Chicago-based health IT company Outcome Health has raised its first round of funding, valuing the company at more than $5 billion.
The company, founded in 2006 by Rishi Shah and Shradha Aharwal, partners with 231,000 healthcare providers nationwide and impacts 500 million patient visits each year. The more than $500 million investment, which comes from Goldman Sachs Investment Partners, Alphabet's growth equity investment fund CapitalG, Leerink Transformation Partners, Pritzker Group Venture Capital, Balyasny Asset Management, among many others, positions Outcome Health to expand its impact from 20 percent to 70 percent of all U.S. physician practices by 2020.
Outcome Health's technology provides users with health information and intelligence during critical moments of care to enable patients and physicians to make the best healthcare decisions possible. Its platform, which includes health assessment and anatomical renderings, supplies actionable intelligence to patients and communication tools to providers. The technology is designed to improve physician workflow, and also empower patients to play a more meaningful role in their own care.
"Outcome Health is redefining the way that the life sciences, payers, healthcare IT, physicians and patients interact," Todd Cozzens, co-founder and Managing Partner at Leerink Transformation Partners, said in a statement. "The technology enhances the most important event in the delivery of care — the trusted moments where the doctor and patient make decisions about their conditions and treatments — and represents innovation that we are proud to support. Doctors like Outcome Health's platform because their patients have a better care experience, which leads to better compliance, adherence and most importantly, better outcomes."
Here, Vivek Kundra, executive vice president of provider solutions at Outcome Health, took the time to answer Becker's four questions on the funding round and the company's plans for the future.
Question: How will Outcome Health use the newly invested money?
Vivek Kundra: Our funding round will allow us to accelerate our partnerships, expand into more physician practices in the U.S. and internationally, impact more 
patients and bring better health outcomes to more people. Outcome Health has been adding 1 percent of practices each month organically, and we can accelerate this growth through the expansion of our team and potential investment opportunities.
The amount of this [investment] and the quality of participants strongly position us to drive growth efforts across emerging commercial opportunities in areas such as clinical trials, payers, pharmacies and international markets.
Additionally, we are planning to invest more heavily in helping to introduce data-driven solutions into moments of care in an effort to improve the quality and efficiency of every patient visit. The healthcare experience is undergoing a transformation akin to other consumer experiences: Consumers are demanding transparency, choice and convenience when it comes to their health decisions.
Q: What kinds of international opportunities are the company pursuing?
VK: We are focused on being in every exam room around the world so patients, providers and caregivers can make the best health decision every time.
Today, Outcome Health is the largest health decision platform in the United States, and impacts over 500 million patient visits annually. We have a presence in 55,000 physician practices in the United States. International expansion is central to changing the currency of decision-making in healthcare to focus on patient-centered care — empowering patients to make better, more informed decisions.
Q: How does Outcome Health's technology help clinicians make better, safer care decisions?
VK: Outcome Health's technology empowers patients to actively participate in their healthcare journey. Increased patient engagement through real-time intelligence creates better and more purposeful dialogue between the patient and the provider in the moments of care, resulting in better decision-making and adherence to healthcare plans.
Our platform — including health assessments and anatomical renderings — provides actionable intelligence for patients and powerful communication tools for providers. Clinicians can review drug information, like interactions, during their consultation to ensure safe decisions are being made. Providers can also leverage the platform for Continuing Medical Education credits. A provider can watch content and earn toward the required 50 CME credits that keep a provider's license up to date.
Our products sit between patients and providers as critical health decisions are being made. As we introduce more relevant and contextual data into these moments of care, there exists a large opportunity to improve not only physician workflow but to ensure that decisions are being made with all available data in hand. Outcome contextualizes that information and makes it actionable at the point where a majority of healthcare decisions are being made.
Q: How does the technology empower hospitals and health systems to succeed under value-based care?
VK: We deliver value by aligning healthcare goals and reducing inefficiencies. The three major tenets of value-based care are increased quality, reduced cost and healthier population. Outcome Health's platform has an impact in each of these.
- Increased Quality: Patients who are educated about their condition and understand how to properly care for themselves before and after a procedure or a medication regimen will ultimately have a higher quality outcome. For example, we deployed cancer self-assessments in the exam room with a partner, Bright Pink, and found that 69 percent of patients would discuss results with their physician, while 70 percent would take action on the results.
- Reduced Cost: Patients who understand their health are likely to use health services less frequently, reducing overall cost for the health system through reduced utilization of high cost/low margin services. For example, through our platform, a diabetic patient can be better educated to properly take their insulin and effectively monitor their A1C3 levels, which means they will visit the physician less frequently for issues related to their condition. In a value-based environment, this reduced utilization and improved adherence will drive down cost for the individual practice and in aggregate reduce cost for the overall healthcare delivery system.
- Population Management: There are many populations of patients in health systems. This includes people with chronic conditions, from specific socio-economic environments and from a given age category. Outcome Health's platform can target educational content to specific populations. By educating and empowering patients with specific conditions to make better choices, the overall health of populations will improve.
Outcome Health delivers awareness and assists in preventative care. For example, at the Barg Family Clinic in Little Rock, Ark., a patient learned about the warning signs of a heart attack on our platform, and was able to admit himself to the ER, and avoided a full-fledged heart attack.