Four major players in the medical field are pairing up to dive into population health management, according to press releases posted today.
Siemens (NYSE:SI) and IBM‘s (NYSE:IBM) Watson Health announced a 5-year population health management deal, while Google‘s (NSDQ:GOOG) Verily Life Sciences and 3M (NYSE:MMM) announced a similar agreement in the field.
IBM Watson Health’s deal with Siemens’ marks Siemens’ 1st foray into population health management, the companies said.
“Combining our strengths, Siemens Healthineers and IBM can effectively help providers transition to a value-based healthcare environment. We will bring the power of Siemens Healthineers’ extensive relationships with providers and our deep domain expertise in clinical workflows, services, and digital health technologies to bear to help bring population health management offerings to healthcare providers. The new alliance fits perfectly into the services business of Siemens Healthineers. Thus we will enter the rapidly growing PHM market which is expected to play a significant role in end-to-end value-based healthcare,” Siemens Healthineers services head Matthias Platsch said in a press release.
Through the deal, the companies aim to help healthcare professionals utilize big data in healthcare, manage an aging population and the increasing prevalence of chronic diseases, as well as dealing with changing healthcare payment models and the digitization and consumerization of healthcare.
“The adoption of PHM solutions that demonstrate meaningful use of IT applications is expected to accelerate rapidly. Patient care is moving into a broader but coordinated environment where routine, manual tasks are automated by PHM solutions that unify siloed systems, stratify comorbidities, empower patients through engagement, and benchmark outcomes at network, practice, and patient level. I expect the shift from volume to value-based healthcare delivery will accelerate adoption of PHM technology and service solutions helping providers effectively manage chronic conditions and prevent unnecessary system utilization,” Frost & Sullivan transformational health inudstry analyst Koustav Chatterjee said in prepared remarks.
As part of the strategic alliance, Siemens Healthineers will offer population health management solutions and services from IBM Watson Health, the companies said. Siemens will have access to IBM Watson’s cognitive Care Manager.
“We are at an unprecedented time in healthcare. Mature and developing markets are increasingly focused on how patient outcomes are optimized, quality is standardized among individuals and across populations, and costs are reduced. Siemens and IBM are ideal partners to work at the forefront of this evolution and enable personalized healthcare in the U.S. and globally,” IBM Watson Health GM Deborah DiSanzo said in a prepared statement.
The companies will work to jointly develop and deploy public health management offerings using both companies specialties and assets.
Verily and 3M Health Information Systems announced a similar strategic agreement, looking to develop new population health measurement technology for “managing clinical and financial performance.” The companies said the joint platform will be designed to analyze quality performance data across healthcare delivery systems and patient populations to produce usable information to improve healthcare quality and cost.
“At 3M, we are constantly evaluating how health information technology can help improve the efficiency, quality and cost of delivering care. This collaboration reflects our commitment to continued innovation in health information systems that address real-world problems facing health care today, while protecting the privacy and security of health data,” 3M health information systems veep & GM JaeLynn Williams said in a press release.
The companies will develop the joint platform using 3M’s health data coding, classification and risk stratification methodologies, combined with Verily’s data analytics, software tools and algorithm expertise.
“We have the data analytics and software to understand trends and make predictions across large quantities of data, and we see a clear opportunity to apply this approach to health data for insights that can impact care. Together, with 3M’s know-how and deep expertise in parsing and coding clinical data, we imagine a world where providers have precise information to guide focused improvement, and can consistently access objective, actionable feedback to make informed decisions,” Verily software & analytics head Tom Stanis said in a prepared statement.
The joint platform will aim to include quality measures to assess complications, readmissions and mortality, as well as cost measures including length of stay and service line costs. The companies said the platform will be able to evaluate multiple performance measures across departments, procedures and practitioners.