This week, digital health company Amalgam Rx announced it has acquired clinical-decision-support company Avhana Health for an undisclosed sum.

This will mark a new service for Amalgam Rx, which has been expanding its services since it was founded in 2016, and spans multiple facets of digital health, including patient support programs, digital therapies and combination products.

Avhana’s platform is designed to integrate into doctor’s workflows and make suggestions about patient care, including what to add to orders. In addition to traditional orders such as additional labs, the platform can also recommend digital solutions that can be prescribed along with the treatment of care.

“Why we are buying them is because we think the last mile in digital health has been making it easy for providers to know who and what to prescribe as it relates to digital, and do so in their workflow alongside the other orders that they are providing to the patient,” Chris Bergstrom, president of Amalgam Rx, told MobiHealthNews.  

WHY IT MATTERS

Amalgam Rx has been working to build up a digital health ecosystem that can scale. The company built a comprehensive platform that connects its three areas of focus. According to Chris, the goal is to have a frictionless platform that can connect a whole suite of software solutions.

This new purchase will now become a part of this the large company and present a new way of integrating digital into provider’s workflow.

“Amalgam is structured as a holding company, somewhat like Alphabet, with Google and other subsidiaries. So, we have Amalgam, and then we have all these subsidiaries underneath. Some of these subsidiaries are in partnership with other companies and some are stand-alone," Bergstrom said.

"So, this acquisition becomes a stand-alone subsidiary of Amalgam, but it’s going to be integrated with the platform and designed for the synergies across all of that.”

THE LARGER TREND

Amalgam Rx was started by WellDoc’s founders Ryan Sysko and Dr. Suzanne Clough. In 2017 it came up from stealth mode with an FDA clearance for iSage, and insulin-titration algorithm. Later that year the company launched an app called Beyond, which aims to help patients living with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis though stress management. Since 2017 the company has kept a relatively low profile. However, Bergstrom hinted to MobiHealthNews that more news is coming down the pipeline.

Avhana was found in 2014 and has been continuously focused on the clinical-decision-support space. In 2018, Avhana was named the winner of Health 2.0’s annual pitch competition.

ON THE RECORD

“EHR integration is the Holy Grail for digital health solutions, but it’s not only about data integration; workflow optimization is even more important. Providers, working at the nexus of digital health adoption and scaling, will only adopt tools that are safe, effective, and embedded in their workflow. The combination of Avhana and Amalgam will bring us closer to realizing digital health’s tremendous potential,” Ryan Sysko, chief executive officer of Amalgam Rx, said in a statement.