Xealth, a startup that helps doctors to prescribe digital health apps, announced this morning that it has closed an $11 million in Series A funding round. Backers new to the startup include McKesson Ventures, Novartis, Philips and ResMed, with prior investors Threshold Ventures, Providence Ventures, UPMC and Medical College of Wisconsin Health Network affiliate Froedtert returning as well.

WHAT THEY DO

Xealth’s digital health prescription platform allows physicians to prescribe a wide variety of apps or other digital health tools to their patients, as well as monitor patients’ engagement or progress. And, because the platform integrates with the provider’s wider IT system, patients and clinicians alike are are able to access these tools within their respective patient portals and EHR workflows.

Xealth spun out of Providence-St. Joseph Health’s digital innovation group in 2017 after raising $8.5 million from investors.

WHAT IT’S FOR

According to a statement from the company and CEO Mike McSherry, Xealth will primarily be using its latest investment to continue building out the platform.

“This funding comes at a great time as we further develop technology to meet the evolving digital health market, which is exploding,” Xealth CEO Mike McSherry told MobiHealthNews in an email statement. “We are seeing advancements from device monitoring and connected devices to companion apps that come with a traditional therapeutic, all which need to be easy for doctors to order, easy for patients to receive, and offer analytics to show what is working. We continue to expand in terms of technology capabilities, health systems using our platform and breadth of integrated vendors — simplifying the incorporation of digital health tools in care plans.”

MARKET SNAPSHOT

Plenty of work on patient app prescription platforms has so far come out of Mount Sinai, which in 2016 launched its system-wide RxUniverse platform of curated health apps. A few years later, spinoff Rx.Health raised $1.8 million in seed funding for RxUniverse and other digital patient engagement tools.

ON THE RECORD

“Xealth delivers a win for both patients and clinicians, while driving digital engagement with patients,” Aaron Martin, chief digital officer at Providence St. Joseph Health, said in a statement. “Clinicians can recommend apps, content, products or services directly from the EMR — dramatically expanding their tool set for improving patient care and engaging patients digitally.”