Virtual primary care company TytoCare announced an exclusive partnership with Idaho-based St. Luke's Health System to provide virtual care services to the care provider's members and employees beginning in 2024. 

The Israeli health tech company provides virtual care via its AI-enabled TytoCare Home Smart Clinic, which allows clinicians to conduct exams remotely. 

Providers obtain real-time data from patients at home using Tyto's connected device, which gathers readings from its otoscope, tongue depressor, thermometer and FDA-cleared stethoscope, which analyzes lung sounds for wheeze detection.

St. Luke's members will have access to TytoCare's offerings, including on-demand virtual visits, which are covered with a $0 copay, and the health provider's employees can utilize Tyto's Home Smart Clinic to deliver tech-enabled virtual care-exam visits. 

"St. Luke’s is excited to partner with TytoCare to increase access by providing more care from home. As we remain true to our commitment of supporting employee well-being, we have chosen to offer TytoHome kits to our employee population first," Erin Simms, vice president of human resources for St. Luke’s, said in a statement. 

"There is no better way to learn and evolve before potentially extending this service to patients than to start with those that are committed to making St. Luke’s better every day."

THE LARGER TREND

In August, the virtual home care company announced that it had scored an additional $49 million in funding, which it said it would use to explore AI use cases in diagnostic support and remote exams, with a focus on its Home Smart Clinic's care capabilities. 

The company raised $50 million in a Series D round in 2021. A year earlier, it scored $50 million in an oversubscribed round.

In March, TytoCare received FDA clearance for its clinical decision-support software, Tyto Insights for Wheeze Detection, which uses the company's stethoscope to evaluate lung sounds and identify recordings that suggest wheezing in adults and children ages two and older. The same software received a European CE Mark last year. 

Several other companies are in the virtual primary care space, including Amazon's hybrid primary care provider, One Medical, Best Buy's home care and remote patient monitoring platform Current Health, and CVS Health's Medicare-focused primary care provider Oak Street Health.