New York City, New York Feb 14, 2022 (Issuewire.com) - AndHealth today announced the company's closure of more than $57 million in financing by leading technology investor Francisco Partners, with participation from the American Medical Association's venture capital arm Health 2047, Kirkland & Ellis, and Twofold Ventures.
AndHealth is led by former CoverMyMeds co-founder and CEO Matt Scantland and the team that helped grow healthcare technology company CoverMyMeds from inception to its $1.4 billion acquisition by McKesson in 2017.
Virtual Centers of Excellence to Reverse Migraine and Autoimmune Diseases
The company's first offering is a Virtual Center of Excellence (VCOE) for the reversal of migraine. Shortly, AndHealth will launch a second VCOE for autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, ulcerative colitis, and Crohn's. These are debilitating, costly, and widely prevalent conditions affecting roughly 30 million working-age people, the majority of whom are women who have suffered from a lack of good treatment options. The company believes it is the first large-scale digital health company to provide root cause medical care for these illnesses.
"While migraine has been concealed among claims data because of its lack of accessible treatment options, it is probably the single most important lynchpin in a personalized disease reversal strategy," said, Dr. Robert Sheeler, certified subspecialist in headache medicine and clinical leader with over 20 years at Mayo Clinic, former migraine sufferer, and pioneer behind a system of migraine root cause identification and reversal. "It is considerably more prevalent than diabetes among people under 65. It is often co-morbid and therefore shares common root causes with many other high-cost chronic conditions, including diabetes. The patient's high motivation to invest effort in reversing their migraine condition contributes to solving other chronic illnesses they face."
Helping Employers Reduce Health Costs, Unlock Productivity, and Achieve DEI Objectives
AndHealth offers its disease reversal programs as an employer-sponsored benefit that aligns interests around outcomes and guarantees patient participation. The company is working with self-funded employers and benefits brokers who will bring its solution to clients.
A leading broker said, "Migraine is one of the most prevalent, debilitating, and poorly addressed chronic conditions. It also disproportionately impacts women and people of color in the prime of their working years. It is exciting to see AndHealth addressing this widespread problem at scale using its unique approach to personalize health interventions based on an individual's root causes. We're thrilled to be an early partner with AndHealth to launch their migraine reversal program with our employees."
Migraine is the number-one cause of short-term disability for most employers and lurks quietly as one of the most significant drivers of lost productivity and engagement in workforces.
"Just like the best employers recognized with mental health beginning five or so years ago, there is a growing consensus that it is now time to destigmatize migraine and improve access to care so that people can reclaim their lives from this disease," said AndHealth CEO, Matt Scantland.
A More Effective Approach to Engaging Employees in their Healthcare
While the company is joining the ranks of the expanding digital health movement in the employer-sponsored health arena, AndHealth has a strikingly different position on how to realize the long-term potential for the next generation of healthcare services. While many companies have focused on digital primary care or disease management, AndHealth is built to reverse chronic disease, helping patients reclaim their lives, while enabling employers to bend the mammoth cost-curve largely driven by plan members with multiple chronic conditions.
Making the leap to disease reversal requires that patients participate more actively in addressing the root causes of their illness. A key to making participation easier for patients is moving health delivery from episodic and on-premises, to continuous and virtual. However, AndHealth has also discovered that uncommonly high levels of patient engagement are possible through precision behavioral design, combined with a new approach to disease targeting.
"People often look at health claims and quickly conclude that the highest priority chronic conditions should be the ones with the greatest prevalence and direct cost," said Scantland. "However, within the multi-chronic population, we believe the highest priority condition is not necessarily the most prevalent one, but rather the condition the patient most wants to solve. Typically, these are the conditions that are associated with the most pain and life disruption, versus diseases that are only experienced as 'numbers' early in their progressions, such as hypertension, pre-diabetes, and hyperlipidemia."
The rationale for this position is rooted in the science of systems biology.
"Diseases do not cluster randomly," says Tom Blue, the architect of the company's care delivery, and its SVP of Healthcare. "In people with multiple chronic conditions, if you address the root causes of one diagnosis, the odds are very high that you have significantly impacted the other diagnoses as well. And when we help the patient focus on the diagnosis they want to solve, they find the energy to participate in their healthcare to the degree that positive change becomes possible."
"What makes AndHealth so compelling is its new perspective and approach to unlocking the enormous potential of chronic disease reversal for employers, health plans, and patients, in addition to its world-class and proven leadership team that we have partnered with in the past," says Chris Adams, a Partner with Francisco Partners.
Clinical Study Proves Company's Results
The University of Maryland recently completed its first study of AndHealth's Migraine Reversal Program for severe and chronic migraine patients who had suffered for 15 years or more. At the conclusion of the study, 60 percent of the participants experienced improvement significant enough that they no longer met the ICHD-3 diagnostic criteria for migraine, demonstrating profound hope for the millions of sufferers who haven't had adequate treatment options.
One of the first patients to participate in AndHealth's virtual Migraine Reversal Program was experiencing 7-8 migraine attacks per month when he enrolled in October 2021. Using its root cause identification algorithm, the AndHealth Migraine Reversal Center of Excellence identified his primary root cause as sinus-related issues stemming from specific food sensitivities.
Three months after enrolling in the program, this patient is delighted to have his life back from migraine, having experienced an 80 percent reduction in migraine attacks. To his surprise, he's seen other benefits as well.
"I lost 18 pounds and moved my blood pressure from 'elevated' to within the lower end of normal levels," he said. He was also able to avoid sinus surgery and reduce his sleep apnea.
According to AndHealth national virtual practice Medical Director, Dr. Robert Darling, former White House physician for the Clinton administration and leading expert in telehealth, "This patient's experience is not at all unusual. When people are appropriately guided to addressing their root cause through regular interaction with their care team, they are often amazed by other health improvements that weren't previously associated with the condition they were focused upon."
Collaborating with the Healthcare System to Transform How Chronic Illness is Treated
The company's name--AndHealth--symbolizes its commitment to whole-person healthcare and working alongside the existing healthcare system to transform, rather than disrupt, care delivery. Added Douglass Given, Managing Partner of Health2047 Capital Partners, "We are delighted to participate alongside Francisco Partners in funding AndHealth. We see enormous potential in exploring new models of tech-enabled primary care delivery that increase patient access, place more emphasis on outcomes, and improve overall healthcare value."
Health2047 Capital Partners' anchor investor is Health2047 Inc., the Silicon Valley-based innovation subsidiary of the American Medical Association (AMA).
About AndHealth
AndHealth helps people reverse chronic diseases. The company operates a virtual center of excellence for migraine and is soon launching others for autoimmune conditions, including rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, ulcerative colitis, and Crohn's disease. AndHealth works with employers, health plans, public entities, and individuals. To learn more, please visit www.andhealth.com.
About Francisco Partners
Francisco Partners is a leading global investment firm that specializes in partnering with technology and technology-enabled businesses. Since its launch over 20 years ago, Francisco Partners has invested in over 400 technology companies, making it one of the most active and longstanding investors in the technology industry. With more than $30 billion in assets under management, the firm invests in opportunities where its deep sectoral knowledge and operational expertise can help companies realize their full potential. For more information on Francisco Partners, please visit www.franciscopartners.com.
About Health2047
Part of Health2047 Group, Health2047 Capital Partners focuses on a range of capital formation and alternative investments in the healthcare sector. Headquartered on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, CA, with additional offices in Chicago, IL and Columbus, OH, Health2047 Capital Partners is the sister company of Health2047 Inc., the Silicon Valley-based innovation subsidiary of the American Medical Association (AMA).
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Source :And Health
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