Providence, a large not-for-profit Catholic healthcare system, announced the launch of Praia Health, a consumer platform for healthcare systems, alongside the closing of a $20 million oversubscribed Series A investment round. 

Frist Cressey Ventures led the round, with participation from Epsilon Health Investors, Providence Ventures and SignalFire.

Navid Farzad, partner at Frist Cressey, and Sara Vaezy, Providence's chief strategy and digital officer, joined the newly formed company's board of directors. Yuanling Yuan, a partner at SignalFire, and Justin Dearborn, Praia Health's CEO, also joined the board.

WHAT IT DOES

Praia Health is a consumer platform for health systems. It offers a low-code ecosystem to help access to third-party consumer offerings at scale by easing their integration into a health system's digital experience. 

The company manages the data exchange between the health system's electronic medical record platform and their other data sources and the digital health solution. 

The company launches with seventeen digital health partners in its ecosystem, including Wellthy, Omada Health, Medibridge, Livara Health, Atlas Health, DexCare, Kyruus Health, Foodsmart, Rosarium Health, Vale Health, Wildflower Health, Cedar, Season Health, Xealth, Validic, Modivare and Fortuna Health.

The startup is the fourth incubated technology from Providence Digital Innovation Group, a health innovation center within Providence in which Dearborn, Praia's CEO, serves as executive-in-residence. 

"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 said 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."

MARKETPLACE SNAPSHOT

Numerous healthcare systems have launched spin-outs, expanding the digital health ecosystem.

Mount Sinai Health launched Sema4, a spin spin-out developing health-data-analytics platforms. In 2020, Sema4 raised $121 million in Series C funding, bringing its valuation to over $1 billion. 

Boston Children’s Hospital spin-out Mightier makes biofeedback video games to help children with emotional regulation. 

Johns Hopkins launched Vixiar, a tablet-based point-of-care system for assessing cardiac filling pressure, and Mount Sinai Health System's spin-off OOVA focuses on fertility and women’s health.