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With an audience whose real thrill lies in anything that’s intellectually stimulating – from film and movies to travel itself - we usurpped the traditional Destination Marketing Organization approach of ‘advertising the activities in a city.’ Rather, we’ve focused on sharing Seattle’s story in a way that builds lifelong fans, not just visitors. 

This content-driven approach has contributed to increased affinity and consideration, cemented by four years of record visitor and occupancy growth fo

Visit Seattle

Social Media Marketing

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Seattle is known for a lot of things: great coffee, beautiful landscapes, and amazing people, just to name a few. The neighborhood of Fremont takes all of that and dials it up to eleven, putting on a show for the most curious wanderer willing to look a little harder under the hood. From a troll lurking under a bridge to a workshop turned music school, there’s lots to indulge even the most wondrous wanderer in Fremont.

Produced in partnership with Atlas Obscura. Discover more at http://iknowaplace.org.

Seattle is filled with passionate people who not only have great ideas, but are willing to help others fulfill their own Big Ideas. Nowhere is that more evident than in Georgetown, where community spirit thrives alongside entrepreneurs chasing their visions and dreams. From one restaurateur couple’s love story to a family-owned comic store, there’s lots to explore. 

Produced in partnership with Atlas Obscura. Discover more at http://iknowaplace.org.

History—both personal and societal—is enshrined in Seattle's Chinatown-International District, with loyal locals coming back to time-honored, beloved institutions like Tai Tung’s or the Seattle Pinball Museum. A whole tapestry of history unfolds here, one that stretches across cultural lines and works to remember all the sacrifices of those who came before.

Produced in partnership with Atlas Obscura. Discover more at http://iknowaplace.org.

If you’re looking for the best food, coffee, and cocktails that Seattle has to offer, then you need to check out what Seattleites have to say when Phil the Culture investigates. From the Hey Auntie cocktail at Communion to breve cappuccinos at Espresso Vivace and eclectic cocktails at Inside Passage, Seattle’s got the goods.
Produced in partnership with Matador Network. Discover more at http://iknowaplace.org.

When it’s time for Seattleites to have fun, they go way beyond bookstores and coffee. We’re talking next-level pickleball and dodgeball. We’re talking Hot Tub Boats out on Lake Union. From Alki Beach and Bainbridge Island, to Capitol Hill and Lake Union, join Phil the Culture as he meets with some locals who share their favorite things to do.
Produced in partnership with Matador Network. Discover more at http://iknowaplace.org.

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Onity

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Despite the words on the label, Budweiser wasn’t “America’s beer” anymore. In fact, this once ‘king of beers’ wasn’t even in the top 3 beers in the country. Light beer had stolen share from the ‘heavy’ beer. Craft beer had stolen the cache and ‘cool factor’ Budweiser once held.  It had just become ‘another beer.’ 

Yet this was an immigrant brand founded on the premise that you should be free to live the life of your dreams. And there was no time like the present to reconnect people with the ro

Budweiser

Healthcare is an industry in dire need of innovation. It’s why Providence, one of the largest health systems in the country, has invested heavily in building their own internal innovation center: the Digital Innovation Group. As a team, this group is focused on steering technology inventions into sustainable and transformative healthcare innovation. In short, they exist to lead digital disruption in healthcare.

Providence | Digital Innovation Group

Lots of talk right now about how or if #healthtech funding will continue. Those who make it through will have a disruptive impact. 
 https://loom.ly/U3W5rHk

70% of patients struggle to understand their medical bills. Price transparency is a great first step, but there's an increasing need to simplify “what I pay” and “whom I pay” when it comes to healthcare — especially in a post-COVID era.

There's a big rise of dollars going into infrastructure interoperability players, but we haven't seen how it's going to shake out. Hear more about the future of engagement in this HLTH event webinar replay.  https://loom.ly/vBJawhk

One of the greatest needs for innovation in health care continues to be consumer-centric, tech-enabled services.
 https://loom.ly/KXor7gM

New priorities. Unlocking business models. Identity-informed engagement. Why operationalizing digital must go beyond substituting a physical visit for a virtual visit. Hear more from Sara Vaezy in this conversation with Paddy Padmanabhan.

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Providence | Digital Innovation Group on LinkedIn

RT @meetashwellness: Have you heard? @meetashwellness and @CapableHealth are putting on a panel to discuss one of our fav topics — #equity…

Value is a really important part of the equation for health systems. @noodlev and @mattcohlmia talked about how that impacts CDO and health system leader priorities in the new year.
🎧 in:
https://t.co/vtv8gsiZ0

Love to see the work of our MDex team celebrated - not just once, but TWICE! #digitalexperience.

RT @HCNowRadio: Great episode! Chief Strategy and Digital Officer @ProvInnovation, Sara Vaezy and host @shivamirhoseini discuss the 3 D’s t…

RT @HCNowRadio: On this episode Chief Strategy and Digital Officer @ProvInnovation, Sara Vaezy and host @shivamirhoseini discuss the 3 D’s…

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Providence | Digital Innovation Group on Twitter

<h4>By Maryam Gholami, GVP, Chief Product Officer at Providence’s Digital Innovation Group</h4><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/838/1*mR4ZZ0sIb8VyumCwgYBZnQ.jpeg" /></figure>“Raising the water for all boats” is part of our DNA here at the Providence Digital Innovation Group. Our approach is to shape, build, and scale meaningful ideas here at Providence — and then offer them externally as a part of our mission of health for a better world. It’s a unique approach — and one that I’m quite proud to be a part of. It’s incredibly rewarding to build technology that has such a direct impact on people’s health — at scale.Since last October, Providence’s flu season support feature has been helping patients get accurate and up-to-date information regarding the flu season, flu vaccination, treatment, and information on flu, as well as COVID-19. Providing relevant and trustworthy information to patients on flu vaccines is more important than ever, as getting flu vaccines will not only reduce patient’s risk from flu, but also help conserve potentially scarce healthcare resources during the COVID-19 pandemic. This feature is available in our chatbot Grace on the <a href="https://www.providence.org/our-services/urgent-care">Get Care Now</a> page and the Health Connect mobile applications.In December, the Providence Digital Innovation Group and the Microsoft Health Bot team worked together to make this flu season support technology available as a scenario template in the <a href="https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/bot-services/health-bot/">Microsoft Azure Health Bot service catalog gallery</a>. This will allow other Microsoft Azure Health Bot customers to quickly introduce flu season support in their own chatbot — which is so beautifully aligned with our mission. We are now the first health system to publish a scenario template in the Microsoft Azure Health Bot Service catalog gallery, and we offer this scenario for other health systems to use for free:<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*E7mJ91oWVCdajyIK_nl5jQ.png" /><figcaption>Scenario templates for health systems to build their own patient chatbots.</figcaption></figure>The Providence scenario template for flu combines information from multiple sources — both the CDC and Providence. It directs users to a vaccine location finder and provides a suggestion mechanism to users, arranged in simple, easy-to-navigate categories, as well as a mechanism to confirm users’ intent in case of a low intent-understanding confidence score. The scenario template includes FAQ menus and the corresponding flu FAQ. Customers can customize the disclaimer, topic hierarchy, and the FAQ content:<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/713/1*pF2miVe86--9T0BGlicBKw.png" /><figcaption>Example of customizable FAQ content.</figcaption></figure>The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated how crucial collaboration and knowledge sharing are, to improve health care outcomes, and enhance patient trust. Building a community within the Microsoft framework ensures we can provide other healthcare organizations with the most up-to-date content on topics that are top-of-mind in public health.I’m proud to be a part of a team here that is making it possible to share the best information quickly — at scale — through digital technology.To hear more about the Providence Digital Innovation Group and how we partner with technology and health care organizations visit <a href="http://www.providence-dig.org">www.providence-dig.org</a>.<img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=6980705f2206" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><a href="https://medium.com/digital-health-innovation/teaming-with-microsoft-to-combat-the-flu-6980705f2206">Teaming with Microsoft to Combat the Flu</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/digital-health-innovation">Providence Digital Innovation Group</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Teaming with Microsoft to Combat the Flu

