Outcome Health, Harward Health Publications forge alliance to improve digital platforms in clinics

Fresh off a $500 million first financing round in late May this year, Outcome Health has already set out to improve its health intelligence offerings with the help of a new collaborator: Harvard Health Publications, Angus LLu, Associate Editor, writes on Fiercebiotech.com.

Outcome Health, a healthcare intelligence tech firm, has raised an outsize investment of $500 million in its first round of funding, valuing it at $5.5 billion. The Chicago-based company, rebranded in January from ContextMedia, uses digital platforms such as TV screens and tablets in doctors’ offices to deliver health information, including that about clinical trials, to patients.

Synergy

The Harvard Medical School division will help provide insights from expert faculty clinicians to help Outcome create and review health information designed for display on Outcome’s digital platform used in over 41,000 healthcare practices nationwide. The information ranges from health advice to patient stories to information on certain conditions and enrolling clinical trials, and are displayed in the forms of video, digital poster to anatomical rendering and more.

Patient Recruitment

Due to the challenge it poses to efficiency in clinical trials, patient recruitment has drawn more efforts and resources from the industry. The Outcome approach is to exhibit such information through digital devices in clinics and hospitals, where many potential trial participants are treated, making them the perfect places for distribution of trial information to the right patients, both therapeutically and geographically.

Educating Patients

“We’ve been hearing from members that there is a desire to better educate patients about clinical trials as an option in their treatment journey,” Anil Harjani, Outcome Health’s head of product development and strategic partnerships, told FierceCRO. “To continue to serve our growing member base and their patient populations, we sought to align with an organization that had both a history and a deep expertise of content development, and found that in Harvard Health Publications.”

Health Information

Harvard Health Publications is able to leverage the expertise of over 11,000 Harvard Medical School faculty clinicians and researchers at affiliate hospitals to come up with relevant health information. As Gregory Curfman, M.D., editor-in-chief of the literature institution, wrote in a statement, Outcome’s work “aligns directly with” its own mission, and the collaboration gives it the opportunity to “create a greater positive impact … with a broader audience through an engaging and informative experience at the time it matters most: the moments of care.”

Clinical Trial Recruitment Platform

As it changed its name in January, Outcome launched a clinical trial recruitment platform incorporated in its existing hardware stationed in clinics and hospitals originally meant for drug marketing and health education. The idea is that doctors’ offices, where many potential trial participants are treated, are perfect settings for targeted distribution of trial information in specific therapeutic areas and geographic regions.

Integrating Services

With its existing connection with almost all bio-pharma companies, Outcome’s clinical trial support business “is in line with expectation,” and it is in talk with leading CROs to integrate its services. Outcome already has a robust creative production team based in Chicago and New York City, and it has also sought outside intelligence from medical associations and key opinion leaders to advise on its content and design process. But as it plans to grow its reach from about 20% (or 231,000) of healthcare providers to 70% by 2020, it is seeing more frequent requests to develop new content and update old ones.

It sees the help from Harvard Health as providing an “additional review process for clinical content, to ensure medical accuracy,” Harjani said. “Our members need to educate and activate patients on all types of conditions and treatments, and we want to ensure we have the best resources available to deliver that care.”

Gathering Insights

Harjani said the company is working with HHP to assemble a focus group to gather insights from physicians and patients about clinical trials. “This will help us better develop relevant and engaging information on clinical trials so that people can make more informed health decisions during the moments of care.”

Robust Growth

Co-founded by current CEO Rishi Shah and President Shradha Agarwal in 2006 when both were students at North Western University, Outcome has now grown to serve about 20% of (or 231,000) healthcare providers in over 40,000 practices scattered in the U.S., impacting 500 million patient visits a year, the company estimated. It is steadily growing its reach by adding 1% of physicians’ offices per month on average, the report added.

Get more details on Clinical Research.