A recently formed digital consortium is gaining traction as health systems look to launch more technological capabilities and scale them faster.
UPMC and Vanderbilt Health are joining nine other health systems to develop, invest in and implement digital health solutions, with support from startup studio Aegis Ventures.
Related: Aegis Ventures launches digital consortium with 9 providers
The consortium, led by Aegis co-founder John Beadle and former Mayo Clinic CEO Dr. John Noseworthy, launched in April. The group aims to create solutions and possibly spin off companies to solve pain points in care delivery, often with artificial intelligence-powered platforms.
The consortium is exploring solutions to automate workflow, build continuity of care and improve patient experience.
“A lot of the topics and themes came back to creating these really practical innovations that impact quality of care. I think sometimes that can get lost in exciting innovations and these grandiose ideas,” said Olivia Bryant, senior vice president at Vanderbilt Health Professional Solutions, a for-profit arm that incubates and launches commercial products out of Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “We have to have these types of intentional channels to create change.”
Nashville, Tennessee-based Vanderbilt is building a framework for governance and outlining project goals to support its work with the consortium and may hire more people, Bryant said.
Pittsburgh-based UPMC is in the early stages of exploring new solutions, said Dr. Aman Mahajan, senior vice president of health innovation at UPMC Enterprises, the system’s commercialization unit.
Health system executives say there are financial and operational benefits to partnering with peer organizations to build solutions, rather than contracting with outside technology companies.
Building capabilities within health systems allows them to tailor technology to their specific needs and scale the solution faster, said Richard Mulry, president and CEO of Northwell Health’s for-profit arm Northwell Holdings, a founding member of the consortium.
When Northwell connected with Aegis about five years ago, the health system was looking to create innovative solutions that could be brought to market and drive revenue diversification, Mulry said. Northwell and Aegis have since launched three ventures: Ascertain, an AI-powered automation company, in April 2022; Caire, a patient engagement platform, in January 2023; and Optain, a retinal imaging tool, in May 2023.
The consortium builds on what Northwell and Aegis started.
“Before this construct, a company would knock on each health system’s door one by one, have to do each use case individually, [and] spend a lot of time and effort to try to then over time aggregate it,” Mulry said. “We wanted to prove that a health system could do it, and once we were able to do that, then that opened the door to invite other health systems to come and participate.”
Northwell plans to invest in other solutions created by members of the consortium, he said.
Some members are evaluating Northwell’s existing ventures as well. Evanston, Illinois-based Endeavor Health is looking to deploy the Caire platform at its orthopedic institute, said Justin Brueck, Endeavor's system vice president for innovation and research.
Health system executives say the consortium model is relatively low-risk.
Nicole Paulk, chief strategy officer at Indianapolis-based Indiana University Health, said joining the consortium in April provided an opportunity to explore solutions without an upfront capital investment, reducing the financial risk to the health system.
Systems can choose to be a co-investor or a customer, she said. The cost to a system will vary based on the product.
Paulk also sees the consortium as an opportunity to grow operations without costly mergers and acquisitions.
“There are some health systems that are pursuing mega-mergers as a way to get scale. We actually think there are ways to solve problems at scale through partnerships,” Paulk said. “Rather than launching a bunch of darts in different directions, it probably makes sense to work together.”
The other participating health systems are Stanford, California-based Stanford Health Care; Houston-based Memorial Hermann Health System; Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based Novant Health; New Orleans-based Ochsner Health; Columbus, Ohio-based The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center; and San Diego-based Sharp HealthCare.
