Northwell Health in New Hyde Park, N.Y., is investing $500,000 in Playback Health, a startup building a multimedia patient engagement tool, as part of a $1.25 million seed-round financing effort to fund software that improves physician-patient communications.
Playback's tool aims to use media such as screen-capture video to improve the patient experience and clinical outcomes. The neurosurgery department at Northwell's Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City is reengineering the technology so that it can be deployed across the system later this year.
Playback plans to launch a full-scale commercial offering in 2019.
"Northwell Health recognizes the value of Playback Health in further enhancing the patient experience and reducing hospital readmissions by using technology that is proactive, interactive, personalized and, most importantly, outcome driven," said Richard Mulry, senior vice president of operations at Northwell Ventures, which invests in startups, pursues joint ventures and commercializes ideas that originate from Northwell.