Why UPMC is selling virtual consulting technology to eVisit

The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center sold its inpatient virtual consulting technology to health tech vendor eVisit, the companies said Tuesday.

The transaction, the terms of which were not disclosed, represented the end of a four-year journey for the Pittsburgh-based health system. It also makes UPMC part of a rising trend of health systems looking to their commercialization and venture capital arms to develop new sources of revenue to offset financial challenges. Once proven, the technology can be spun off or sold.

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UPMC's technology, the idea of which was born during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, allows clinical specialists to consult virtually with bedside clinicians about inpatient care across five specialty services: stroke, neurology, critical care, psychology and toxicology. 

The health system had unsuccessfully looked before the pandemic for a teleconsulting vendor to help nurses in its intensive care units, one that could align with their workflow.

The health system pivoted and in early 2020 began developing a solution inhouse. The platform came together quickly enough that UPMC provided teleconsulting service to assist New York-Presbyterian Hospital clinicians and patients in New York City during the city’s initial surge in April 2020.

The successful partnership led the UPMC team to continue refining the technology for new use cases. Physicians would hear about it from colleagues in other departments and make suggestions on how to expand the technology, said UPMC Chief Medical Officer Dr. Rob Bart. The health system oversaw around 40,000 consults with the technology during a four-year stretch.

Selling the technology should allow other systems to adopt it while saving UPMC the cost of operating the platform, Bart said. 

“When I think about launching a technology and a company, in order to really allow it to mature, you’ve got to let it go and put it in the hands of someone who has good thoughts about how it could grow,” Bart said. “If we just held it ourselves, it would eventually come unsustainable.” 

UPMC made an undisclosed investment in eVisit. The telehealth company also received an investment from Columbia, Maryland-based MedStar Health. In April 2023, eVisit acquired health tech firm Bluestream Health to implement Bluestream’s integrated language services into its telemedicine platform.