<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/630/1*ezDTjD9co_BSfGz4JtXEFw.png" /></figure>In early 2020, as Seattle was the first U.S. city confronted with COVID-19, local health care leaders and organizations were not only positioned for immediate action, but also fortuitously very well-prepared. Recently, the Digital Innovation Group, in partnership with <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/">GeekWire</a> hosted a discussion with local health tech executives who made critical decisions to stand up technology tools to protect the lives of frontline workers and patients in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. Microsoft Corporate Vice President, Research &amp; Incubations <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterlee4/">Dr. Peter Lee</a>, Providence EVP &amp; Chief Digital Officer <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronmartinfc/">Aaron Martin</a>, One Medical Chair, CEO &amp; President <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirdanrubin">Amir Dan Rubin</a> reflected on the early collaboration in a discussion led by Providence’s Chief Digital Strategy Officer <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/svaezy">Sara Vaezy</a>. For insights into the impact on digital health technology investments, the panel welcomed Pioneer Square Labs Managing Director <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliesandler/">Julie Sandler</a>.<iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2F4HP4EC8Lo5w%3Ffeature%3Doembed&amp;display_name=YouTube&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D4HP4EC8Lo5w&amp;image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2F4HP4EC8Lo5w%2Fhqdefault.jpg&amp;key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&amp;type=text%2Fhtml&amp;schema=youtube" width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/e920d85079cd571e263d6447515676e9/href">https://medium.com/media/e920d85079cd571e263d6447515676e9/href</a></iframe>The discussion started with an immediate key learning from One Medical’s Amir Dan Rubin “We can go faster, we can have two and three-day product development cycles.” From our team, Aaron Martin saw this as an opportunity for digital health to contribute solutions, unlike the previous financial crisis. Julie Sandler recounted how she witnessed the business community become inspired by the healthcare sector, riding a roller coaster of funding from spring to summer, with an upward trajectory heading into post-pandemic investing.Dr. Peter Lee reflected back on the vision and partnership at Providence, saying “Thank God for Providence” for guidance and leadership in the early days for what quickly became impactful globally. Lee says the collaboration led to “all of us at Microsoft getting a lot smarter a lot more quickly.”Sandler talked of the initial funding pull back from layoffs and furloughs in health tech, and then the rapid resurgence of investments in startups. The result was more funding faster than forecasted pre-pandemic and upward-moving financing trend lines despite the duality of the virus’s economic impact.Martin compared Providence’s culture shift during the onset of COVID to “the days at Amazon during Q4, except it didn’t end” stretching for more than six months. The motivation to move rapidly to deploy technology safely to caregivers and patients led to the “borderlessness of organizations” for fluid interaction between companies. Martin noted two specific ways the healthcare business model must do well to evolve: first, be consumer-centric, be a “retailer in healthcare” and secondly, as an “integrated delivery network (IDN)” health systems must be “exquisitely good” at-risk evaluation. Ultimately, there should be “no wrong door” for a patient to find information and needed care.Vaezy and Sandler discussed the parallels of disruptors in healthcare to disruptors from other industries and what impact the long-awaited launch of <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2020/amazon-pharmacy-online-drugstore-prime-rx-discounts-extend-tech-giants-reach-healthcare/">Amazon Pharmacy</a> might have. Also, what will new wearables and consumers’ mobile devices do in assisting with data tracking and self-care, with several innovators within PSL’s companies to watch. Lee discussed data aggregation and the status of cloud technology from regulatory, privacy and security concerns and how platforms are evolving to speak the language of healthcare.Rubin advised how equitable technology advances will be needed to make the providers’ “work experience” as good as the patients’ “home experience” to reduce burnout in family practitioners. There must be an elimination of the “burdens of desktop medicine” and allow our physicians, nurses and clinicians to return to “engaging with patients.”The dialogue continued with insights and forecasting on how the very brittle ecosystem of healthcare prepares for future disruptions by becoming flexible. Health systems need to get off of the “fee-for-service treadmill.” Integration needs to happen now as the industry is now swimming “with the Amazons of the world.” The panel concluded with a discussion on equity in healthcare delivery and attracting and elevating a representative workforce with LGBTQ groups led by peers, hiring “service” oriented people, and ensuring BIPOC leadership to deliver culturally competent care.Watch the extended conversation in the video posted above.You can read about the Digital Innovation Group’s latest research on digital opportunities for healthcare on our new website. The Resource Center features our latest COVID-19 Digital Insight Series, which includes a growing library of reports on how the pandemic is shaping the future of healthcare. The entire series is available for download on the group’s<a href="https://www.providence-dig.org/resource-center/"> Resource Center</a>.This article originally appeared as sponsored content on Geekwire under the headline <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/sponsor-post/enabling-digital-health-scale-post-covid-19-microsoft-one-medical-pioneer-square-labs-providence-digital-innovation-group/">“Enabling Digital Health at Scale Post-COVID-19: Microsoft, One Medical, Pioneer Square Labs &amp; Providence Digital Innovation Group”</a><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=c6c7e424104f" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><a href="https://medium.com/digital-health-innovation/enabling-digital-health-at-scale-post-covid-19-c6c7e424104f">Enabling Digital Health at Scale Post-COVID-19</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/digital-health-innovation">Providence Digital Innovation Group</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Enabling Digital Health at Scale Post-COVID-19

<h3>DIG Hackathon — Disrupting The Industry From the Inside</h3><h4>By Maryam Gholami, GVP, Chief Product Officer</h4><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*Y1c-1SZpVsXeB-DlNyTIug.png" /></figure>Hackathons (Hack Marathons) are simply a part of the tech industry tradition. During a hackathon, engineers and others get together in an intense period of few days to collaboratively work on a software development project. Given this, the programming is more exploratory to demonstrate an idea or concept, so the term hack is used. As explained <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackathon">here</a>, this alternative meaning does not refer to breaching computer security.<iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FAZG4dJjVyRE%3Ffeature%3Doembed&amp;display_name=YouTube&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DAZG4dJjVyRE&amp;image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FAZG4dJjVyRE%2Fhqdefault.jpg&amp;key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&amp;type=text%2Fhtml&amp;schema=youtube" width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/a4aa89c98d109f6f2122b8db59ccdaba/href">https://medium.com/media/a4aa89c98d109f6f2122b8db59ccdaba/href</a></iframe>At Providence, we are a big believer in this tradition, and I personally just love a good hackathon. There really is no better way to quickly channel talented people toward new thinking on projects that have meaning to them personally. I just love how it frees the team and unleashes true innovation.So hackathons belong here at Providence.In my role here, I lead a gifted team of product, design, user research, data science, and engineering team members who are 100% focused on building scalable software platforms and solutions that matter here at Providence — and to the industry as a whole. In a year that has reinforced the need for digital acceleration in healthcare — and been defined by disruption itself — we saw the opportunity to dial up our efforts.Traditionally, our Providence Digital Innovation Group (DIG) hackathons are in-person events at our Seattle Downtown office. As you can imagine, this year has been an extremely busy year for our team, responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and our community needs by enabling Providence and other health systems with an array of virtual care technology solutions including <a href="https://dexcarehealth.com/">DexCare</a> and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/events/howdigitaltechnologyishelpingthefightagainstcovid-/">Grace</a> (Smart Health Assistant). Initially, I was a bit concerned that the team might be already too exhausted and not that interested in running the summer hackathon this year. We did a quick survey of the team and guess what? My team wanted the hackathon more than ever because they felt the need for faster, and more agile innovation, and they craved the fun we have had during these events.Given the impacts of the pandemic, we saw a unique opportunity to capitalize on the situation and pivot towards a virtual format that could expand our efforts, making them bigger than ever before. Hosting our hackathon virtually eliminated physical restrictions and enabled our team to invite a more diverse set of participants that cut across demographics and disciplines, including the Providence IT team headed by <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/bj-moore-2430365/">BJ Moore</a>, members of our strategy and business teams here at DIG, and our remote teams including those in our offices in Canada and India. With the help of our partners at Microsoft including the <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/garage/">Garage</a> team, we managed to do the planning in less than two weeks. Microsoft also provided tools, training, and resources for the teams to leverage, using their platform solutions including Microsoft Teams, Azure, and Cognitive Services. We are grateful for all the help and support and couldn’t have done this without them.While we had planned detailed judging criteria with various awards, I challenged the group to work on projects that could be viable — ones that we would build, test, scale, and eventually activate — and the team came through with flying colors.5 days. 3 hacking days. 100 projects.The outcome of this year’s hackathon was astounding. We saw more than 100 innovative projects and solutions sourced from across the organization. In fact, interestingly, we found that the most successful teams in this event were those composed of women and men from completely different geographies across vastly different departments and disciplines.We were blown away by the number of projects dedicated to solving a myriad of issues across the care spectrum — from the most practical efficiencies to big ideas. Even more, each felt integral to the <a href="https://www.providence.org/about/our-mission">Providence mission</a>.Some that stood out include:● Team Super Cool developed a solution focused on expanding access to resources for suicide prevention, leveraging our Consumer Engagement Platform (CEP) capabilities● Team Viva Grace built a concept that expanded our smart assistant Grace’s capabilities to provide health information for those who lack access to informational resources in their native language● Team Wearables developed a solution that enabled the integration of wearables and smart devices into our Consumer Engagement Platform, providing insights to patients and providers, and to support our future goals with remote patient monitoring and personalization.I am delighted to say that some of these projects already have captured the attention of internal sponsors and business lines and are moving on a path toward production.A new product in and of itselfI’m a huge believer that when something is successful, you iterate and optimize around positive outcomes to do more with it. Given the massive success we’ve experienced this year, we’re looking to build upon this format, and expand the event further to enable more bright minds to join us in using digital technology to address some of health care’s biggest problems.Health care, as many of us know, is a global problem. And while it’s crucial for it to work efficiently on a local level, we need big ideas that can scale. We think events like these can be a catalyst.Stay tuned, because our team at the Providence Digital Innovation Group is on a roll. Care to join us?To learn more about the Providence Digital Innovation Group and opportunities to work with us visit: <a href="http://www.providence-dig.org">www.providence-dig.org</a>.<img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=2438cc8ac13b" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><a href="https://medium.com/digital-health-innovation/dig-2020-hackathon-recap-2438cc8ac13b">DIG 2020 Hackathon Recap</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/digital-health-innovation">Providence Digital Innovation Group</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

DIG 2020 Hackathon Recap

<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/960/1*PD1VmEYNZaqemYkzZkXPsw.png" /></figure>Booking a table at a restaurant used to be a chore. You’d spend seemingly forever on hold only to learn there were no spots available, or that the restaurant wasn’t even open. And then you’d have to start all over at another restaurant. But today making reservations is a breeze. With a smartphone, you can find local restaurants, discover nearby options, view customer ratings, see how restaurants are adapting to the latest COVID regulations, and then make your reservation online. In other words, less dialing, more dining.<iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FOFWqTydU8Ps%3Ffeature%3Doembed&amp;display_name=YouTube&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DOFWqTydU8Ps&amp;image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FOFWqTydU8Ps%2Fhqdefault.jpg&amp;key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&amp;type=text%2Fhtml&amp;schema=youtube" width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/cc5ddabf0814de309e06a61ed45ed33e/href">https://medium.com/media/cc5ddabf0814de309e06a61ed45ed33e/href</a></iframe>While consumers now have a lot more control over where and when they eat, it’s not the same story in healthcare. For patients, finding the care they need–that is, care from the right provider, delivered in a way the patient prefers, at a time convenient for the patient–is still a challenge. Nothing highlights the limited control patients have over their healthcare experience like appointment scheduling.Today’s healthcare system makes scheduling a doctor’s visit an arduous task. As recently as 2017, <a href="https://www.hcinnovationgroup.com/clinical-it/article/13008175/missed-appointments-cost-the-us-healthcare-system-150b-each-year">88%</a> of patients made their appointments over the phone. Yet because many calls are transferred or don’t get answered promptly, only 50% of calls result in an appointment. At the same time, poor patient engagement has led to a no-show rate for appointments as high as 30%, costing healthcare providers a staggering <a href="https://www.hcinnovationgroup.com/clinical-it/article/13008175/missed-appointments-cost-the-us-healthcare-system-150b-each-year">$150 billion </a>in lost revenue every year.Patients are eager for a different experience. According to Accenture, a large majority — <a href="https://www.accenture.com/t20170412t073547z__w__/us-en/_acnmedia/pdf-6/accenture-patient-engagement-digital-self-scheduling-explode.pdf">77%</a> — want the ability to book, change, and cancel appointments online. In fact, 60% of patients in one survey indicated that they would change providers rather than wait to book an appointment. Add to the mix the COVID pandemic, and the need for patients to be able to schedule care visits quickly and easily becomes more urgent than ever.The vital importance of getting scheduling right creates opportunities for digital entrepreneurs and health systems. For example, the industry needs a scheduling solution that lets patients see the real-time availability of providers at specific locations. This ideal platform would allow patients to book appointments directly online, and cancel or change them as required. It would also empower patients to choose the kind of care they receive, including in-person visits or care delivered via telehealth; virtual care modalities, such as voice, video, or chat; care from an RN or an MD; appointments focused on treatment vs. diagnosis; and brief or in-depth appointments.Having a platform in place would also help providers remind patients about upcoming appointments, which can make a significant impact on the no-show rate. For example, one study found that automated email and text reminders lowered the number of missed appointments by 50%. Beyond appointment reminders, the platform can help direct patients to the appropriate type of care and play a key role in keeping patients engaged — even between episodes of care — with regular check-ins and updates. And it can help balance care team availability and demand — creating efficiencies and lowering cost-of-care.Providence’s Digital Innovation Group has first-hand knowledge of how technology can transform healthcare scheduling. In 2019, the group launched Providence Healthcare Connect and Swedish Healthcare Connect, Alexa skills that allow users of Amazon’s Alexa-enabled devices to set up healthcare visits and manage appointments. And it has developed and is currently spinning out <a href="http://www.dexcarehealth.com/">DexCare</a> — a platform that orchestrates capacity and digital demand across lines of care–offering new models for consumer access, navigation and optimization.Digital scheduling is yet another area where innovative entrepreneurs and health systems can shape the future of healthcare. You can read about the Digital Innovation Group’s latest thinking on scheduling and other technology-driven healthcare trends in a new, free report — <a href="https://www.providence-digitalinsights.org/resource/distributed-care-digital-health/">“Distributed Care and Digital Health Acceleration,”</a> part of the group’s COVID-19 Digital Insight Series. The complete series of reports — all available for download at no charge — is available on the group’s <a href="https://www.providence-digitalinsights.org/">Resources</a> page.This article originally appeared as sponsored content on Geekwire under the headline <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/sponsor-post/online-reservation-platforms-healthcare/">“What Do Online Reservation Platforms Have To Do With Healthcare?”</a><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=526af7434885" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><a href="https://medium.com/digital-health-innovation/what-do-online-reservation-platforms-have-to-do-with-healthcare-526af7434885">What Do Online Reservation Platforms Have To Do With Healthcare?</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/digital-health-innovation">Providence Digital Innovation Group</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

