Telemedicine company American Well and health technology company Royal Philips anounced back in January that they would partner to integrate American Well's virtual care capabilites into Philips' consumer and professional digital health products. Now the first fruits of that partnership are launching in the form of a telemedicine feature built into the Philips Avent uGrow application for parents of young children.
"At Philips, our mission is to make life better and easier for parents and their babies through meaningful innovations," Brenda Kapner, marketing director at Philips, said in a statement. "We listened to what parents needed and evolved our uGrow parenting app to provide them with peace of mind knowing that they now have around-the-clock video access to healthcare providers with a touch of a button, from the comfort of their own home."
Launched originally in 2016, uGrow is Philips' digital parenting platform, which features a pregnancy and infant-tracking app that connects with a range of smart baby products including the Philips Avent Smart Baby monitor. Parents can use the app to track infants' sleeping and eating habits, height and weight, and development milestones. They can also receive tailored educational content in the app about their child's development.
With the new feature, app users in the US will be able to access video visits with medical professionals including pediatricians, lactation consultants, and mental health professionals 24-7 through an American Well feature within the app. The telemedicine visits aren't free, but can be paid through insurance in many cases, and out of pocket in others.
"We’re excited to participate in expanding and enhancing Philips’ best-in-class product line,” Dr. Ido Schoenberg, chairman and CEO of American Well, said in a statement back in January. “Philips brings great consumer professional devices and programs, coupled with powerful analytics. With the addition of telehealth, they can now offer everything from data collection to care provision and clinical intervention. Together we are helping providers and payers improve their care model by using a broader and more accurate data set, which will be analyzed more quickly to effectively close the loop with patients.”
This is just the first integration of the partnership, which will also involve incorporating Philips' HealthSuite digital platform into American Well visits and adding Philips to American Well's clinical services marketplace, Exchange.
