Providence Spin-Out Praia Integrates 3rd-Party Digital Health Solutions
Seattle-based Providence's incubation model strikes again. The health system's Digital Innovation Group has spun out a company called Praia Health, whose platform is designed to transform the way third-party consumer solutions can be incorporated into a health system's digital experience.
Among Providence's other spin-outs is Xealth, a Seattle-based company that enables digital therapeutic app deployment for many large health systems.
Announced last year, Praia Health securely manages the data exchange between the solution, the health system's electronic medical record, and other health system data sources, increasing the flexibility and speed of third-party integration, while dramatically reducing its cost, the company said.
Praia Health has been in use at Providence since January of 2022 and currently supports more than 3.5 million user accounts. Community Health Network, an Indiana-based health system, recently licensed the Praia Health Consumer Platform for implementation in 2024.
"Praia Health will enable us to remove the traditional barriers to patient care by personalizing individuals' health journeys and seamlessly connecting them to the right services, products and resources—in an automated way," said Patrick McGill, M.D., executive vice president and chief transformation officer of Community Health Network, in a statement.
Seventeen digital health companies have joined the Praia Health Ecosystem Partner program, including Atlas Health, Cedar, DexCare, Foodsmart, Fortuna Health, Kyruus Health, Livara Health, Medbridge, Modivcare, Omada Health, Rosarium Health, Season Health, Vale Health, Wellthy, Wildflower Health, Validic, and Xealth.
As Praia Health's clinical integration partner, Xealth enables digital solutions to be incorporated into the clinician experience and brings over 50 additional connected digital health partners into the Praia Health ecosystem. In addition, Praia Health has secured Panda Health, the AVIA Marketplace, Xealth, and West Monroe as channel partners for the platform.
The company announced the closing of a $20 million oversubscribed Series A financing led by Frist Cressey Ventures, and backed by SignalFire, Espilon Health Investors and Providence Ventures.
The new company is led by healthcare industry and startup veteran Justin Dearborn who has been serving as executive-in-residence within the Providence Digital Innovation Group (DIG) since September 2023. The Praia Health platform is the fourth incubated technology at DIG under the leadership of Sara Vaezy, Providence's chief strategy and digital officer. Navid Farzad a partner at Frist Cressey, Yuanling Yuan a partner at SignalFire, and Vaezy, have joined Dearborn on Praia Health's board of directors.
"Partnerships and cross-industry collaboration are new imperatives for health systems, and an open, efficient platform for data sharing and consumer engagement is a prerequisite that hasn't existed," Dearborn explained in a statement. "There is deep value associated with streamlining the delivery of the broad spectrum of consumer-facing solutions that a health system wants to deploy today—both operationally and from a patient and caregiver satisfaction perspective. We're excited to see that both health systems and digital health solution companies are already recognizing the value as well."
"The Providence incubation model has some incredible advantages—enabling us to prove out the technology in a real-world setting and work alongside other health systems and technology partners during the incubation process," Vaezy added in a statement.
