Health IT

CloudMine builds role as a strategic player as healthcare organizations’ data needs deepen

CloudMine recently added a CEO to its business, which is aimed at helping healthcare organizations balance the evolving needs for new digital health technology, addressing regulatory needs and safeguarding patient data.

Since Philadelphia-based CloudMine‘s launch in 2011, it has sought to offer specialized services for the pharma and healthcare industries to make it easier to develop, test, deploy and manage their mobile applications. These services are seen as a growth area for health IT vendors and nonhealthcare technology companies alike.

In a new chapter of the business, it added a new CEO last month with an eye to expanding the services it offers to healthcare organizations, as cofounder Brendan McCorkle shifted to a chief innovation officer and president role.

Stephen Wray, who became CEO, has a career steeped in healthcare marketing and advertising. He started at what was then Wyeth in advertising and later moved to Ogilvy Healthworld. More recently he served at MNG Direct, a health IT company that connects life sciences companies with healthcare professionals and headed up the life sciences group at Cadient Group. He said in a phone interview that he takes pride in being able to spot trends and predict the next meaningful transformation in the healthcare industry.

CloudMine regards itself as a way to help providers develop and advance software tools they construct or adapt.

Stephen Wray, CloudMine CEO

“We will enable organizations to look forward and we can help them meet their strategic needs,” Wray said. “We will be seen not only as a vehicle to the connected health cloud but also we will be able to work strategically with customers to help providers develop their own tools.”

Although he acknowledged that multinational companies want a cut of the cloud provider business themselves, Wray said a niche player like CloudMine could offer a superior service with its speed, agility and knowledge of the industry and by addressing healthcare security needs.

The roll out of MACRA this year and the Meaningful Use program that preceded it have put pressure on providers large and small to find ways to transmit data that quantify compliance and progress.  More digital health companies are offering ways to de-silo and contextualize data from connected devices such as consumer wearables like activity trackers and medical devices to generate richer patient insights and patient engagement. So healthcare organizations have to have safe, secure ways of securing this data and sharing it. Providers also have to shield themselves and their patients’ health data from cyberattacks and ransomware assaults. CloudMine and other technology companies are responding to the need for technology services to support these trends.

Last year it launched a connected health cloud in a bid to move beyond providing a backend system for mobile applications to also supporting Internet of Things applications. An interoperability component gives providers the ability to link wearables, sensors and medical devices to the continuum of care and bring together EHR data with personal fitness, a company statement said. It also connects with big data analytics partners to help users gain a better understanding of patient data to improve outcomes.

CloudMine added several partners in the past couple of years. Although it developed medication adherence and patient engagement apps to support clinical trials for pharma companies, such as Endo Pharmaceuticals, the company’s focus since October 2015 has been on healthcare organizations. Validic, Redox Engine, and Infor are among the vendor partners that will extend CloudMine’s capabilities. It also added Apple’s CareKit 1.2 bridge APIs, a framework for apps that enable patients to better understand and manage their medical conditions.

Jefferson Health worked with CloudMine to build HIPAA-compliant apps from Apple’s ResearchKit as part of a study to assess patient quality of life before, during and after prostate cancer treatment. Smartphone-enabled diagnostics company Biomeme, which developed a DNA analysis tool, used CloudMine for backend system operation and support. iKare, a telemedicine startup centered on bahavioral health access, business, works with CloudMine for HIPAA compliance needs.

Its investors include Dreamit, Safeguard Scientifics, Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania, Robin Hood Ventures, Mid-Atlantic Angel Group Fund and MentorTech Ventures. This year it raised another $7.3 million in a Series A-1 round for a total of more than $14 million to date.

Photo: Getty Images 

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