What Do Online Reservation Platforms Have To Do With Healthcare?

<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*KpkhBSiKxvKQfUChxlN5fg.png" /></figure>Back when dinosaurs roamed the earth (that is, before the internet), here’s how people made travel plans: they would call up a bunch of airlines, wait on hold, painstakingly jot down flight times and prices, call back their chosen airline hoping the flight would be still available, and finally give their credit card number to a customer service rep. Fingers were then crossed that the tickets would arrive in the mail before the departure date.Fortunately, online ordering, via aggregator websites like Expedia and Kayak, has made booking a trip a breeze. When it comes to healthcare, however, it’s a different story. Too often, for too many people, finding the right care and the right provider online can be a challenge. In fact, before the onset of the COVID pandemic,<a href="https://www.zocdoc.com/about/news/2019-er-report/"> 73%</a> of patients said it’s easier to go to the emergency room than figure out how to navigate a health system’s website and find the appropriate care for their condition.<iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FGTnGTEm3jRM%3Ffeature%3Doembed&amp;display_name=YouTube&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DGTnGTEm3jRM&amp;image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FGTnGTEm3jRM%2Fhqdefault.jpg&amp;key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&amp;type=text%2Fhtml&amp;schema=youtube" width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/81779a83ee51ed0258bb494cf10e1fd9/href">https://medium.com/media/81779a83ee51ed0258bb494cf10e1fd9/href</a></iframe>Providence’s Digital Innovation Group is looking at how Expedia-like aggregator websites can better connect patients to the care they need. Digital innovators, within health systems or at technology companies, can play a key role in making this kind of online healthcare experience a reality. The ideal digital healthcare platform would be transparent, all-in-one, and easy-to-use, with the following features:Smart navigation. It’s not easy for patients to keep up with the array of care choices before them. A successful health system platform would address this shortcoming by simplifying the navigation experience. On a single web page, patients could choose to receive care at home, in a clinic, or virtually, delivered by an RN or an MD. The nature of the visit could be selected as well, such as whether the visit is diagnostic or treatment-oriented, or brief or in-depth. In addition, patients would get transparent pricing and be able to order products and services. Above all, such a platform would enable patients to access care how and when they want it.Care options. Virtual care (also known as telehealth or remote care) was already happening before the arrival of the coronavirus, but the pandemic has made virtual care commonplace. For patients, going virtual means being able to get care regardless of where they live, or where their provider is — all that’s required is an internet connection. Moreover, virtual care offers patients different modalities of care, such as video, chat, or voice, and it can be accessed on-demand, through a scheduled interaction, or asynchronously, where providers and patients communicate independently. For health systems, the challenge will be how to integrate their virtual care options and how to make the consumer experience a positive one.Engagement and personalization. As healthcare products and services grow more numerous, there’s a risk some patients may become overwhelmed and fall through the cracks. This is why the health platform of the future must engage with patients about their health — even between visits — through highly personalized, relevant outreach. Eventually, the platform could become a digital hub for other apps, services, and devices, which would benefit patients and potentially turn into a new source of revenue for health systems.Being able to find and compare healthcare services online, selecting caregivers by area of expertise, scheduling visits online, understanding pricing before services are rendered — these and other improvements ultimately create a better patient experience and can lead to better care outcomes. There’s a benefit to the bottom line, too. Accenture found that when hospitals deliver “superior” customer service, in their patients’ estimation, they see a <a href="https://newsroom.accenture.com/news/us-hospitals-that-provide-superior-patient-experience-generate-50-percent-higher-financial-performance-than-average-providers-accenture-finds.htm">50%</a> increase in net margins compared to “average” hospitals. So, a huge opportunity exists for health systems and digital entrepreneurs to serve both patients and providers through technology innovation.You can read about the Digital Innovation Group’s latest research on digital healthcare platforms in a new, free<a href="https://www.providence-digitalinsights.org/resource/distributed-care-digital-health/"> report,</a> “Distributed Care &amp; Digital Health Acceleration.” It’s part of the group’s COVID-19 Digital Insight Series, which features a growing library of reports on how the pandemic is shaping the future of healthcare. The entire series is available for download at no charge in the group’s<a href="https://www.providence-digitalinsights.org/"> Resource Center</a>.This article originally appeared as sponsored content on Geekwire under the headline <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/sponsor-post/online-travel-booking-sites-healthcare/">“What Do Online Travel Booking Sites Have to do With Healthcare?”</a><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=486882537b47" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><a href="https://medium.com/digital-health-innovation/what-do-online-travel-booking-sites-have-to-do-with-healthcare-486882537b47">What Do Online Travel Booking Sites Have to do With Healthcare?</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/digital-health-innovation">Providence Digital Innovation Group</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

What Do Online Travel Booking Sites Have to do With Healthcare?

<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*qf733FXG1CYOqf9XDqKAEQ.png" /></figure>Cash just isn’t what it used to be. Rather than stopping by the ATM, American consumers are turning to mobile payments. In fact, the mobile payments market went from $69.8 billion in 2018 to $98.8 billion in 2019–a <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/shelleykohan/2020/03/01/fueled-by-increased-consumer-comfort-mobile-payments-in-the-uswill-exceed-130-billion-in-2020/#517a47e044f2">41%</a> increase. It’s revealing that more than <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/money/cash-is-still-king-in-the-united-states-but-for-how-much-longer">1 in 10 Millennials</a> are already using digital wallets for all of their purchases. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic has only accelerated the shift to a minimal cash economy, with the use of contactless payment systems like Apple Pay growing an estimated <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-16/no-touch-payments-skyrocket-because-no-one-wants-to-handle-cash">10–20%</a> as consumers try to minimize their risk of infection.<iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2F6yW-_xusYJI%3Ffeature%3Doembed&amp;display_name=YouTube&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D6yW-_xusYJI&amp;image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2F6yW-_xusYJI%2Fhqdefault.jpg&amp;key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&amp;type=text%2Fhtml&amp;schema=youtube" width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/799825b32c21e34ebb16ecd7bc3c4caf/href">https://medium.com/media/799825b32c21e34ebb16ecd7bc3c4caf/href</a></iframe>Yet healthcare still lags behind when it comes to mobile payments. As recently as 2017, <a href="https://medium.com/@MailMyStatement/how-mobile-payments-will-change-the-healthcare-industry-infographic-2619d21deec0">86%</a> of patients reported receiving paper bills, and <a href="https://medium.com/@MailMyStatement/how-mobile-payments-will-change-the-healthcare-industry-infographic-2619d21deec0">88%</a> paid by check. Perhaps not surprisingly, <a href="https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/welcome-ad?toURL=/finance/77-providers-say-collecting-any-payment-takes-more-month">77%</a> of providers say that it takes them longer than a month to collect payments. In short, the $3.65 trillion healthcare industry is being smothered under an avalanche of paper and complexity.But the need for simplifying “how I pay” for healthcare through digitally-enabled features isn’t the only area where payment simplicity, flexibility, and choice is needed. As <a href="https://patientengagementhit.com/news/patient-billing-financial-responsibility-frustrates-70-of-patients#:~:text=Seventy%2Dtwo%20percent%20of%20patients,to%20patients%2C%20the%20survey%20found.">70%</a> of patients struggle to understand their medical bills, there’s also an increasing need to simplify “what I pay” and “who I pay” when it comes to healthcare — especially in a post-COVID era.As employers are forced to rethink their healthcare investments, their cost-shifting is creating a greater market of cash-pay consumers who will demand greater value than the traditional fee-for-service model has afforded them. The necessary transition towards value-based care will accelerate the need for technologies that can efficiently collect cash directly from patients for services. And that means the relationship between payors, patients, and providers from a payment perspective is likely to radically change and simplify.Providence’s Digital Innovation Group is focused on steering innovations around consumer-driven and digitally-enabled payment models on both the front and back end of the relationship. That could mean the development of personalized plans with flexible coverage amounts and enrollment timelines or it could result in personalized and low-to-no-interest financing products that factor in predictive payment models. For this new cash pay market, there is even the opportunity for new forms of security-backed healthcare loans.What’s clear is that digital payment platforms will require flexible and personalized products based on need, conditions, payment experience mixed with predictable and transparent pricing across all aspects of care. It includes a payment process that reduces stress, keeps patient information secure, minimizes waste, and enhances the overall patient experience.Pre-COVID, <a href="https://www.instamed.com/wp-content/uploads/Trends-in-Healthcare-Payments-2016-Infographic.png">68%</a> of patients preferred to pay their medical bills online, and <a href="https://www.instamed.com/wp-content/uploads/Trends-in-Healthcare-Payments-2016-Infographic.png">4 out of 5</a> patients said they’d choose online payment of their healthcare insurance premiums. In a post-COVID world, digitally enabled payment models are more than just consumer preferences, they will inevitably define an important next chapter of healthcare.The Digital Innovation Group shares insights and opportunities for digital entrepreneurs on the future of digital payments as well as other ways healthcare is changing in a new, free <a href="https://www.providence-digitalinsights.org/resource/evolution-business-model-movement-toward-value/">report</a>: “Evolution: Business Model Movement Toward Value.” This is one of the reports in the Digital Innovation Group’s COVID-19 Digital Insight Series. All of the reports are available for download at no charge on the group’s <a href="https://www.providence-digitalinsights.org/">Resources</a> page.This article originally appeared as sponsored content on Geekwire under the headline <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/sponsor-post/cashless-payments-healthcare/">“What Do Cashless Payments Have to Do With Healthcare?”</a><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=28c6f172a470" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><a href="https://medium.com/digital-health-innovation/what-do-cashless-payments-have-to-do-with-healthcare-28c6f172a470">What Do Cashless Payments Have to Do With Healthcare?</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/digital-health-innovation">Providence Digital Innovation Group</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

What Do Cashless Payments Have to Do With Healthcare?

