Wellness

Five-hospital MultiCare Health System has launched a virtual care service, enabling patients throughout the state to complete an online form detailing minor medical conditions and receive a treatment plan, if appropriate, from a clinician.

Commentary: An effort to organize four health systems into one Accountable Care Organization collaborative used advanced tools and analytics to stratify populations, track outcomes and improve care coordination. But initial efforts also exemplified the historical divide between the physical and behavioral healthcare delivery systems, which can result in siloed and suboptimal care.

While population health management initiatives are becoming more popular, many healthcare organizations are undertaking these efforts on their own without a population health vendor-provided IT solution, according to HIMSS Analytics.

2015 was another big year for digital health, with venture capital funding of companies surpassing $4.3 billion as of December. 8. That’s about the same VC level as 2014, according to Rock Health.