MyHealthTeams will use Series B to add 10 more chronic condition communities in 2016

Previous investors that took part in the round included Adams Street Partners, the Westly Group, HealthTechCapital and Sand Hill Angels.

This post has been updated from an earlier version.

MyHealthTeams, a digital health company that has built a social network of chronic condition-specific communities to help people share the day to day experience of living with a disease, has raised $5 million. Notably, CVS led the Series B round as a strategic partner, according to a company statement.

Previous investors that took part in the round included Adams Street Partners, the Westly Group, HealthTechCapital and Sand Hill Angels.

In emailed responses to questions, Co-Founder and CEO Eric Peacock said this of its partnership with CVS Health:  “[We] are both focused on improving health outcomes for people facing chronic conditions. We are thrilled to have CVS as an investor and look forward to partnering with them as we expand our reach in the U.S.”

In an interview with Co-Founder and COO Mary Ray, she said it would use some of the funding to add 10 more health teams next year. Peacock said it would eventually have social networks for 30 conditions.

In the next few weeks it plans to add a health team dedicated to people with hemophilia “MyHemophiliaTeam” and for the caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s disease, “MyAlzTeam,” bringing its health teams to 15. Its 13 communities have 300,000 members in eight countries, including the U.S.

“We’ve seen strong uptake in our social networks serving autoimmune conditions such as MyPsoriasisTeam, MyRATeam (rheumatoid arthritis), and MyLupusTeam. We will build on that and expand into neurology, mental health, severe allergies and other conditions,” Peacock said, adding that it would continue its international expansion.

Speaking in reference to a 2012 interview in which MyHealthTeams was in the early stages of its development Ray said, “The big test for us was whether we could scale and we could.”

She was tight-lipped about what kind of new developments would come from its partnership with CVS Health and what that would mean, but she said there were a lot of synergies. “Anything [we do] will…sit nicely with what we try to offer our members.”

One of the ambitions of the company, aside from helping patients spread over a wide geographic area feel less socially isolated, was that physicians would prescribe it or at least recommend that. Ray said it knows that some physicians are recommending MyHealthTeams, especially in cases when they think their patients are at risk for social isolation, but it could not quantify how many do this.

Peacock said: “We believe that people on our social networks are less likely to feel isolated by their conditions and more likely to be actively engaged in managing their disease. Both these factors should lead to better outcomes for our members and we’re now focused on proving it.”

Photo: Flickr user Zack

Shares0
Shares0