WELL expands virtual care, acquires CognisantMD

VANCOUVER – WELL Health Technologies, a company focused on positively impacting health outcomes by leveraging technology to empower healthcare practitioners and their patients globally, is pleased to announce the acquisition of CognisantMD. CognisantMD’s Ocean platform includes a full suite of virtual patient engagement tools, including online appointment booking, secure messaging, appointment reminders, and digital forms as well as in-clinic check-in kiosks and tablets.

Each month, Canadians complete over 800,000 patient engagements with their healthcare providers using Ocean’s digital tools. Ocean has built unparalleled interoperability, with integrations into over 18 EMRs, EHRs, and provincial healthcare assets and third-party technology platforms using industry-leading open standards including HL7 FHIR5.

Ocean’s interoperability is highly strategic for government initiatives, as evidenced by their platform powering eReferrals for the province of Ontario’s eServices Program. The platform supports over 8,000 physicians, and approximately 35,000 referrals and consults are sent electronically through the platform monthly. Ocean’s eReferral system has resulted in reduced wait times, a 12% reduction in unnecessary MRIs, and has a 97% patient satisfaction rate. Ontario’s reduced wait times, improved patient outcomes, and cost efficiencies has attracted attention from new provinces, with Ocean recently launching a Proof of Concept for eConsult with the Nova Scotia Health Authority (NSHA), with the aim to add further provinces in the future.

Ocean has established deep integrations and long-standing partnerships with all the major EMR systems in Canada, including OSCAR Pro on apps.health. Post transaction, CognisantMD will prioritize increasingly advanced integrations with its ecosystem of reseller partners to market and sell the integrated suite of Ocean solutions across Canada. Together, Ocean & WELL also plan to build integrations into other EMR assets, including Intrahealth & Cerebrum, creating a sizeable addressable market of new physicians for Ocean’s suite of services. In addition, WELL will look to benefit from the suite of Ocean products across its substantial clinical and specialty businesses.

WELL’s chief operating officer Amir Javidan (pictured) commented, “WELL has been impressed with CognisantMD and its leadership from the very beginning of our journey together. Watching CognisantMD develop from an app partner to the progression of joining the WELL family as a tuck-in acquisition shows the power of WELL’s platform and industry connectivity. With Ocean now powering the Provider Network platform of two provinces, we believe they are well positioned as the category leader for eReferral and eConsult purposes across Canada. A suite of best-in-class engagement tools and eReferral connectivity from primary to specialty and acute care are key areas of focus for our practitioner enablement platform, and we are excited to get CognisantMD further integrated into the WELL ecosystem in the coming months.”

Dr. Doug Kavanagh, medical director of CognisantMD also commented, “Over the past few years, clinicians across Canada have embraced the Ocean Platform as an integral part of clinical workflows from their EMR. We’re excited to join forces with WELL as we continue to pursue our shared goal of improving outcomes for patients by providing clinicians with technology that helps to improve the efficiency, reliability, and accuracy of healthcare records.”

“We look forward to being a part of the larger WELL Health ecosystem, allowing us to leverage the management, capital allocation and shared services expertise of WELL while continuing to expand and serve patients and providers, who are universally demanding better health data interoperability,” commented Jeff Kavanagh, president and CEO, CognisantMD. “With the resources of the WELL organization, we see huge potential for the Ocean platform not just in Canada but outside as well; really we’re just getting started.”

CognisantMD will operate as a stand-alone business within the WELL Digital App Business Unit and will be operated by its current president and medical director.

About WELL Health Technologies
WELL is a technology enabled healthcare company whose overarching objective is to positively impact health outcomes to empower and support healthcare practitioners and their patients. WELL has built an innovative practitioner enablement platform that includes comprehensive end to end practice management tools inclusive of virtual care and digital patient engagement capabilities as well as Electronic Medical Records (EMR), Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) and data protection services. WELL uses this platform to power healthcare practitioners both inside and outside of WELL’s own omni-channel patient services offerings. WELL owns and operates Canada’s largest network of outpatient medical clinics serving primary and specialized healthcare services and is the provider of a leading multi-national multi-disciplinary telehealth offering. To learn more about the company, please visit www.well.company.