According to a recent article in Forbes, Practice Fusion, which hosts a free-to-doctors cloud-based EMR system, has raised $70 million in its fourth venture capital round to provide funding for its newest feature called Practice Fusion Insight, which leverages patient data on 64 million patients gathered from its 60,000 physician accounts by selling it in aggregated, anonymized form to healthcare and pharmaceutical companies. Practice fusion claims to have data on 75 million patients, 60 million of whom will be "active" in the current year, meaning they will visit their doctor and generate a little more data.
This latest round of financing means that they have many VC's who believe in them (to date, at least ten), but it also means that their ability to generate cash the old fashioned way--by earning it--is not yet strong enough to keep the company afloat. Practice Fusion's value-add for one side of its market--the physicians and labs--is its price tag: it's free. Hence, Insight and the other side of its two-sided market: pharmaceutical companies and others in the healthcare space who are eager to learn more about U.S. patients' prescription use, health conditions, test results, doctor visits, and the like. This is a major advantage over Epic, the country's largest EMR software provider. Practice Fusion's cloud-based model gives it access to terabytes of patient data collecting in doctors' accounts. The company also has an advantage over AthenaHealth, a cloud-based but not-free service that hosts 8,800 physicians. Practice Fusion also uses advertising to generate funds, $10 million in 2011, according to another Forbes article.
But it's not all about the money. Ryan Howard, CEO of Practice Fusion, believes Insight has altruism in its data-laden veins. Providing patient data to drug companies and others will improve patient care overall. According to Howard, "It’s the efficacy of the drugs. Does the drug actually work? What are the side effects? And it has comparative looks at how one drug competes against another."
This latest round of financing means that they have many VC's who believe in them (to date, at least ten), but it also means that their ability to generate cash the old fashioned way--by earning it--is not yet strong enough to keep the company afloat. Practice Fusion's value-add for one side of its market--the physicians and labs--is its price tag: it's free. Hence, Insight and the other side of its two-sided market: pharmaceutical companies and others in the healthcare space who are eager to learn more about U.S. patients' prescription use, health conditions, test results, doctor visits, and the like. This is a major advantage over Epic, the country's largest EMR software provider. Practice Fusion's cloud-based model gives it access to terabytes of patient data collecting in doctors' accounts. The company also has an advantage over AthenaHealth, a cloud-based but not-free service that hosts 8,800 physicians. Practice Fusion also uses advertising to generate funds, $10 million in 2011, according to another Forbes article.
But it's not all about the money. Ryan Howard, CEO of Practice Fusion, believes Insight has altruism in its data-laden veins. Providing patient data to drug companies and others will improve patient care overall. According to Howard, "It’s the efficacy of the drugs. Does the drug actually work? What are the side effects? And it has comparative looks at how one drug competes against another."