<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*bB-ztiq3wqpaxkJrlymEcg.png" /></figure>Pre-internet, shopping was an endurance sport. It meant spending hours, or days, going from store to store, down aisle after aisle, until finally, maybe, you found what you were looking for. And if you wondered if it was actually cheaper somewhere else, you would have no choice but to summon the energy and start your search all over again.<iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FEgEgLdeFHao%3Ffeature%3Doembed&amp;display_name=YouTube&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DEgEgLdeFHao&amp;image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FEgEgLdeFHao%2Fhqdefault.jpg&amp;key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&amp;type=text%2Fhtml&amp;schema=youtube" width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/eb8120552740688a7d9463e3163772dd/href">https://medium.com/media/eb8120552740688a7d9463e3163772dd/href</a></iframe>Online shopping changed everything. Now a world of products — far more than could ever fit on a store shelf — is available at your fingertips. Advanced algorithms make searching for items a breeze. Customer reviews are there to help guide your purchase decisions, and the check-out process is fast and convenient. Best of all, you don’t have to go to the products — they come to you, shipped (often for free) directly to your door.Not surprisingly, online shopping has exploded in popularity. From an estimated $4 trillion in 2020, the global online shopping industry will likely grow to more than<a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/379046/worldwide-retail-e-commerce-sales/#:~:text=In%202019%2C%20retail%20e%2Dcommerce,most%20popular%20online%20activities%20worldwide."> $6.5 trillion</a> by 2023. Also by 2023,<a href="https://optinmonster.com/online-shopping-statistics/"> 300 million</a> Americans — 91% of the population — are expected to be regularly shopping online.Now, the digital shopping revolution is poised to transform healthcare. But it’s not just a call for convenience that will drive the growth of healthcare e-commerce. As the COVID pandemic takes its toll on the economy, there will be more consumers — healthcare “free agents” — paying out of pocket for their healthcare. That will create a greater demand for care that delivers greater value at lower cost. No longer a nice-to-have, health systems must recognize the business imperative of having an effective online “catalog” or risk losing their business to disruptors.For digital entrepreneurs, within health systems and at technology companies, this new paradigm presents a huge opportunity to re-shape the healthcare industry. Innovators need to think big about what online shopping in healthcare could look like. Here are just a few examples:An online marketplace for healthcare. The growing number of self-paying customers will demand a better healthcare e-commerce experience. Today<a href="https://www.digitalcommerce360.com/2019/10/07/more-consumers-comparison-shop-online-for-healthcare/"> 50%</a> of Millennials already comparison-shop for healthcare services and providers online. As more generations are faced with a greater responsibility for cash payments in healthcare, health systems must learn from what works well on other, non-healthcare online shopping platforms, then adapt it to create a healthcare marketplace in order to win their business. This marketplace will feature predictable, transparent pricing along with a full range of shoppable services, including primary care, self-referred specialty care, and lab and imaging work. Moreover, patients will be able to make virtual care appointments, such as video or chat, or schedule in-person appointments, giving patients control over how and when they receive care.More home delivery options as consumers seek safety. The rise of the COVID pandemic has led many people to avoid “unnecessary” in-person shopping, like trips to the pharmacy or routine doctor’s appointments. Online shopping allows consumers to send products straight to their door without the risk of contact. Moreover, the kinds of healthcare products available online — such as prescriptions, monitoring devices, specialized tools like crutches or walkers, and telehealth-ready tablets — will only continue to grow as demand for home delivery increases.Easier access to in-home care support. To avoid infection, both patients and providers are now eager to receive and deliver more care at home. An online shopping platform makes it easier for patients to find and hire the right caregiver — for example, someone who can come to the home to help conduct a telehealth appointment, but an online marketplace can also enable and even “prescribe” digital care, keeping costs low while also reducing risk of infections.Both technology and consumer demand are in place to make healthcare e-commerce a success. But health systems and entrepreneurs must remember that creating an optimal online experience is no longer just a “nice” service to help acquire patients. Rather, it’s an essential business move in a world where patients are choosing healthcare on their terms.Providence’s Digital Innovation Group is working on technology solutions designed to support a successful healthcare e-commerce platform — namely, a well-organized, easy-to-navigate catalog in a centralized location, a simple and secure payment process, a scheduling tool, and a trackable delivery system. With the right platform, online shopping in healthcare will be able to achieve its full potential.More information about opportunities for health systems and digital entrepreneurs in the area of healthcare e-commerce can be found in the Digital Innovation Group’s free report, “<a href="https://www.providence-digitalinsights.org/resource/evolution-business-model-movement-toward-value/">Evolution: Business Model Movement Toward Value</a>.” This report is part of the COVID-19 Digital Insight Series. All of the reports in the series are available at no charge in the group’s<a href="https://www.providence-digitalinsights.org/"> Resource Center</a>.This article originally appeared as sponsored content on Geekwire under the headline <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/sponsor-post/happens-online-catalog-easily-shoppable/">“What Happens When Your Online Catalog is Easily Shoppable”</a><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=2283db2697e2" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><a href="https://medium.com/digital-health-innovation/what-happens-when-your-online-catalog-is-easily-shoppable-2283db2697e2">What Happens When Your Online Catalog is Easily Shoppable?</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/digital-health-innovation">Providence Digital Innovation Group</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

What Happens When Your Online Catalog is Easily Shoppable?

<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/450/1*nY_Atb9LUlQctmAhZQ3-Eg.png" /></figure>What happens when you bring together two bright digital experts to tackle health care’s biggest challenges?In our seventh episode, we were joined by our Chief Digital Officer, Aaron Martin, and Woody Driggs, who is the Principal of <a href="https://www.ey.com/en_us">EY</a> and Leader of its <a href="https://www.ey.com/en_us/wavespace">Digital Transformation Wavespace</a> initiative. The duo had a candid discussion around how they’re driving innovation in each of their “staid” industries. To see how disruption happening outside of healthcare can inspire fresh ideas, Aaron spoke with Woody to learn how his team has approached analogous challenges that stand in their way. As it turns out, healthcare and professional services are both notoriously digitally outdated industries that struggle with driving internal innovation, especially in the midst of these unprecedented times.This isn’t your typical brainstorm among healthcare experts. This is a supercharged session between two minds that work in similar, yet very disparate industries. The magic? To see how an approach to an industry-specific challenge could be applied to another industry to spark new avenues of problem-solving. The Think Tank is all about creating synergy between two different, but very like-minded digital experts.At the end of each show, our host, Kelly Stonelake challenges the two experts to brainstorm around problem areas that parallel their industries. In this episode, our guests had a rapid brain meld around ways they could fuel digital transformation in their respective outdated industries.Tune in below to the full episode below:<iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FTBci8lLfNm8%3Ffeature%3Doembed&amp;display_name=YouTube&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DTBci8lLfNm8&amp;image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FTBci8lLfNm8%2Fhqdefault.jpg&amp;key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&amp;type=text%2Fhtml&amp;schema=youtube" width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/fe2b84f1b2f17edd83d903141ab9db00/href">https://medium.com/media/fe2b84f1b2f17edd83d903141ab9db00/href</a></iframe><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=ad7aa7bf377a" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><a href="https://medium.com/digital-health-innovation/the-think-tank-ep-7-building-centers-for-innovation-in-staid-industries-ad7aa7bf377a">The Think Tank Ep. 7: Building Centers for Innovation in “Staid” Industries</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/digital-health-innovation">Providence Digital Innovation Group</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The Think Tank Ep. 7: Building Centers for Innovation in “Staid” Industries

