Amwell, a digital care company that connects providers, payers and patients, announced that Hello Heart, a company focused on cardiac health management, has become a partner in its clinical programs portfolio accessible on the Amwell Converge platform.
The alliance allows Amwell health plan clients to give their employer accounts access to Hello Health cardiovascular’s platform. The platform can be offered to eligible members and employers who have conditions such as high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol and other cardiovascular risk factors.
The aim is to provide members easy access to the Hello Heart platform from the Amwell-powered offering that they are currently using.
Virtual primary care, urgent care, behavioral health and other clinical programs will be accessible to members.
Additionally, members who get onboard for the digital heart health program will get a connected BP monitor, as well as access to an app that provides individualized coaching and tracks vital metrics in order to help manage their cardiovascular health.
Dr. Ido Schoenberg, CEO of Amwell said in a statement that the company’s offering is dependable, safe and secure, with a proven track record of integrating and scaling effectively.
“It powers a large part of the U.S. healthcare ecosystem and facilitates the exchange of data and services across our client base to make care even more efficient and accessible. We are delighted to include Hello Heart as our latest portfolio partner, as the company seeks to provide healthcare organizations with digital and automated support that can prevent or reverse the health and financial burdens caused by heart disease,” Dr. Schoenberg said.
THE LARGER TREND
In April, Amwell received notice from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) that it was no longer in compliance with NYSE’s minimum stock price requirement. The listing criteria requires a company’s stock price to be over $1 for 30 consecutive days, at the time, Amwell was trading at $0.74 per share.
Amwell (NYSE: AMWL) is currently trading at around $9.54 per share, down from its high of $710.80 per share in 2020, at the height of the pandemic.
In March, Amplar Health, a group of health service providers under the Medibank umbrella, tapped Amwell to support the delivery of its preventative care programs.
At the time, Medibank was set to pilot a new lifestyle management program, which would see the application of Amwell’s technology.
In 2023, Amwell partnered with Health Gorilla to offer a new lab feature in its virtual care offering, Converge. Health Gorilla’s lab automation system, which permits providers to place lab testing orders, and to analyze diagnostic testing results, was integrated into Amwell’s Converge platform.
In 2022, Hello Heart secured $70 million in Series D funding in a round led by growth-equity firm Stripes. Among other participants were IVP, Resolute and BlueRun Ventures. The round came nearly a year after the then startup announced a $45 million Series C raise.
In 2021, a study published in JAMA Network Open revealed that Hello Heart’s digital self-management program using an app and a connected monitor, lowered blood pressure and maintained improvements for the long-term. The study that used Hello Heart devices was funded by the company.
In 2019, Hello Heart integrated with LifeScan OneTouch meters as part of its diabetes-management program. Hello Heart began as a company focused on hypertension, but expanded into the diabetes market. OneTouch meters are the first of several glucometer brands the company is supporting.
Other companies that are in the cardiac device monitoring space include Aktiia, which in June received CE mark in Europe for its calibration-free technology CALFREE, which allows blood pressure data to be collected by using inputs from optical sensors that are found in smartwatches and in the cameras of smartphones.
In 2023, Sky Labs, a South Korean health tech startup, got the approval of the South Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety for the blood pressure monitoring feature on its ring-type health monitoring device. CART-I Plus uses photoplethysmography (PPG), and sensor algorithms to measure and monitor blood pressure around the clock.
