Korea-based Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has agreed to acquire Xealth, a Providence health system spin-out that combines multiple digital health solutions into a single user interface and platform.
Samsung said that together with its leadership in wearable technology, the acquisition will help advance its transformation into a connected care platform that bridges wellness and medical care.
In 2021 Healthcare Innovation interviewed Xealth CEO Mike McSherry about his vision for creating a solution that would allow clinicians to prescribe digital health assets to patients and track their usage. He discussed how some of the largest integrated health systems in the country became both customers and investors. “Think of us as the Surescripts for digital health,” he said.
Investors in Xealth include Advocate Health, Banner Health, Cleveland Clinic, MemorialCare Innovation Fund, Cerner, McKesson Ventures, Novartis, Philips, and ResMed as well as Providence Ventures and the Froedtert and Medical College of Wisconsin Health Network.
Samsung hopes the the acquisition will help it unite fragmented health information and empower individuals to take control of their own health. Often, customer health data measured on wellness tools and clinical records at hospitals are managed separately, leading to missed insights and delayed care, the company said. The synergy between Samsung’s wearable technology and Xealth’s digital health platform can create a link between home health monitoring and clinical decision-making through enhancements to Xealth’s platform, with the provider-patient relationship at the center of that effort.
Samsung has been heavily investing in sensor technologies on wearables. The acquisition of Xealth will become the cornerstone to advancing Samsung’s care-at-home vision of connecting and bridging wellness and medical care.
The company says that Xealth gives healthcare providers a more complete picture of their patients, enabling real-time monitoring, continuous engagement and smarter decision making. Xealth acts as an orchestration layer that gives health systems control over how they manage, filter, and use data. The company currently has a network of more than 500 U.S. hospitals, including Advocate Health and Banner Health, and more than 70 digital health solution partners, which will gain access to Samsung’s platform and enhance the connected care platform.
“We are excited to join forces with Samsung,” said McSherry, in a statement. “Xealth and Samsung share a common goal to advance the digital health space for truly connected care. Customer health data from wearables can fill in context that is missing to hospitals and bring more data analysis possibilities that were not available just with clinical records. Together with Samsung and our network of healthcare leaders, we will design a bridge between home health monitoring and clinical decision-making, with provider workflow considerations and patient engagement at the core of that effort.”
The acquisition, for an undisclosed sum, is subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions, including receipt of any required regulatory approvals, and is expected to close within 2025.
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