<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*SensxK1-s-vylOFQHclYjw.png" /></figure>Remember Blockbuster Video? At its peak in 2004, Blockbuster had more than 9,000 locations. By 2010, the company was bankrupt. What happened? In short, consumer behavior changed, but Blockbuster didn’t. Streaming video meant customers could skip the entire Blockbuster experience — the trudge to the video store, the lines, movies being out of stock, late fees — and instead enjoy their favorite movies without getting off the couch.<iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FXbW_UmxC6MM%3Ffeature%3Doembed&amp;display_name=YouTube&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DXbW_UmxC6MM&amp;image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FXbW_UmxC6MM%2Fhqdefault.jpg&amp;key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&amp;type=text%2Fhtml&amp;schema=youtube" width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/704fedeb462440f8286e635fe5d7ad2b/href">https://medium.com/media/704fedeb462440f8286e635fe5d7ad2b/href</a></iframe>Blockbuster is a cautionary tale about what happens when organizations fail to adapt in a timely way to new technologies and customer preferences. In healthcare, a similar technological transformation is underway which neither hospitals nor digital entrepreneurs can afford to miss. It’s the rise of digital health — sometimes called telehealth or remote care — and it’s upending the traditional in-person, clinic-based care model.While healthcare providers used to ask, “What can we treat virtually?,” in the age of COVID-19 the question is, “What has to be treated in person?” Even before the pandemic,<a href="https://www.healthyagingpoll.org/report/telehealth-use-among-older-adults-and-during-covid-19"> 72%</a> of patients in one survey expressed an interest in telehealth. By 2019,<a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/healthcare-systems-and-services/our-insights/telehealth-a-quarter-trillion-dollar-post-covid-19-reality"> 11%</a> of U.S. consumers had used telehealth services. In the first months of 2020, as the pandemic tightened its grip, that number surged to<a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/healthcare-systems-and-services/our-insights/telehealth-a-quarter-trillion-dollar-post-covid-19-reality"> 46%</a> — and of these patients, <a href="https://patientengagementhit.com/news/how-has-coronavirus-affect-healthcare-consumerism-tech-use">83%</a> were using telehealth for the first time, an indicator of its growing acceptance. In total, there could be an estimated <a href="https://go.forrester.com/press-newsroom/us-virtual-care-visits-to-soar-to-more-than-1-billion/">1 billion</a> telehealth appointments this year. Although post-pandemic the number of virtual appointments will likely decline, virtual care is here to stay. By one estimate 40% of primary care visits can be achieved through virtual appointments.For healthcare providers, the message is clear: if they don’t get on board and make digital options seamlessly available to consumers, they risk being left behind as their patients seek out low-cost virtual care options elsewhere.At the same time, the rise of virtual care creates opportunities for technology entrepreneurs. By offering innovative solutions to drive the success of digital care within health systems, these entrepreneurs are in a position to shape the future of healthcare.However, digital care inside of a health system can be complex. With virtual care now ubiquitous, what do health systems and entrepreneurs need to know about making digital care work well?Here are three key insights:Care AccessDigital technology can impact healthcare delivery in a number of ways. It helps patients find system-based care options using an online search engine, extends the reach of a health system’s care, drives growth and new revenue, and supports population health initiatives. At the same time, virtual care solutions such as at-home chronic care management tools, remote patient monitoring, and automated follow-ups can significantly reduce hospital admissions and lower costs while boosting patient satisfaction. How well health systems and technology providers integrate virtual technologies and give patients a seamless experience will differentiate them from competitors.Digital Patient EngagementDigital technology that keeps patients engaged and connected to the health system and engaged with their health — even between episodes of care — offers new opportunities for health systems from a patient satisfaction, population heath, as well as quality of care perspective. Though mostly associated with acute care, digital care is also ideally suited to chronic care management, allowing providers to check-in frequently with their patients. This results in more consistent support and better outcomes when compared to more in-depth, but less frequent, appointments. Through data, messaging, and patient engagement platforms, providers can create a healthcare experience unique to each patient. These patients are more likely to remain in-network and actively participate in their own care.Patient Navigation and RoutingMatching physician supply and patient demand and optimizing access across a health system’s lines of business is an essential step toward scaling digital care and reducing the total cost of care. Technologies that help route patients to the right kind of care provider for their needs, rather than the only provider available at their location, have quickly become essential. Moreover, virtual care allows providers to match patients with their choice of care delivery — for example, on-demand care, scheduled care — regardless of whether it’s delivered in person or via chat, video, or voice.Providence’s Digital Innovation Group shares digital insights and opportunities about these three trends — telehealth, digital patient engagement, and optimized routing — in a<a href="https://www.providence-digitalinsights.org/resource/distributed-care-digital-health/"> free</a> report: “Distributed Care &amp; Digital Health Acceleration.” This report is part of the Digital Innovation Group’s COVID-19 Digital Insight Series. You can see the entire series of reports, and download any of them at no cost, in the group’s<a href="https://www.providence-digitalinsights.org/"> Resource Center</a>.The rise of digital care is a prime example of how consumers are driving change in the healthcare marketplace. With knowledge and planning, healthcare providers and entrepreneurs can stay ahead of this shift in consumer demand, avoid a Blockbuster-like fate, and tap digital care’s game-changing possibilities.This article originally appeared as sponsored content on Geekwire under the headline <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/sponsor-post/heres-healthcare-can-avoid-next-blockbuster/">“Here’s How Healthcare Can Avoid Being the Next Blockbuster”</a><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=8b483f592e" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><a href="https://medium.com/digital-health-innovation/heres-how-healthcare-can-avoid-being-the-next-blockbuster-8b483f592e">Here’s How Healthcare Can Avoid Being the Next Blockbuster</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/digital-health-innovation">Providence Digital Innovation Group</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Here’s How Healthcare Can Avoid Being the Next Blockbuster

<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/963/1*QZ8emHxjvxLVqS-aGzJ3RQ.png" /></figure>For the past three and a half years, we have been internally incubating an important access optimization platform: DexCare.COVID 19 has forced utilization and accelerated adoption of digitally-enabled care across all business lines, yet many health systems lack the critical infrastructure to make digitally-enabled care effective among their populations at scale. This internally-developed platform intelligently orchestrates and optimizes health system capacity and digital demand across all lines of care.Pre-COVID Providence used the platform to power our retail platform, Express Care, and realized $100K savings in admin costs per clinic along with a growth of 30% net new patients, 73% of whom were commercially insured and therefore reimbursed at premium rates.More critically, during the COVID crisis period, DexCare enabled the organization to flex from 90% retail to 90% virtual, within days and scaled during peak demand to meet a 30X increase in patient visit volume supported by a 6X increase in providers in days as well. It brought relief to our caregivers, our patients and the system as a whole.Today marks an important date in DexCare’s future.<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/183/1*j9K4IyIiLWxJP3HFUA-ypA.png" /><figcaption>Derek Streat, Entrepreneur in Residence and DexCare CEO</figcaption></figure><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/183/1*A_AmKfCNrHnI4Jk86Fu-Iw.jpeg" /><figcaption>Sean O’Connor, Executive in Residence and DexCare Chief Commercial Officer</figcaption></figure>We have brought in two brilliant leaders — Derek Streat and Sean O’Connor as Entrepreneurs in Residence. The pair will lead the further development and a future spinout of DexCare. For more information, visit the DexCare site <a href="http://dexcarehealth.com/#openoverlay">here</a>. And to hear more about DexCare, tune in to the webinar below:<iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FW7GPjtj1oYE%3Ffeature%3Doembed&amp;display_name=YouTube&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DW7GPjtj1oYE&amp;image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FW7GPjtj1oYE%2Fhqdefault.jpg&amp;key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&amp;type=text%2Fhtml&amp;schema=youtube" width="854" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/867ecdc03d3517527b63dd2fc2ea6154/href">https://medium.com/media/867ecdc03d3517527b63dd2fc2ea6154/href</a></iframe>Read the press release <a href="https://blog.providence.org/leadership-perspectives/providence-signs-on-entrepreneurs-in-residence-to-expand-the-reach-of-dexcare-a-digital-health-platform">here</a>.<img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=2d0bf3c0782d" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><a href="https://medium.com/digital-health-innovation/digital-innovation-group-spinout-spotlight-dexcare-2d0bf3c0782d">Digital Innovation Group Spinout Spotlight: DexCare</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/digital-health-innovation">Providence Digital Innovation Group</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Digital Innovation Group Spinout Spotlight: DexCare

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Healthcare needs change. And as a strategic VC, Providence Ventures is taking a true interest in helping tech entrepreneurs solve some of the category’s most pressing challenges.

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If you are attending the ACG NY Healthcare Conference, be sure to check out this discussion  with David Kereiakes sharing his perspective at 5:40pm EDT tonight!

Amazing to see what DexCare has accomplished this past year! We look forward to watching their continued success over this next year and beyond!
#success #portfoliocompany 

https://lnkd.in/gRF9Z8qC

Our dynamic team is searching for two new colleagues as we continue our journey of strategic healthcare investing. Are you or someone you know looking for your next adventure in venture capital? Come join us in our mission to transform healthcare for all!

https://lnkd.in/gUPH8PDW

https://lnkd.in/gPDqqFFg

#nowhiring #healthcare #investing #venturecapital

Interesting perspective from Aaron Martin, our Managing General Partner of Providence Ventures and Chief Digital Officer, Providence. 

https://lnkd.in/g5jurMuR

See how #COVID19 is impacting behavioral health, and how digital technology can be used to improve patient care from this great insight report by Providence Digital Innovation Group: 

Providence Ventures on LinkedIn

Catch Dave Kereiakes sharing his take at ACG NY Healthcare Conference tonight!

See what @TrilliantHealth has been busy building! 
https://t.co/EyfkzesB5P

#PredictiveAnalytics  #DataAnalytics #healthcare

Congrats to the @GaussSurgical &amp; @Stryker_ST teams on the news that they are joining forces to prevent postpartum maternal blood loss together!

https://t.co/yv8WJzIGBg

If you missed our colleagues @mattcohlmia &amp; Julie McComish discussing live how the Providence Digital Innovation Group is working on solutions to keep up with the behavioral health need, you can still catch the recording here: https://t.co/MVIvBYxpQ7

StartUPDATES with @TailorMedTweet listed amongst a few healthcare companies to know about!

https://t.co/EFwyneaG9f

Providence Ventures on Twitter

<h3>Funding The Future of Healthcare — Ep. 16 w/ Nick Culbertson, CEO at Protenus.</h3><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/450/1*mvg00ESojXBvkaFAdJ27xA.png" /></figure>In the sixteenth episode of our Funding the Future of Healthcare podcast series, we were joined by Nick Culbertson, who is the CEO of <a href="https://www.protenus.com/">Protenus</a>, and Jeff Stolte, who is a Sr. Partner at <a href="http://www.providenceventures.org/">Providence Ventures</a>.In this episode, our host Pat McKay spoke with Nick to learn more about his unique background as a Green Beret, and how he pivoted his career path towards digital health. We also took a chance to elaborate on Protenus, and how the startup is using artificial intelligence to reduce risk for health systems across the country. Nick unpacked how his company’s AI technology ensures systems deliver top-level care, patient privacy, and secure documentation of patient records. Jeff also took a moment to explain why Providence Ventures was interested in working with Protenus, and how its solutions will help Providence, and other health systems future-proof infrastructures, by enhancing the system’s compliance monitoring capabilities, all while eliminating overhead costs.The two went on to dive into the importance of having strategic guidance in healthcare, and how Nick and Protenus have benefitted from the partnership with both Providence Health and Providence Ventures. Nick and Jeff also elaborated on the value of building a strong culture in the digital health startup space, and how it has benefitted Nick’s team. The trio wrapped up the conversation by sharing insightful advice for aspiring entrepreneurs coming from the armed forces, and even investors looking to break into the world of digital health.Listen to the full episode below:<iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fw.soundcloud.com%2Fplayer%2F%3Furl%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fapi.soundcloud.com%252Ftracks%252F1040224948%26show_artwork%3Dtrue&amp;display_name=SoundCloud&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Fprovidenceventures%2Ffunding-the-future-of-healthcare-ep-16-w-protenus&amp;image=https%3A%2F%2Fi1.sndcdn.com%2Fartworks-scJePMNUgSAE7sWF-stkBSQ-t500x500.jpg&amp;key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&amp;type=text%2Fhtml&amp;schema=soundcloud" width="800" height="166" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/3fa51afea9912273f3dfcdbadeecb53b/href">https://medium.com/media/3fa51afea9912273f3dfcdbadeecb53b/href</a></iframe><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=89fa2d6f17d5" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><a href="https://medium.com/providence-ventures/funding-the-future-of-healthcare-ep-16-w-nick-culbertson-ceo-at-protenus-89fa2d6f17d5">Funding The Future of Healthcare — Ep. 16 w/ Nick Culbertson, CEO at Protenus.</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/providence-ventures">Providence Ventures</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Funding The Future of Healthcare — Ep. 16 w/ Nick Culbertson, CEO at Protenus.

