Health IT, Startups

HealthTap integrates research summary provider Docphin after quiet acquisition

“It took time to make sure the service was ready,” Ron Gutman, HealthTap founder and CEO, said. “We made the announcement when they were ready and can serve our physicians well and patients well.”

HealthTap2The integration between HealthTap and Docphin has been completed, and the Palo Alto, California-based virtual care and continuing medical education provider is now just formally announcing its acquisition of the New York-based startup in a deal that closed in March.

“It took time to make sure the service was ready,” Ron Gutman, HealthTap founder and CEO, said. “We made the announcement when they were ready and can serve our physicians well and patients well.”

Docphin (“phin” stands for “personalized health information network”) provides customized summaries of research that individual providers are interested in from 5,000 medical journals and shows them which articles are trending among their peers. It originated in 2011 with startup incubator Rock Health, received some early funding from Romulus Capital, and went national in 2012. It’s used at more than 500 institutions in 15 countries.

HealthTap operates a network of expertise that counts 102,000 physicians in 141 specialties, and also offers a certification program in virtual care. Gutman said the acquisition helps strengthen the HealthTap value proposition by making valuable information available to physicians when they need it.

Docphin has been described by different news outlets as either a “solution,” “platform,” “service” or an “app.” The company once described itself as “Bloomberg for doctors.”

“In our minds, it’s a ‘feature,’” Gutman said of Docphin. “It’s a way for physicians to be up to date with the latest and greatest.”

Gutman hinted that similar deals are in the works and that HealthTap is constantly on the lookout for new services to acquire or build in-house. “We have a roadmap and a strong engineering team that builds stuff all the time,” Gutman said.

In the case of Docphin, Gutman said the acquisition helped accelerate the addition of a service to HealthTap physicians and helps add to the company’s roster of 107 creative professionals.

“We’re not just looking for amazing technology, we’re looking for amazing teams as well,” Gutman said. “We continue to grow. We’re hiring as we speak.”

HealthTap’s talent search includes “engineers, data people and doctors,” he said.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. But Gutman said it was his intention “to make the co-founders and everyone whole and give them the opportunity to continue to do amazing things.”

Docphin co-founders include CEO Dr. Mitesh Patel, COO Sachin Nanavati and CTO Dr. Derek Juang.

HealthTap bills itself as “the world’s first global health practice,” and Gutman said it’s currently working on “establishing a presence in New Zealand” and has people working remotely around the globe.

“We continue to look into acquisitions,” he said. “We know there are great teams out there that are looking to accelerate their growth. … We are open to conversation and happy to connect.”

Photo: HealthTap

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