Why Build a Virtual Care Startup on Epic’s EMR? KeyCare Bets Health Systems Value an 'Epic Instance'

Why build a virtual care company on Epic’s EMR platform?? Don’t health tech venture investors prefer startups who develop their own proprietary tech? KeyCare – which is the first-ever virtual care company built-out entirely on Epic’s EMR – is betting that there is revenue to-be-generated from leaving the complex and expensive tech-build behind and instead “keying in” to the way health systems REALLY want to develop the virtual channel of their developing omnichannel care strategies.

KeyCare’s CEO Dr. Lyle Berkowitz (who spent 20+ years as a physician and exec at Northwestern Medicine and was also Chief Medical Officer at MDLive before its acquisition by Cigna) is here to explain the model, and how it not only plays-off of existing EMR tech that Epic has already built – and more than 60% of US health systems have already invested in – but how it does so to integrate virtual care into the referral patterns healthcare systems already use for urgent care, primary care, and other high-volume, low-margin “routine, repeatable, rules-based care.”

The key difference here is that the health system connects to KeyCare for virtual care by way of its Epic EMR, hooking into KeyCare’s Epic Instance for the seamless Epic-to-Epic transfer of patient data, appointment data, prescriptions, etc. Why is this so sexy to health systems? No tech build-out, seamless data transfer, cross instance scheduling and messaging capabilities that are already there, no fighting over who owns the patient relationship, and, best of all, says Lyle, a way for health systems to easily offer virtual care for the “bottom of the population health pyramid” that is usually a low-margin-but-necessary business for health systems that ultimately help it win high-margin, complex care when the patient needs it.

KeyCare has raised $27M to build-out its “asset light” model of “virtualists” and Lyle explains why the model is more defensible than it might seem. Why wouldn’t Epic just do this themselves? How is this better than what Wheel or Amwell currently offer? And, for digital health startups who have niche specialty care offerings (think telehealth for GI, maternity care or lactation support, behavioral health, etc.) how does KeyCare plan to bring them in to meet even more needs for its health system client base? Tune in to find out!

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Jessica DaMassa, the emerging ‘It girl’ of health tech interviewing, chats it up with the ‘who’s who’ of the health tech and healthcare innovation set on 'WTF Health - What's the Future, Health?' Catch 100's of interviews with leading health tech startups and the VC investors, health insurance companies, big pharma co's, and hospital systems helping bring their new ideas into the healthcare establishment. From AI and Big Data to digital health, virtual care, telehealth, digital therapeutics, payment model innovation, and investing, Jessica helps you spot the trends and figure out what’s next.

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