<h3>Funding The Future of Healthcare — Ep. 15 w/ Virgil Bretz, CEO at MacroHealth</h3><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/450/1*mvg00ESojXBvkaFAdJ27xA.png" /></figure>In the fifteenth episode of our Funding the Future of Healthcare podcast series, we were joined by Virgil Bretz, who is the CEO of <a href="https://www.macrohealth.com/">MacroHealth</a>, and Dave Kereiakes, who is a Partner at <a href="http://www.providenceventures.org/">Providence Ventures</a>.In this episode, our host Pat McKay spoke with Virgil to learn more about his background and career path in healthcare. We also took a chance to elaborate on MacroHealth, and how the healthcare fintech company is leveraging digital technology to focus on the financial side of healthcare, by helping its clients understand and navigate the often complex world of healthcare pricing. MacroHealth’s technology enables their team to provide support for health plans, provider-sponsored health plans, and medical provider networks to assist in optimizing the buying and selling of healthcare, but more importantly, to optimize transactions at scale.The two went on to dive into the importance of having strategic guidance in healthcare, and how Virgil and MacroHealth have benefitted from the partnership with both Providence and Providence Ventures. Virgil and Dave also elaborated on how they coincidentally moved their careers to Seattle, WA at the same time, and how that benefited their ongoing partnership over the years. The duo also unpacked can’t-miss advice for aspiring entrepreneurs and investors looking to break into the world of health IT.Listen to the full episode below:<iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fw.soundcloud.com%2Fplayer%2F%3Furl%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fapi.soundcloud.com%252Ftracks%252F1031086969%26show_artwork%3Dtrue&amp;display_name=SoundCloud&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Fprovidenceventures%2Ffunding-the-future-of-healthcare-ep-15-w-macrohealth&amp;image=https%3A%2F%2Fi1.sndcdn.com%2Fartworks-scJePMNUgSAE7sWF-stkBSQ-t500x500.jpg&amp;key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&amp;type=text%2Fhtml&amp;schema=soundcloud" width="800" height="166" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/237c86f24a0e0abbc333cc420a213026/href">https://medium.com/media/237c86f24a0e0abbc333cc420a213026/href</a></iframe><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=ea9e27dbf50b" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><a href="https://medium.com/providence-ventures/funding-the-future-of-healthcare-ep-15-w-virgil-bretz-ceo-at-macrohealth-ea9e27dbf50b">Funding The Future of Healthcare — Ep. 15 w/ Virgil Bretz, CEO at MacroHealth</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/providence-ventures">Providence Ventures</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Funding The Future of Healthcare — Ep. 15 w/ Virgil Bretz, CEO at MacroHealth

<h3>Funding The Future Of Healthcare — Ep. 14 w/ Graham Gardner, CEO at Kyruus</h3><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/450/1*mvg00ESojXBvkaFAdJ27xA.png" /></figure>In the Fourteenth episode of our Funding the Future of Healthcare podcast series, we were joined by Graham Gardner, who is the CEO of <a href="https://www.kyruus.com/?utm_source=google&amp;utm_medium=cpc&amp;utm_campaign=Brand&amp;utm_term=Kyruus&amp;utm_content=patientaccess&amp;utm_term=kryuus&amp;utm_campaign=Brand&amp;utm_source=adwords&amp;utm_medium=ppc&amp;hsa_mt=b&amp;hsa_acc=7478256185&amp;hsa_tgt=kwd-262852323015&amp;hsa_kw=kryuus&amp;hsa_ad=407038255911&amp;hsa_src=g&amp;hsa_ver=3&amp;hsa_net=adwords&amp;hsa_cam=664256803&amp;hsa_grp=35265939073&amp;gclid=Cj0KCQiA6t6ABhDMARIsAONIYyzF6fBicVwf9Fm4yF8ZNoRYdEWXBNIxZttyXYnGnYDaZ7t6BKVXXC4aAtjjEALw_wcB">Kyruus</a>, and Aaron Martin, who is the Managing Director at <a href="http://www.providenceventures.org/">Providence Ventures</a>, and Chief Digital Officer of <a href="https://www.providence-dig.org/">Providence’s Digital Innovation Group</a>.In this episode, our host Pat McKay spoke with Graham to learn more about his background and career path in healthcare. We also took a chance to elaborate on Kyruus, and how it’s helping expand access for health systems to connect with patients. We also discussed how Graham and his team at Kyruus had to make pivots during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.The two went on to dive into the importance of having strategic guidance in healthcare, and how Graham and Kyruus have benefitted from the partnership with both Providence Health Systems and Providence Ventures. Aaron and Graham also elaborated on their partnership throughout the process and even shared some advice for aspiring entrepreneurs and investors looking to break into health tech.Listen below:<iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fw.soundcloud.com%2Fplayer%2F%3Furl%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fapi.soundcloud.com%252Ftracks%252F977064796%26show_artwork%3Dtrue&amp;display_name=SoundCloud&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Fprovidenceventures%2Ffunding-the-future-of-healthcare-ep-14-w-kyruus&amp;image=https%3A%2F%2Fi1.sndcdn.com%2Fartworks-scJePMNUgSAE7sWF-stkBSQ-t500x500.jpg&amp;key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&amp;type=text%2Fhtml&amp;schema=soundcloud" width="800" height="166" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/6aba43c1850619553945f65f3b0e2bd0/href">https://medium.com/media/6aba43c1850619553945f65f3b0e2bd0/href</a></iframe><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=3832c3a54c1c" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><a href="https://medium.com/providence-ventures/funding-the-future-of-healthcare-ep-14-w-graham-gardner-ceo-at-kyruus-3832c3a54c1c">Funding The Future Of Healthcare — Ep. 14 w/ Graham Gardner, CEO at Kyruus</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/providence-ventures">Providence Ventures</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Funding The Future Of Healthcare — Ep. 14 w/ Graham Gardner, CEO at Kyruus

<h3>Funding The Future Of Healthcare — Ep. 13 w/ David Ebersman, CEO at Lyra Health</h3><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/450/1*VoHtgiI_WHD-8kpzPkAjfQ.png" /></figure>In the thirteenth episode of our Funding the Future of Healthcare podcast series, we were joined by David Ebersman, who is the CEO of <a href="https://www.lyrahealth.com/">Lyra Health</a>, and Dan Galles, who is a Partner at <a href="http://www.providenceventures.org/">Providence Ventures</a>.In this episode, our host Pat McKay spoke with David to learn more about his background and career path in healthcare. We also took a chance to elaborate on Lyra Health, and how it’s helping employers provide their workforces with digital mental health care tools. We also discussed Lyra Health’s role in serving those in need in the midst of a behavioral health crisis due to prolonged lockdown orders from the pandemic, and how the company has managed the rapid growth it has experienced in the past year due to this ballooning crisis.The two went on to dive into the importance of having strategic guidance in healthcare, and how David and Lyra have benefitted from the partnership with both Providence Health Systems and Providence Ventures. David and Dan also elaborated on their relationship throughout the process and even shared some advice for aspiring entrepreneurs looking to break into health tech.Join the conversation below to hear the full episode with Dan and David:<iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fw.soundcloud.com%2Fplayer%2F%3Furl%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fapi.soundcloud.com%252Ftracks%252F931075378%26show_artwork%3Dtrue&amp;display_name=SoundCloud&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Fprovidenceventures%2Ffunding-the-future-of-healthcare-ep-13-w-lyra-health&amp;image=https%3A%2F%2Fi1.sndcdn.com%2Fartworks-scJePMNUgSAE7sWF-stkBSQ-t500x500.jpg&amp;key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&amp;type=text%2Fhtml&amp;schema=soundcloud" width="800" height="166" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/007a494fa6b11f4b3880107509747628/href">https://medium.com/media/007a494fa6b11f4b3880107509747628/href</a></iframe><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=7f75cc4105f3" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><a href="https://medium.com/providence-ventures/funding-the-future-of-healthcare-ep-13-w-david-ebersman-ceo-at-lyra-health-7f75cc4105f3">Funding The Future Of Healthcare — Ep. 13 w/ David Ebersman, CEO at Lyra Health</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/providence-ventures">Providence Ventures</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Funding The Future Of Healthcare — Ep. 13 w/ David Ebersman, CEO at Lyra Health

