Health Care System Launches Digital Health Program with Virtual Care Platform

Banner Health

Banner Health, one of the country’s largest nonprofit health care systems, today announced the launch of its digital health program with Xealth, the leader in enabling digital health at scale, as the deployment platform. Rolling out this platform system-wide, Banner’s 30 acute-care hospitals and other entities can access digital solutions, beginning with Babyscripts, a leading virtual care platform for managing obstetrics.

Digital therapeutics and remote patient monitoring help fill a necessary role in extending care options for patients, and integration into clinician workflow is essential for success. Integrating with Banner Health’s Cerner electronic health record (EHR), Xealth supports care teams to personalize the ordering of digital solutions with one click to help elevate the patient care experience. Hospitals and providers also gain insight into how each tool is performing with patients.

“Banner Health’s mission is to make healthcare easier so life can be better,” said Jeff Johnson, vice president of innovation and digital health for Banner Health. “Our implementation of Xealth with Cerner is a vital solution for connecting our clinical care teams with their patients outside the four walls of care. By enabling ‘digital prescriptions,’ starting with Babyscripts, we are innovating in a way that helps contribute to Banner’s purpose to create a new model of care.”

Available to obstetricians and family practitioners system-wide, Babyscripts facilitates remote monitoring, delivering flexibility to prenatal visits and the ability to advise pregnant patients remotely, when possible. Patients can share biometrics, like weight and blood pressure data, directly with care providers through their EHR.

“Delivering virtual care can help improve access and helps expecting mothers receive the prenatal care they need,” said Anish Sebastian, co-founder and CEO of Babyscripts. “Integrating Babyscripts with Xealth helps reduce steps for the provider, freeing them to do their most important work, caring for their patients.”

Integrating Babyscripts via Xealth helps accelerate the rollout of the virtual maternity care plan and gives clinical care teams new insight into patients’ program enrollment and engagement. Xealth also facilitates patient enrollment – reducing adoption hurdles and giving back time to patients and providers.

“Care delivery has faced tremendous challenges during the past year that have accelerated physician burnout and patients seeking more flexibility,” said Mike McSherry, CEO and co-founder of Xealth. “We help health systems like Banner Health incorporate digital health in ways that empower both providers and patients to create a personalized care experience that is delivered through the clinical care team’s current workflow. This helps improve adoption and deepens the connection between patients and clinical care teams.”

The Xealth platform is designed to help clinicians integrate, prescribe and monitor digital health tools for patients from one location in the EHR. In addition to maternity care, Banner Health clinical care teams will soon be able to order additional resources related to chronic conditions and behavioral health, from the Cerner EHR. This builds on Cerner’s long-term relationship with Banner Health and a collaboration announced with Xealth in 2020.

Headquartered in Arizona, Banner Health is one of the largest nonprofit health care systems in the country. The system owns and operates 30 acute-care hospitals, two rehabilitation hospitals, Banner Health Network, Banner – University Medicine, academic and employed physician groups, long-term care centers, outpatient surgery centers and an array of other services; including Banner Urgent Care, family clinics, home care and hospice services, pharmacies and a nursing registry. Banner Health is in six states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada and Wyoming.

Xealth scales digital health programs, enabling clinicians to integrate, prescribe and monitor digital health tools for patients to drive engagement and utilization. Through the secure Xealth platform, clinicians can find and order the right digital health tools and programs for patients direct from the EHR workflow, send these digital health orders to the patient’s email or patient portal, and then monitor activity. Xealth spun out of Providence St. Joseph Health (PSJH) in 2017, and investors include Atrium Health, Cleveland Clinic, MemorialCare Innovation Fund, Cerner, McKesson Ventures, Novartis, Philips, and ResMed as well as Providence Ventures, UPMC and the Froedtert and Medical College of Wisconsin Health Network.

Babyscripts is a company delivering a new model for prenatal and postpartum care that is transforming the way expectant mothers use technology to work with their healthcare providers. We’ve spent the last six years delivering the most-implemented mobile clinical solution for remote monitoring in pregnancy, with the mission to eliminate maternal mortality and improve access for all mothers.

Cerner’s health technologies connect people and information systems at thousands of contracted provider facilities worldwide dedicated to creating smarter and better care for individuals and communities. Recognized globally for innovation, Cerner assists clinicians in making care decisions and assists organizations in managing the health of their populations. The company also offers an integrated clinical and financial system to help manage day-to-day revenue functions, as well as a wide range of services to support clinical, financial and operational needs, focused on people.

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