Norwalk, Connecticut-based Zillion, which makes an cloud-based patient engagement platform, has raised $28 million in Series C fundraising in a round led by TwinFocus Capital Partners. The funding will be used expand Zillion’s customer base, increase sales and focus on marketing efforts.

Zillion’s digital engagement platform uses face-to-face live video conferencing – including one-on-one, group and webcast – along with interactive messaging, curriculum scheduling, alerts and reminders; plus digital workforce management, analytics, monitoring, and goal tracking.

“Engagement is the most over-used and under-delivered word in healthcare,” Zillion CEO and Chairman Jim Boyle said in a statement. “Despite widespread interest in digital health programs, telephonic outreach is still the norm – resulting in vast inefficiencies across the continuum of care. Zillion’s solution is all about providing a better way of communicating live and a more efficient vehicle to increase engagement, create social networks and virtualize content to deliver optimal patient care and achieve desired outcomes.”

Zillion works on three types of programs: preventive, such as weight loss or reaching those with prediabetes, chronic conditions like diabetes, and procedural, which includes prenatal, orthopedic or bariatric. Recently, the company announced two major partnerships with UnitedHealth Group’s Real Appeal program, which works with people living with diabetes, and endoscopic surgical product provider Apollo Endosurgery. Both are leveraging the platform to provide patients with real human interaction, educational sessions, group discussions and live coaching.

Zillion has an open API that allows clients to configure a customized digital care program, without putting pressure on healthcare providers to develop their own programs from the ground up.

“They want to focus on delivering better care, not building technology,” Bill Van Wyck, chief innovation officer of Zillion told MobiHealthNews. “We provide that technology, and it's variable and configurable whether you are a provider or payer. It works for whoever is delivering the services.”

On the patient side, Zillion simply requires one to download the app and follow along with one's care team, which Van Wyck said is critical for getting patients onboard with using the programs. 

“There’s a saying that the best technology is the technology you don’t see,” said Van Wyck. “Healthcare organizations have really been struggling to engage patients with older technologies, and we’re making it easier for them by using phased programs that are simultaneously flexible and versatile.”

Van Wyck likened the app to some of the simplest consumer-facing technology: downloading music.
“It’s almost like creating a play list, then delivering it song by song,” he said. “All they have to focus on is the content that’s being served.”