Wash. system launching $150M venture capital fund
Providence Health & Services is launching a $150 million venture capital fund to help spur innovation across the healthcare system that lowers costs and leads to better outcomes.
Providence Ventures plans to invest the money over five to seven years, specifically targeting early-to-mid stage companies focused on six core areas: online primary care access, care coordination and patient engagement, chronic disease management, clinician experience, data analytics and consumer health and wellness, according to the announcement.
The new fund will be led by Aaron Martin, senior vice president of strategy and innovation. Martin joined Providence from Amazon in early 2014.
The not-for-profit health system, which operates 34 hospitals and 475 physician clinics, also is creating its own internal Digital Innovation Group that will support startups and mid-stage companies the VC fund identifies. The group will build technology and support collaborations with the companies, developing “a consistent customer-and clinician-facing experience and innovate in areas where there are gaps in the technology marketplace.”
“We are marrying the cultures of software innovation with healthcare delivery to create big ideas, build them using small-batch innovations and learn quickly in a rigorous, data-driven way,” Martin said in a statement. “Traditionally, collaborating with healthcare providers around digital technology has been difficult. We aim to change that by building a technical infrastructure and team that will make it easier for early-stage technology companies to collaborate with us so that we can improve healthcare delivery faster.”
The health system and its affiliates employ more than 74,000 people across five states--Alaska, California, Montana, Oregon and Washington.
Editor
Editor Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in health communication. She has worked in hospital, academic and publishing settings over the past 20 years. Beth joined TriMed in 2005, as editor of CMIO and Clinical Innovation + Technology. When not covering all things related to health IT, she spends time with her husband and three children.