On Monday, telehealth company American Well announced that it will be acquiring fellow telemedicine company Avizia in late Q2 for an undisclosed sum. 

The deal is expected to help American Well grow its acute care capabilities, which Avizia specializes in. The deal will give American Well access to Avizia’s hospital-based cart lineup and custom software workflows for over 40 clinical specialties, such as telestroke and telebehavioral health services.

“I think, candidly, health systems want to expand telehealth and what we bring for them is a complete solution,” Mike Baird, CEO of Avizia, told MobiHealthNews. 

Being able to provide acute care and outpatient services, also means that American Well will be able to offer a combined workflow to payers and providers. It will also allow clients to go to a single platform for multiple services. 

“During the last few years, we have been watching Avizia closely… and we really believe that the DNA, the culture, and the mission of the organizations are similar,” Dr. Ido Schoenberg told MobiHealthNews. “We also believe we offer this [platform] to a strong joint client base.”

Telehealth used to be seen as an urgent care offering for minor conditions, the CEOs said. But that is changing, patients and providers want to use the service to access more specialty services, Schoenberg said.

Avizia was founded in 2013 and spun out of Cisco. The company has since raised $20 million in funding and is backed by HealthQuest, Northwell Health, New York-Presbyterian, and other healthcare organizations. Today, it powers more than 1,300 hospital deployments in more than 38 countries. 

Last year, Avizia announced it acquired Seattle-based virtual care provider Carena. The acquisition was expected to help strengthen Avizia’s position as a system-wide telehealth partner for US healthcare systems. 

“Avizia has always sought to help providers be confident they’re giving patients the best access to the best care, regardless of location,” Baird said in a statement. “As part of American Well, we can expand this vision. Together, we will offer a truly best-in-class, enterprise telehealth platform – for urgent care, chronic disease management, acute care, and post-acute care. We will empower providers and patients to experience next-generation care at the leading healthcare institutions in the world.”

A high-profile name in the telemedicine space, American Well has been around since 2006. The Boston-based telemedicine business has been making deals recently with companies including Samsung and Medtronic. 

At HIMSS18, Schoenberg said the company has been laying the groundwork to pull back from video visits and establish itself more broadly as a connector technology that will help various stakeholders in healthcare work together remotely. Schoenberg said the company’s goal is to be as ubiquitous and invisible as Oracle, connecting hospitals, insurers, employers, and consumer-facing tech companies like Apple and Samsung, all for the purpose of delivering healthcare anywhere.

“American Well helps providers treat patients who are not in the room. We do that by effectively connecting the four key players in the ecosystem: consumers, providers, payers and innovators,” Schoenberg said in a statement. “We share Avizia’s passion and relentless commitment to enabling better care anywhere. Their team has built world-class solutions that complement ours perfectly. Our merger will allow us to create the most comprehensive solution for our clients: an exceptional, singular, end-to-end offering.” 

Twitter: @lauralovett7
Email the writer: laura.lovett@himssmedia.com