<h4>Answered by: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardproscia/">Richard Proscia</a>, Sr. Associate, Providence Ventures</h4><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*eNSrcayMNvgp4cZMqDg4Vg.jpeg" /><figcaption>“The Doctor,” Sir Luke Fildes</figcaption></figure>The Providence Ventures team recently asked our followers: What area do you think is ripest for innovation during the pandemic? You responded, albeit a little divided, with a split vote between solutions for providers and solutions for patients.And we couldn’t agree more.Our team believes that one of the most important elements in the continuum of care has been fundamentally disrupted by the pandemic and is among the ripest for innovation — the patient-provider relationship, or what we at Providence refer to as the Sacred Encounter.<h4>Pre-Pandemic Trends</h4>Even before the pandemic, the Sacred Encounter had begun to take a backseat as health systems prioritized workflow effectiveness, margin improvements, and the incorporation of technology, particularly electronic health records, into their care. In fact, before the pandemic, patient satisfaction with traditional care models had declined significantly. This dissatisfaction was driven by several factors including long scheduling timelines, inconvenient locations, long waiting room times, and limited physician interaction. In terms of accessibility, in 2018, patients waited <a href="https://www.healthline.com/health-news/why-you-have-to-wait-longer-to-get-a-doctors-appointment#:~:text=Experts%20interviewed%20by%20Healthline%20said,The%20ramifications%20are%20also%20varied">an average of 24 days for an appointment</a> with a primary care physician, with even longer wait times for specialists. This lack of accessibility was further compounded by the minimal (and dwindling) physician facetime afforded to patients, <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16338912/">with the average visit in 2018 lasting just 17.5 minutes</a>.Physicians, similarly, were increasingly dissatisfied with their work environment, which has often led to burnout. These physicians were working longer days filled with shorter patient interactions and a seemingly ever-increasing amount of administrative responsibilities created by the deployment of electronic medical records. <a href="https://www.medscape.com/slideshow/2020-lifestyle-burnout-6012460#2">In a 2020 study by Medscape</a>, 46% of primary care physicians, and 44% of internal medicine physicians reported burnout, citing demanding work schedules and an emphasis on profits over patients as key contributors.All these factors in the pre-pandemic environment created an opportunity for solution providers to leverage technologies and workflow innovations to improve upon the new realities of the patient-provider encounter.<h4>Pandemic Driven Acceleration</h4>In a matter of weeks, COVID-19 abruptly disrupted the delivery of modern medicine, requiring providers to deliver a diagnosis and prognosis outside the four walls of a traditional care setting. Although the adoption of telehealth technologies was progressing prior to COVID, the pandemic has been the catalyst for a massive industry transformation and has created incentives for industry participants to move faster. While numerous metrics exist demonstrating this rapid growth in telehealth solutions, a key illustrative metric for Providence Ventures has been the explosion of virtual tools and capacity within Providence. After receiving the first confirmed case of COVID in the United States, Providence was swift in adopting and scaling telehealth and remote monitoring technologies, with over 12,000 providers onboarded and virtual visits exploding to over 13,000 per day. For those patients that tested positive or were presumed positive, in less than a week, Providence rolled out a home monitoring program that allowed patients to report symptoms using a digital engagement portal powered by a basic thermometer and pulse oximeter.As these tectonic plates continue to shift in response to the COVID-19 crisis, the impact of these trends will undoubtedly change the way patients access care in the future. PV expects to see further changes in incentives and reimbursement, some of which have already been announced by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Our team expects telehealth to continue to gain market share, particularly from lower acuity visits (out of convenience) as well as other visits where physical interaction is not required, all driven by changes in consumer and caregiver behavior, long-term reimbursement trends, and realized efficiencies.However, current technologies in place pose inherent limits on what physicians can accomplish during virtual-only encounters, exposing providers to both risks in quality and experience (including trust) as well as gains in efficiency. During the crisis, health systems were forced to self-educate themselves about how to leverage readily available technologies in order to meet immediate patient needs. As the initial wave of the crisis subsides, health systems and providers have already begun to replace these “stop-gap” technologies with long-term solutions that enable better and more efficient care as consumer expectations rise and convenience wears off. What could be perceived as subtle changes in behavior will have a profound butterfly effect on how healthcare is delivered. With most patient-provider encounters now captured in a digital setting, there has never been a greater opportunity to capture unique data. PV believes that virtual care settings enable previously underutilized technologies like machine learning and artificial intelligence to finally focus on penetrating more patient care segments and specialties. Conversely, this opportunity also presents a unique challenge for providers and health systems that will now have less physical interactions with patients, and will need to either bring telehealth visits to “efficiency parity” with traditional in-person visits through new innovations or develop new ways to make the fewer traditional visits more productive from an information-gathering perspective.<h4>Conclusion</h4>As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to drive patient and provider utilization of telehealth solutions across the entire care continuum, PV believes there is a growing need to identify and build technologies that enhance, extend, and advance the patient-provider relationship. Furthermore, the need to preserve and instill trust in the “Sacred Encounter” between a caregiver and patient will never be greater. As care delivery shifts to a more telehealth centric model, solutions must ensure these visits are as productive or more productive than a traditional in-person patient visit. Ultimately, through new innovations and technologies, telehealth visits will likely replace any visit where physical interaction is not a prerequisite for care, unlike a surgical encounter.Follow us at <a href="https://twitter.com/ProvVentures">@ProvVentures</a> for more insights about healthcare investing.<img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=3eadd6cfa5b9" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><a href="https://medium.com/providence-ventures/you-asked-what-area-do-you-think-is-ripest-for-innovation-during-the-pandemic-we-listened-3eadd6cfa5b9">You Asked: What Area Do You Think is Ripest for Innovation During the Pandemic? We Listened.</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/providence-ventures">Providence Ventures</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

You Asked: What Area Do You Think is Ripest for Innovation During the Pandemic? We Listened.

<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/718/1*VeRKTmY5PDYD52kAy6Yj8A.png" /></figure>Our Principal, Cyril Phillip joined The Handoff to share advice for nurses.In recent years, more and more hospitals and health systems have launched investment arms in order to discover and fund companies that can help solve some of their internal challenges.In this episode of The Handoff, the duo talked about the kinds of companies that get him excited and what technology he’s looking to invest in.Cyril also shared how he engages clinicians in his vetting and due diligence process, and why it’s so important for him to get them excited and involved before he decides to make an investment.And for all readers out there who are budding entrepreneurs, Cyril shares some great advice about getting your company off the ground and looking for investment, including the one question he always encourages entrepreneurs to ask themselves.Tune in to the 29th episode of The Handoff, featuring Cyril Phillip <a href="https://www.trustedhealth.com/the-handoff-podcast/cyril-philip">here</a>.<img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=2eb17ecb77c4" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><a href="https://medium.com/providence-ventures/advice-for-nurse-entrepreneurs-from-a-healthcare-investor-2eb17ecb77c4">Advice for Nurse-Entrepreneurs From a Healthcare Investor</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/providence-ventures">Providence Ventures</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Advice for Nurse-Entrepreneurs From a Healthcare Investor

<h3>You Asked: What Makes a Startup Unique? We Listened.</h3><h4>Answered by: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/branden-m-fini/">Branden Fini</a>, Sr. Associate, Providence Ventures.</h4><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*LquplWmQ_7WO6Uk0Zz4vJg.jpeg" /></figure>Venture investors prioritize a variety of firm and market characteristics when evaluating an investment opportunity, but among the most important is the firm’s uniqueness. But it’s not enough to simply be different from your competition; this difference needs to convert into a competitive advantage that ultimately leads to quicker (and sustainable) market adoption. Here’s the framework through which we view differentiation. We generally evaluate differentiation in three ways. Note that this framework excludes other critical evaluation criteria, such as the management team and TAM.What do you offer and why will people care?The first, and most intuitive characteristic is the actual customer offering. I prefer decomposing the offering into component parts that drive the customer’s willingness to pay (“WTP”). The firm with the offering that drives the highest collective WTP tends to be the most interesting. For a software product, a “WTP driver” might be architecture flexibility, use case breadth, or existing integrations with legacy infrastructure software. For a services-heavy offering, a WTP driver could be offering breadth, geographical reach, or compatibility with existing services the customer is using. For any type of product, customer ROI is a critical driver.Who are your customers and how will they pay?A firm’s go-to-market (GTM) strategy could affect adoption as much as the actual product. The go-to-market strategy includes the selected customer market and the revenue model. In healthcare, these two choices can be very complicated. The customer (i.e. who’s actually paying) could be an employer, health system, private practice, insurance company, a medical device company, pharma company, or some intermediary (e.g. distributor, pharmacy, benefits manager). The revenue model may be a SaaS subscription fee, utilization-driven cost, shared savings, or involve insurance reimbursement — or a combination of all these.How efficient is your business?Looking at the operating model is an effective way of evaluating efficiency. We define “operating model” as processes directly involved with the production and delivery of the product. For software, the operating model isn’t as relevant (but still interesting), as there is no inventory and no physical delivery. Steady-state gross margins for software should be 80%+. For physical widgets and human capital-intensive services, however, the operating model is critical in determining unit economics, which tends to have higher variance in these categories (vs. software). A good way to evaluate a firm’s operating model is examining various cross-sections of the company’s contribution margin. Specifically, the contribution margin of its: products, geographies, and consumer segments. We view contribution margin as revenues net of all variable costs directly associated with the product or service, which includes product cost, shipping, and labor.Once entrepreneurs can clearly articulate a startup’s differentiation, the next step is to find the right investor:VCs are not always the answer. For early-stage, highly risky businesses, terms and conditions traditionally associated with venture capital may not be worth an amount of capital that can be also found with friends &amp; family or family offices. For companies ready to take on venture capital, we generally prefer to see a balanced cap table with a complementary set of VCs. The investor base may include both strategic investors with proprietary knowledge of and access to relevant markets, and traditional investors, who have the financial wherewithal and sophistication needed to support the business and attract other investors. Regardless, entrepreneurs should select investors who are supportive. That support can come in many forms including customer introductions, active board participation, and general strategic advice. We recommend conducting reference checks on investors of interest, just as investors would do with entrepreneurs.Final WordUltimately, all good investors back companies with strong business fundamentals, exceptional management teams, and favorable secular trends. Entrepreneurs should choose investors who will reinforce the company’s vision and complement the competencies of the management team. Listen to current, potential, and even former customers to continually increase your offering’s collective WTP, and ensure your GTM strategy and offering are mutually reinforcing — in a capital-efficient way.Follow us at <a href="https://twitter.com/ProvVentures">@ProvVentures</a> for more insights about healthcare investing.<img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=56ac93bc83a5" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><a href="https://medium.com/providence-ventures/you-asked-we-listened-what-makes-a-start-up-unique-by-branden-fini-56ac93bc83a5">You Asked: We Listened. What Makes a Start-Up Unique? By Branden Fini,</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/providence-ventures">Providence Ventures</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

You Asked: We Listened. What Makes a Start-Up Unique? By Branden Fini,

<h3>Funding the Future of Healthcare — Ep. 12 w/ Kulmeet Singh, CEO of Twistle</h3><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/450/1*VoHtgiI_WHD-8kpzPkAjfQ.png" /></figure>In the twelfth episode of our Funding the Future of Healthcare podcast series, we were joined by Kulmeet Singh, who is the CEO of <a href="https://www.twistle.com/">Twistle</a>, and Dan Galles, who is a Partner at Providence Ventures.In this episode, our host Pat McKay spoke with Kulmeet to learn more about his background and career path in healthcare. We also took a chance to elaborate on Twistle’s application in healthcare, and how it’s helping health systems redefine the patient experience. We also discussed Twistle’s role as Providence’s partner in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, and how it’s helping physicians interact with patients remotely.The two went on to dive into the importance of having strategic guidance in healthcare, and how Kulmeet and Twistle have benefitted from the partnership with both Providence Health Systems and Providence Ventures. Kulmeet and Dan also elaborated on their relationship throughout this process and shared some advice for aspiring entrepreneurs looking to break into healthcare.Join the conversation below:<iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fw.soundcloud.com%2Fplayer%2F%3Furl%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fapi.soundcloud.com%252Ftracks%252F792615940%26show_artwork%3Dtrue&amp;display_name=SoundCloud&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Fprovidenceventures%2Ffunding-the-future-of-healthcare-ep-12-w-twistle&amp;image=https%3A%2F%2Fi1.sndcdn.com%2Fartworks-scJePMNUgSAE7sWF-stkBSQ-t500x500.jpg&amp;key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&amp;type=text%2Fhtml&amp;schema=soundcloud" width="800" height="166" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"><a href="https://medium.com/media/a15c6eba6e4a696d1102733355992ec1/href">https://medium.com/media/a15c6eba6e4a696d1102733355992ec1/href</a></iframe><img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=c52e5c0080e" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><a href="https://medium.com/providence-ventures/funding-the-future-of-healthcare-ep-12-w-kulmeet-singh-ceo-of-twistle-c52e5c0080e">Funding the Future of Healthcare — Ep. 12 w/ Kulmeet Singh, CEO of Twistle</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/providence-ventures">Providence Ventures</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Funding the Future of Healthcare — Ep. 12 w/ Kulmeet Singh, CEO of Twistle

