. More information can be found at www.PhysiciansInteractive.com.

Media Contact:
Tim Boivin
Amendola Communications for Physicians Interactive
224.209.6495
[email protected]

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SOURCE Physicians Interactive