Venture capitalists partner with health organizations to improve digital health

Venture capital (VC) firms are increasingly playing a role in all aspects of healthcare. This is a growing trend globally, as healthcare organizations are hungry for the resources, expertise, and capital that these venture capitalists can offer.

Earlier this month, the University of California at Davis Health System announced a partnership with one of the nation’s largest venture capital firms, General Catalyst, to transform healthcare strategy and offerings. digital organization.

The university’s press release explained, “As part of this partnership, UC Davis Health will use the General Catalyst ecosystem of companies to drive artificial intelligence (AI) and digital health innovations in several areas. . These will include healthcare delivery, research, education and public service, as well as the medical center’s ongoing transformation efforts in operations, care and outcomes.

Additionally, Chief Information and Digital Officer, Ashish Atreja, said, “Digital innovations in medicine have the potential to not only improve patient outcomes, but also be a game-changer for the entire world. healthcare sector… This collaboration will create an environment that fosters open innovation in digital. healthcare, which we hope will lead to new solutions to improve the lives of our patients, increase the efficiency of healthcare systems and positively impact the health of our communities.

UC Davis Health is a powerhouse in the region, having a service area of ​​over 30 counties and nearly 6+ million residents. While it already has strong offerings in the virtual health and digital health spaces, this partnership will elevate it even further. General Catalyst is an equally well-known figure, boasting partnerships with some of the biggest organizations in the world, ranging from AirBnB, Warby Parker and Canva, to Stripe and Snap. Without a doubt, this is a monumental occasion.

Similarly, well-known venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Bassett Healthcare Network in New York announced a partnership to leverage digital health capabilities to address relevant health issues. According to the press release, “The collaboration aims to leverage digital health technologies from a16z portfolio companies to address inequities and systemic challenges in delivering high-quality healthcare to patient populations in the middle of the world.” rural through Bassett Healthcare Network.The two organizations share a common vision to broadly re-imagine how large-scale digital health solutions and processes can transform these valuable, yet significantly underfunded healthcare delivery networks.

Bassett CEO and Chairman Dr Tommy Ibrahim said: “Health systems serving rural communities face distinct challenges from those in more densely populated areas, including reduced access to innovative tools and services that could help us better serve our patients and support our practitioners. and care teams… The partnership with a16z will significantly improve our access to the most innovative digital health technologies and, more broadly, allow us to truly understand together how rural health systems can implement effective and scalable technological solutions to improve patient health.

A16Z is, again, one of the most prominent venture capital firms in the world, having backed notable organizations such as Facebook, Lyft, Robinhood, Slack, and Coinbase. Meanwhile, the Bassett Healthcare Network includes nearly 400 physicians across 8 counties, supporting primary and advanced care for thousands of people across the region. Indeed, this partnership will transform the vision and strategy of the health network.

These two examples are just recent encounters of such important partnerships. Many organizations across the country and around the world are pursuing similar relationships with VC with ideally one central goal in mind: to improve their services, optimize their methods of delivering care, and ultimately better serve their patients and communities.