Two mobile health companies — one a clinician-facing business and the other a patient-oriented healthcare forum — have taken different approaches to patient engagement in healthcare. Physicians Interactive’s acquisition of MedHelp for an undisclosed amount gives the physician-oriented marketing company a consumer channel, according to a company statement.
Merck Global Health Innovations financed the deal. Merck acquired a controlling interest in Physicians Interactive in August last year from Perseus LLC, a merchant back and private equity fund manager.
Physicians Interactive, started in 2008, has been growing through acquisitions and developing new products internally. Last year, it developed reference tool Omnio as a rival to Epocrates. MedHelp offers the company a way to diversify but to add more insights gathered from patient data. MedHelp, launched in 1994, has a forum for patients to ask questions and get information on different medical conditions. It also has a tool allowing users to track and analyze health data from their wearable devices. MedHelp claims to have 14 million unique users per month.
MedHelp uses Red Urchin, an enterprise software platform that provides mobile, social and data solutions to employers, retail pharmacies and health plans with the goal of improving consumer engagement and lower healthcare costs.
Physicians Interactive CEO and board chairman Donato Tramuto said the deal will give healthcare professionals and consumers mobile health tools that will improve the healthcare experience.
He added, “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.”