<h4>Authored by the Providence Ventures team.</h4><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*ibqph24i-v7rgyRtXdZxzQ.png" /></figure>2019 was a big year for digital health. Several companies entered the fray of public markets, others successfully closed hundreds of millions in venture funding, and nontraditional healthcare players waded deeper into the ecosystem. With the close of our second fund and several exciting new investments, we wanted to offer a reflection on big trends we saw and where we focused our attention in 2019.<h4>More capital, more innovation</h4>The digital health sector has grown tremendously in the last decade, and 2019 was no exception. Following the record $8.3bn invested in 2018, digital health companies secured $7.4bn in venture investment across 374 transactions in 2019, according to Rock Health. The influx of private investment has catalyzed digital innovation across the entire healthcare ecosystem, with investors and strategic partners targeting consumer - and provider-facing technologies alike.On the consumer side, applications ranging from digital therapeutics to behavioral health saw heavy investment, as patients increasingly engaged with their health outside the four walls of the hospital. Companies such as Omada (a PV portfolio company) and Ginger received greater attention, with payers and employers turning to digital pathways to engage with individuals dealing with chronic illness earlier and more frequently. On the provider side, data has become an increasingly valuable and complex asset; accordingly, solutions tackling issues such as data interfacing and patient engagement continue to compete in an already crowded space.Digital health startups saw another year of healthy activity with $7.4bn in venture investment.<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/974/1*dtQ4fco3NFSoMEKZLg43_g.png" /></figure><h4>Public exits and corporate entrants</h4>The shift toward B2B and B2B2C business models has helped digital health ventures scale effectively. 2019 saw several notable IPOs from the likes of Phreesia, Health Catalyst, and Progyny, among others. Though some have performed well and others less so, these exits demonstrate the viability of digital-health business models, blazing a trail for future healthcare IT IPOs. Corporations outside of the traditional healthcare sector also made substantial moves; Amazon’s acquisition of telemedicine startup Health Navigator and launch of Amazon Care for its employees signaled significant investment in telehealth. Walmart also launched in-store clinics as a foray into low-acuity care, posing a threat to primary care, optometry, and dentistry. Additionally, Google continues to leverage AI/ML to make use of unstructured health data in provider settings — though its Project Nightingale was met with a critical reception from consumers.<h4>Resounding pain points, innovative solutions</h4>Providence Ventures has the unique privilege of being strategically situated in a position to identify the various problems facing providers today. The unique access afforded to our leadership has enabled us to build relationships with and listen to operational leaders and clinical experts across a massive 51-hospital health system with highly diverse service lines. We’re proud to share that, with this approach, all of our active portfolio companies are working within Providence to address key pain points, and several have been acknowledged as emerging and established leaders by CB Insights, Fast Company, Deloitte, and more.<h4>Six Providence Ventures portfolio companies named to CB Insight’s Digital Health 150</h4><figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/889/1*40vtAe2kO-TO4l66F_66BQ.png" /></figure>Some of the key areas in which we directed our investments in 2019 include:<ul><li>Healthcare Cybersecurity: Over the last decade, the healthcare industry has been plagued by data breaches involving sensitive patient information. Protenus, a healthcare information technology company, has developed a leading health-data auditing and patient-privacy monitoring (“PPM”) platform for health systems. Protenus is among the vanguard of companies pushing the boundaries of what AI can achieve today in healthcare, as the company’s sophisticated technology is able to boil down vast swaths of data into cost-saving insights that also prevent significant harm.</li><li>The Digitization of Care &amp; Alternative Care Delivery Models: Patient satisfaction has declined significantly in recent years, with 51% of patients expressing dissatisfaction with their primary-care consumer experience, stemming from factors such as inconvenient locations, long waiting-room times, extended periods between booking and visits, and short times for physician interaction. One Medical is a technology-enabled care delivery provider that addresses these pain points with a patient-centric approach, improves access to care with online booking for same-or next-day in-person appointments, messaging capabilities to communicate with a primary care provider, and a medical team available to provide virtual care 24/7. By meeting patients with the care they want, when they want it, One Medical has established itself at the forefront of consumerism in healthcare.</li><li>Minimally Invasive Surgery: Pediatric surgical devices have historically represented a market that can be seen as niche at best and neglected at worst. Children have a unique anatomy, physiology, and disease processes, and the life-saving nature of the surgeries they receive extends to the entire family unit and society as a whole. At the same time, the need for size- and anatomy-specific devices, or the ability to safely operate around critical structures in confined spaces, extends beyond the pediatric community. Providence Ventures participated in a growth equity financing of Bolder Surgical, a surgical device company that equips surgeons with right-sized instruments for minimally-invasive procedures.</li></ul>While we’re excited to leverage our resources to address the problems above, we know there is plenty more to tackle in the digitization of healthcare. As with any growing space, we’ve got our work cut out for us and plenty of exploration still to do. If you are an entrepreneur or investor in these spaces and you’d like to get in touch with us, you can contact us at this <a href="http://www.providenceventures.org/contact-us">link</a>. Here’s to a bigger and even better year for digital health in 2020.<img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=9901754e01c" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><a href="https://medium.com/providence-ventures/providence-ventures-2019-in-review-9901754e01c">Providence Ventures’ 2019 in Review</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/providence-ventures">Providence Ventures</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Providence Ventures’ 2019 in Review

<figure><img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*73DQoueRvHAa4b-KoYrqwQ.jpeg" /></figure>This fall, the Providence Ventures team traveled to Las Vegas to join hundreds of entrepreneurs, investors, and healthcare innovators at the second annual HLTH conference. After four long days of stimulating conversations, panels, and networking sessions, we left with some anecdotes and key takeaways to share:<h4>Growing Investor Interest in Alternative Care Delivery Models:</h4>While it has been a long wait for the healthcare industry (and early investors in the space), the evolution and traction of alternative care delivery models was prominent at the conference. Companies in the space have begun to specialize, tailoring their models to meet the needs of specific patient populations, such as Medicaid or Medicare. With significant capital raises of companies like Cityblock Health and Unite Us, focused on meeting the needs of Medicaid populations (which historically has been a population largely unaddressed by innovations in care delivery), we believe investors are turning a deeper focus to this growing space. Additionally, there appears to be a shift in many of these models to leveraging lower certified clinicians (or even non-clinician community-based providers) for in-home and remote telehealth care and patient engagement.<h4>Formalization of Innovation Efforts within Industry Incumbents:</h4>Consumerism continues to be a buzz word at healthcare conferences. Incumbents now have tangible evidence of the growing threat from Big Tech with the entrance of <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/24/amazon-launches-employee-health-clinic-amazon-care.html">Amazon</a>, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/02/apples-first-hires-for-its-clinics-are-delivering-care-and-not-just-.html">Apple</a>, and <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/29/walmart-is-piloting-health-clinic-at-walmart-health-in-georgia.html">Walmart</a>, all heavy-hitting companies with strong consumer relationships. Many health systems have responded to these threats by creating formalized “Innovation” or “Digital” teams to shift patient experiences to a consumer strategy that meets patients “where they are”, and make sense of the proliferation of exciting but complex new healthcare technologies. These digital organizations are focused on not only providing market insights but also on creating frameworks for the organization to review, implement and track the ROI of emerging technologies. While this trend has mostly been seen in larger health systems and integrated delivery networks, smaller, regional health systems are following suit as the existential threats of new competitors has become tangible. The PV team was particularly excited by how this trend may help to accelerate the implementation of innovations and reduce the long sales cycles that many entrepreneurs face.<h4>Increasing Prevalence of New Companies Utilizing VR/AR Technology:</h4>One noticeable aspect of this year’s HLTH was the increasing prevalence of Virtual Reality / Augmented Reality companies focusing on healthcare. This was evident the moment you walked in, as the conference area had a VR Lounge, right next to the main registration. Although immersive technology saw a lot of hype in the consumer landscape in the past, it is starting to gain traction and acceptance in the healthcare ecosystem for enterprise applications. Low hanging fruit lies mainly in the learning and development realm. VR/AR solutions can be implemented at hospital simulation centers empowering training for both complex and non-complex procedures. In addition, VR/AR can also provide a new potentially more effective modality for compliance training and the myriad of other training modules that caregivers must attend for compliance and continuing education credits. The PV team will be monitoring this space closely over the next 12–18 months as these technologies become more mainstream in the health system market.<h4>Ballooning Valuations are Driving Alternative Ways to Build “Rationally-Priced” Assets:</h4>Through conversations with investors and entrepreneurs alike, PV noticed that the market is responding to the historically high valuation trends by exploring new ways to generate more “rationally-priced” assets. Within this trend, we’ve noted three distinct emerging strategies:<ol><li>Early-stage investors are generating deal flow by partnering early with forward-leaning organizations (typically healthcare incumbents), as both an operational partner and down-stream investors.</li><li>With the recognition that, as the HCIT segment has matured with loads of capital invested, there are likely distressed assets (overpriced, underperforming) in the market that may be attractive assets to recap and infuse with better management.</li><li>Finally, several investors expressed interest in incubating companies from the ground up, allowing them to get in at the “ground floor” at attractive valuations.</li></ol>While healthcare IT conferences have come and gone over the years, the growing consensus among attendees this year is that HLTH is here to stay. Many attendees, PV among them, now hold the conference in the same regard as the JPM Healthcare Conference or the HIMSS Conference. With that said, the PV team is already counting down the days until we head back to Vegas next fall!<img src="https://medium.com/_/stat?event=post.clientViewed&referrerSource=full_rss&postId=105b4a78d323" width="1" height="1" alt=""><hr><a href="https://medium.com/providence-ventures/takeaways-from-the-2019-hlth-conference-105b4a78d323">Takeaways from the 2019 HLTH Conference</a> was originally published in <a href="https://medium.com/providence-ventures">Providence Ventures</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Takeaways from the 2019 HLTH Conference

Providence Ventures on Blog

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