Huma acquires eConsult to become ‘end-to-end tech platform’

Global healthcare AI firm Huma has announced its acquisition of GP online consultation and digital triage startup eConsult for an undisclosed amount. 

The announcement follows a $80 million (£60m) Series D funding round in July 2024, which took the total amount raised by Huma to more than $300m (£226m).

Dan Vahdat founder and chief executive at Huma said: “This acquisition brings us one step closer to becoming the end-to-end technology platform for the industry to deliver digital-first care at scale seamlessly.

“We believe that when digital and AI are scaled, they become affordable for both the poor and the rich.

“Care delivery remains consistent and will help us transition medicine from being reactive to proactive”.

The acquisition is for an undisclosed amount, but eConsult is estimated by Dealroom to be valued between $49m (£37m) and $73m (£55m).

Dr Murray Ellender, chief executive of eConsult said: “The NHS knows it needs to do much more with technology to help both patients and clinicians.

“We have strong roots in both primary and secondary care and have delivered over 50 million digital consultations in the NHS.

“Joining forces with Huma is an amazing opportunity for both our users and our teams to accelerate the shift to digital first healthcare”.

eConsult’s triage and automated consultation features will be integrated into Huma Workspace, which launched on 2 October 2024 following beta testing.

The platform is designed to enable primary care providers, community and secondary care providers, and integrated care boards to access an array of digital health solutions.

Huma Workspace is integrated with hospital systems and primary care electronic medical record providers, including EMIS, Epic, CompuGroupMedical, Oracle and TPP’s SystmOne.

Powered by Huma intelligence (known as Hi), the platform automates tasks such as documentation, smart reports, and communication, with the aim of boosting clinical productivity and staff efficiency while ensuring end-to-end management of various tasks.

It features include appointment booking, automated prescriptions, screening tools, teleconsultation, remote monitoring, virtual wards (for hospitals), patient education and disease management apps for rare, chronic and acute conditions, messaging tools, and electronic data capture for clinical research.

Dame Clare Gerada, partner at the Hurley Group GP practice, which adopted the Huma Workspace solution as an early user, said: “I’m proud to be part of this exciting initiative to help develop the innovation needed for our future health.

“The recent Darzi report has stressed the importance of transforming health care and moving from analogue to digital.

“I envisage us co-designing a range of frontline capabilities that could genuinely transform how care is experienced by patients and delivered by our teams.”

Huma says the workspace platform is embedded into the NHS App, meaning that GPs can use either the MyGP app or the NHS App as the first communication and engagement channel with patients, supporting the NHS vision for modern general practice.

The acquisition of eConsult follows Huma’s strategic acquisition in 2022 of iPlato, which provides screening, appointment booking, medicines management and communication tools for GP practices.

Digital Health News contacted NHS England for comment.