As part of a move to underscore its partnership with Welltok, IBM’s Watson Business Group is tapping its $100 million fund as part of a $22.1 million Series C financing round for the health IT company, according to a company statement. It marks IBM’s first digital health investment.
New Enterprise Associates led the funding round, with new participation from IBM (NYSE: IBM) and Qualcomm Ventures. Existing investors also took part including Emergence Capital Partners, InterWest Partners, Miramar Venture Partners and Okapi Venture Capital.
Welltok and its CafeWell platform, a bit like Keas, relies on an armory of engagement tools such as social networks, tracking devices, monitoring, risk assessment and health content to help users target and reach personal health goals. In exchange, users can get appealing incentives through Welltok’s partners. A list of those partners reads like a who’s who of health and fitness such as content provider Greatist and health and fitness trackers FitBit and MapMyFitness.
The funding will help meet some of the goals of Welltok’s partnership with Watson Business Group to develop a CafeWell Concierge line. It will also be used to expand CafeWell’s products for accountable care organizations, insurance brokers and exchanges, and consumer-facing health population managers and to add more partners.
Welltok began a partnership with IBM Watson Business Group to improve patient engagement in healthcare in November. Watson’s big data cloud service will be used with Welltok’s CafeWell Concierge service. The computer’s technology, made famous by TV game show Jeopardy, has been used as a clinical decision support tool.
In an interview with MedCity News, Welltok CEO Jeffrey Margolis said the company was approached by IBM’s investment arm because it believed the cognitive computing intelligence of Watson would be a good fit for Welltok’s CafeWell platform. Watson Business Group is investing $100 million to spur innovation for entrepreneurial organizations in several industries, including healthcare.
Margolis pointed out that the company’s mission is to help insurance companies do as much to help consumers stay healthy as they do when people are sick. “We believe every single sick care plan needs to have an optimization plan alongside it.”
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Asked how CafeWell Concierge would work in practice, Margolis’ description sounds a bit like a personal health and wellness coach, but one that can use your personal information, location and time to make recommendations. “You can ask, ‘What can I do today to save money on healthcare?’ It sounds banal, but imagine what it has to filter. It reviews the user’s interests and puts it in context of their life and gives the best answer with that information. It might say, ‘I see you are in New York City. Try a run in Central Park.'”
Margolis adds that it can also help people manage their priorities. For example, a user may be pre-diabetic and have a wedding coming up. The concierge program can help map out what they need to do to manage their health in the context of events like this so users can make the best use of their time.
“There is not a whole lot of value in knowing what needs to be done [to manage personal health] if you cannot take the steps to getting it done,” Margolis said. The concierge service with CafeWell is intended to bridge that gap.
[Photo Credit: Pile of Money from Big Stock Photo]
