WELL Health receives approval for $44M digital project

WELL Health, a digital health company that integrates and updates clinical and digital assets, announced the approval of a $44 million project, Health Compass II, funded by the Canadian government and designed to continue enhancing AI and interoperability in healthcare.

The initiative aims to streamline administrative tasks, enhance clinical decision-making and improve patient outcomes by integrating four AI-driven modules into a mobile app for healthcare providers. 

The project intends to lower delivery costs and increase patient satisfaction within a two-year period.

WELL Health, which will serve as the lead commercialization partner on the project, will receive $15.3 million in funding from DIGITAL to support investments in R&D and commercialization. WELL will also provide its expertise to other consortium partners to help them develop new AU tools to enable healthcare providers and improve patient outcomes. 

The funding round is the largest DIGITAL project to date for Health Compass II, and DIGITAL will fund over one-third of all project costs over a four-year period.

Among the project’s components is: 

Decision Compass by HEALWELL AI, a clinical decision support module that identifies early diagnosis for rare and complex diseases.

Patient Compass by ORX, a patient-facing virtual agent module that improves patient engagement.

SMART Inbox by Phelix, an automation module that leverages AI to streamline administrative tasks and reduce manual administrative work.

Voice Assistant by Tali, an AI assistant that employs sensing technology to capture medically significant information from conversations.

“This is a monumental milestone and we are honored and grateful to DIGITAL and Minister Champagne’s office for their commitment to supporting healthcare innovation and responsible AI research,” Hamed Shahbazi, chief operating officer and founder of WELL, said in a statement. 

“At WELL, we are committed to leveraging technology to empower healthcare providers and reduce burnout by equipping them with responsible AI and other tools to assist in providing quality care and ultimately improve patient outcomes. Projects like Health Compass II directly support this mission and are essential in fuelling healthcare’s digital transformation.”

THE LARGER TREND

Earlier this month, WELL Health subsidiary OceanMD and HEALWELL subsidiary Intrahealth entered into a partnership to integrate OceanMD’s eReferral system across Intrahealth’s global network to enhance digital interoperability, streamline healthcare processes and improve patient access to care.

The collaboration enables Intrahealth to make OceanMD’s eReferral system, which currently supports 120,000 eReferrals and eConsults monthly, available to a broader range of healthcare facilities.

In 2021, WELL Health announced its plans to acquire Aware MD, the company that owns cardiology and disease specialties-focused EHR Cerebrum, for $4.5 million with a conditional earn-out based on operation performance of up to $3.5 million.

The same year, WELL Health Technologies invested in early-stage digital health companies after forming WELL Ventures. The investment firm is a wholly-owned subsidiary of WELL that focuses on backing startups creating practitioner enablement tools and technologies, especially those in Canada.

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