Baylor Scott and White recently became customers of Xealth, a platform that allows physicians to prescribe anything from wheelchairs to Weight Watchers, according to Geek Wire. The Seattle startup recommends services such as insulin monitors or Lyft rides based on patient data and allows users to purchase them from a variety of vendors.
Xealth CEO is Mike McSherry, who had earlier success as CEO of texting technology Swype, and other investors include companies whose products services are included in the platform. Co-founder Aaron Sheedy also worked at Swype and with McSherry at Microsoft in the 1990s, according to Geek Wire. The technology has also partnered with Amazon, allowing doctors to prescribe products through the tech giant’s marketplace, rather than handing a photocopy of a recommended product or service.
The company is growing quickly, and is aligned with the move in the healthcare industry to address the social determinants of health and invest in preventative health. Baylor has already invested heavily in its community health workers program, which hopes to stave off hospital visits and bring down the cost of healthcare.
Other thought leaders are starting to think about how community organizations can team up to provide services to residents in order to provide more upstream health benefits, avoiding costly and often uncompensated hospital visits and benefitting all involved entities. Xealth may make it much easier for patients to obtain some of the equipment and services that can help their overall health costs down.
Read more about Xealth here.
