Atlanta-based Emory Healthcare has partnered with digital health company Sharecare, also based in Atlanta, to launch a technology innovation hub with the aim of identifying unmet users need and developing, testing and implementing technology solutions to address those needs.
Emory Healthcare Innovation Hub powered by Sharecare will launch September 1, 2018, and will tap into the clinical expertise of Emory University’s Woodruff Health Sciences Center and the assets of strategic partners across all sectors of healthcare. The Emory Healthcare Innovation Hub will focus on solutions that minimize cost burdens for both patients and the healthcare system while improving clinical outcomes, the organizations said in a press release.
“As the U.S. healthcare system shifts from fee-for-service to value-based care, it is critical that we not only understand the evolving needs of patients and providers but also address those needs in ways that maximize technology to both enable the best possible care and engage patients throughout the entire care journey,” Scott D. Boden, M.D., vice president of business innovation for Emory Healthcare and chief medical/quality officer for Emory University Orthopaedics & Spine Hospital, said in a statement.
As part of the strategic collaboration, Emory Healthcare becomes the lead research partner of Sharecare and joins the Sharecare Movement, the initiative launched by Sharecare and the Atlanta Hawks Basketball Club in August 2017 to make Atlanta and Georgia among the healthiest places to live in the United States. According to the Gallup-Sharecare Wellbeing Index, Georgia falls below the national average for overall wellbeing, and dropped to 31 out of 50 states in 2017 versus 29 in 2016; while Atlanta ranked 81 out of 186 communities in the U.S.
The Sharecare and Emory Healthcare partnership will accelerate the development of evidence-based digital health solutions targeted at improving the health of the state of Georgia, which will be tracked by the Gallup-Sharecare Wellbeing Index.
Emory has partnered with Innovation Hub Enterprises (IHE), a full-service research, design and innovation strategy firm, to oversee the direction and operation of the Emory Healthcare Innovation Hub. IHE, in partnership with Emory Healthcare, is also raising a venture fund dedicated to investing in the development and acceleration of early-stage, consumer-centric healthcare technologies and care models.
