This morning PerfectServe, a Tennessee-based medical communication and collaboration platform, announced two new acquisitions in the digital health space. The first is CareWire, which is a mobile patient communication platform. The second is Lightning Bolt Solutions, an artificial intelligence-run physician shift scheduling technology designed for hospital and healthcare system.
CareWire can enable texting between patients and providers, and allow the former to schedule appointments and connect to their healthcare portal. The platform takes into account social determinants of health and will send different messages depending on the patients social circumstances. The platform is also able to capture patient and provider interactions and send them to the provider’s EHR system, according to its website.
The other company being acquired, Lightning Bolt Solutions, has a digital focus as well. The platform employs AI to help health systems schedule physicians. The technology is able to consider recurring department meetings, physician preferences, on-call management, holiday distributions, residency schedule restrictions and recovery time after overnight shifts, according to its webpage.
Why it matters
PerfectServe said that the new acquisitions will help “the company’s strategy to unify the entire care team across the continuum, from inpatient, to outpatient, to patients at home.”
“[Clinical care and collaboration] is the cornerstone of our care team collaboration strategy. Adding Lightning Bolt and CareWire extends our ability to overcome barriers and workflow problems that have surrounded our core domain for years,” Terry Edwards, president and CEO of PerfectServe, said in a statement. “With fewer barriers, PerfectServe can better pursue its goal to help doctors, nurses and other care team members connect, communicate and collaborate more effectively by delivering timely and relevant information to the point of care.”
What's the trend
This isn’t PerfectServe’s first acquisition. In 2018 the company acquired Telmediq, a KLAS vendor for secure communication.
The company has been in the space for nearly two decades. While many companies have a specific focus, the clinical communication and collaboration space is actually well populated.
For example, another company focused on clinical communication is Medici, which has also seen its share of acquisitions. Most recently it acquired telemedicine company Chiron Health in January and DocbookMD in November.
On the record
“PerfectServe’s commitment to interoperability, outcomes and collaboration across the patient’s entire healthcare ecosystem is inspiring,” Suvas Vajracharya, founder and CEO of Lightning Bolt Solutions, said in a statement. “Empowering the PerfectServe and Telmediq solutions with our AI-driven physician workforce management capabilities will reduce the administrative burden of scheduling, further optimize communication workflows and increase the timeliness of patient care by improving access.”
