HEP, Verizon establish strategic relationship to encourage health IT innovation and adoption

Health Evolution Partners and Verizon Enterprise Solutions have established a strategic relationship to encourage innovation and adoption of connected health information technologies that help drive patient care improvements and better manage costs.

Under a new multiyear agreement announced Monday (Feb. 6), Health Evolution Partners (HEP), a health care buyout firm, and Verizon Connected Healthcare Solutions, the company's health IT practice group, will collaborate to identify and work with companies to spur the development and adoption of advanced IT solutions and applications in areas such as mobile health, telemedicine and health data management to help transform health care delivery in the U.S.

Demand for connected health technologies is expected to grow rapidly as the industry seeks to better manage costs and improve patient care by facilitating real-time care coordination, increasing patient engagement and enabling information portability. The firms will leverage HEP's unique health care insight and Verizon's platform-based health IT portfolio of mobility, cloud and IT offerings to accelerate transformative change by providing innovators with the ability to develop and scale connected health IT solutions and applications.

"The next generation of health IT will not be anchored to a desk," said Dr. David J. Brailer, chairman of Health Evolution Partners.  "Clinicians and patients will expect technologies that support mobility and virtual care.  Advanced broadband, video-based technologies and wireless devices that incorporate geo-location capabilities and sensors will change the landscape of health care from development to delivery. Our relationship with Verizon demonstrates the importance of bringing these innovations to market."

Dr. Peter Tippett, vice president and chief medical officer, Verizon Connected Healthcare Solutions, said: "Strong collaboration across the health care ecosystem is essential to enabling health IT transformation. Verizon is committed to building strategic relationships to help spur the adoption of connected health technologies. Health Evolution Partners stands out because of the firm's deep understanding of the health care industry and its proven ability to invest in innovative companies that are poised to play important roles in the future of health care."