Patient Engagement

Uber ups its competition with Lyft in gaining provider partnerships in the medical transport business.

Helix has closed a $200 million financing round and said it plans to expand its personal genomics marketplace to accelerate consumer adoption of genomics. The San Carlos, California-based startup launched the Helix marketplace in July 2017 to collects and sequence a DNA sample once, and then store and protects a customer’s data so they can access additional DNA-powered products and services from the Helix store without providing another saliva sample. [Also: 23andMe lands $250 million to expand do-it-yourself genetics testing] Helix CEO Robin Thurston said the financing will enable it to expand its health-related product offerings as it competes with other genetics companies, such as 23andMe and AncestryDNA. Thurston added that Helix also works with research partners such as the Healthy Nevada Project on community health projects built on Helix Exome platform. The Helix store includes 35 products from 20 partners and that number is expected to grow to more 50 products in 2018 with major launches including new products from partners such as Mayo Clinic. [Also: Microsoft, Google invest in precision medicine startup DNAnexus] Helix has sealed deals with 47 companies to run tests on the Helix platform. Tests are available for $20 and others cost hundreds of dollars. DFJ Growth, with participation from all its founding investors, which include Illumina, Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers, Mayo Clinic, Sutter Hill Ventures, and Warburg Pincus, led the funding round. Barry Schuler, Partner at DFJ Growth and former chairman and CEO of America Online, will join the Helix Board of Directors. Twitter: @Bernie_HITN Email the writer: bernie.monegain@himssmedia.com

It's all part of providing the best experience possible while improving care and gaining efficiencies, officials from the patient engagement company say.

Integrates with Epic, Cerner and Meditech EHRs, allowing call center agents to take inbound calls from patients and clinicians and contact clinical staff via secure text.

While value-based care is often seen as a challenge, Diana Nole feels it’s an opportunity to shift into improving outcomes and improving quality.

Chronic disease patients can teach the healthcare system a lot about making the system work better.

From the rise of Chief Experience Officers and cool new tools to scalable programs, there are a lot of sessions about enhancing the patient experience.

Researchers are investigating whether giving patients consumer-friendly digital tools can help improve adherence to lower readmissions, and they’ll share the results at HIMSS18.

University of Chicago Medicine Chief Experience and Innovation Officer dives into her role and how it can be used to improve patient experiences, engage employees and fuel patient engagement.

While consumerism and retail concepts like customer satisfaction are nothing new to other industries, healthcare has some catching up to do.