Philips snaps up VitalHealth in eHealth business boost

Philips has expanded its eHealth business after acquiring VitalHealth, a digital healthcare company specialising in population health management.

VitalHealth offers a variety of cloud-based solutions aimed at identifying the healthcare needs of regional populations and improving the delivery of preventative health services.

It achieves this by aggregating patient data from various healthcare IT systems and analysing it to help healthcare providers detect patterns. High-risk, high-cost patients can then be identified and managed more effectively.

According to the company, its products are used by more than 100 healthcare networks in countries including the US, India, China, Sweden, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

Carla Kriwet, chief business leader of Connected Care & Health Informatics at Philips, said VitalHealth would “[strengthen] our offering for care coordination, outcome management and patient engagement.”

Kriwet added: “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.

Philips already offers health informatics to aggregate and analyse clinical and financial data across hospital and health systems.

The acquisition of VitalHealth is intended to complement Philips’ purchase of Wellcentive in 2016, which brought additional health informatics and analytics capabilities to the company.

VitalHealth was founded in 2006 by Mayo Clinic and Netherland’s Noaber Foundation. It offers a “care coordination platform” where healthcare providers can integrate patient information across care settings and then aggregate the data to provide quick insights on the total population.

Laurens van der Tang, CEO of VitalHealth, said: “We are delighted and proud to become part of Philips. It will accelerate our mission to enable better health for millions of people around the world.

“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.”

Philips has been expanding its population health management business to capitalise on the growing demand for healthcare services that can improve the health of the overall population, reducing hospital admissions as a result.

This includes apps and services that promote healthy living and illness prevention as well as those allowing patients to treat or manage ongoing conditions at home.

In July, the company deployed a new patient monitoring system that provides automation of early warning system (EWS) scores.