Hearst Corporation subsidiary Hearst Health Ventures, a corporate venture fund, announced an undisclosed investment in Tonic Health, a company that develops medical data collection platforms, yesterday. As part of the investment, Hearst Health Ventures Managing Director Ellen Koskinas will join the Tonic Health Board of Directors.

“With Hearst Health Ventures, we are looking for innovative investments that deepen our insight into information-driven solutions that have the potential to improve healthcare quality and efficiency,” Hearst Corporation CEO Steven Swartz said in a statement. “We are pleased with the opportunity to work with Tonic Health and learn more about effective patient engagement.”

Tonic Health helps patients complete surveys that physicians can build and customize on the platform. The company's product has been deployed at health systems such as Partners HealthCare and UCLA Health. The company said they have redesigned the data collection process so that it is interactive, intuitive and simple. Tonic Health's surveys have been tested with different audiences including lower income and lower education audiences who many not have used an iPad before. The system is also capable of tying into a hospital's existing backend.

A month ago, Tonic Health partnered with Welltok as part of a program, called CafeWell Connect, to link technology with disease management and wellness programs.

Hearst Corporation created Hearst Health just one month ago to give the company a "consolidated presence" across the clinical, pharmacy, home and hospice care, and health insurance markets. This new brand consists of Hearst Health Ventures and the Hearst Health Innovation Lab. The company's first investment since its conception was in CareInSync, which raised its last round in August from Samsung Venture Investment Corporation.