Validic updates patient-generated data integration tool and deepens healthcare partnerships

At the Connected Health conference this month, Validic updated its data integration platform, becoming the first to use Twitter’s open source technology for patient-generated health data, according to Validic CEO Drew Schiller in a phone interview. The “revision” of its data integration strategy, as Schiller referred to it, is intended to help the company share patient data more rapidly and support Validic’s ambitions in the healthcare and potentially pharma sector.

Inform helps two groups of people to share deliver data in real time between them. As an example from the Durham, North Carolina business, it can notify a physician when a patient submits a blood pressure reading that falls outside of their typical baseline or if the patient had not submitted a blood pressure reading in the past two days.

Inform can be configured with notifications that signal which data takes precedent. The presets are designed to make it easier for physician practices to manage the flow of information and make realtime interventions possible.

Validic also announced a collaboration with Partners Connected Health to work with the health IT business to integrate patient-generated health data from more than 420 consumer and clinical health devices into care plans and patients’ electronic health record. The collaboration is set to go live next year.

The connected health group is part of Partners HealthCare, an integrated health system founded by Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital.

Schiller said the Partners collaboration is the result of working with the institution “for some time” to bring together an effective Internet of Things strategy.

“I think what the Partners deal really signifies is a broader shift in thinking among health systems,” Schiller said. “Health systems are starting to get out of the small pilot phase and are making technology part of everyday care for chronic diseases.”

Validic got its start in 2013 with a to de-silo and integrate patient-generated data from consumer wearables and connected medical devices.  Although Validic works with several large health systems, the size of these collaborations have tended to be on a relatively small scale. The company’s challenge has always been how to find a balance between a continuous stream of data with episodic care. The deal with Partners suggests that Validic is making headway with health systems. Schiller noted that more collaborations with healthcare organizations are coming.

But with the FDA’s current work in digital health combined with the increasing comfort level of working with connected devices by pharma companies and contract research organizations, there’s hope that even these obstacles can be surmounted.