A UO healthcare startup launched to improve patient health outcomes has been acquired by Phreesia, a public company that automates and manages patient admissions.
Insignia Health uses a copyrighted and trademarked tool known as the Patient Activation Measure, developed by a team of researchers led by UO Professor Emeritus Judith Hibbard. The research was part of Hibbard’s decades-long work to bring patient needs and engagement to the forefront of health care.
Applying patient activation measurement results has been shown to directly contribute to improved health outcomes and reduced healthcare costs for patients, said Chris Delaney, CEO and Co-Founder from Insignia Health.
“When we first created PAM, we wanted to provide clinicians with a tool to quickly and easily understand a patient’s ability to self-manage their healthcare, so they can individualize their approach and better engage its patients through tailored incremental changes,” said Hibbard, a member of the School of Planning, Public Policy and Management and a faculty member of UO’s Health Policy Research Group.
“When increases in the PAM score are used as a measure of high-quality care, as some delivery systems currently do, it fundamentally changes the way care is delivered,” she said. “It is very exciting to have the opportunity to implement measurement and associated intervention approaches on a scale that we had always hoped for.”
Hibbard will continue to play an advisory role to Phreesia.
The healthcare software company said it acquired Insignia Health to better enable patients to be more active participants in their healthcare. The company highlighted Insignia’s reputation and success in its announcement of the sale.
“The patient activation measure is widely considered the gold standard for patient activation measures, supported by more than 700 peer-reviewed studies published in leading health journals over the past 17 years,” said explained Phreesia in a press release.
In addition to being validated by so much research, the patient activation measure has also been used by institutions such as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in the United States and the National Health Service in Great Britain. .
“The University of Oregon encouraged the development of PAM and began collaborating with researchers around the world to build evidence for this important measure and the health activation model it anchors,” said said Delaney, CEO of Insignia Health. “Today, PAM is the global standard for measuring a patient’s ability to self-manage and, importantly, for using this new vital sign to improve patient care. We are grateful to UO for trusting Insignia Health for being the steward of PAM on this journey.”
Insignia Health received a grant from the University Venture Development Fund, which provides Oregon resident donors with a state tax credit for their contributions. Their investments help scientific discoveries at UO become commercially viable.
Chuck Williams, OU associate vice president for research and innovation, said he expects to see more success stories like Insignia’s as the Phil and Penny Knight campus for the Accelerating Science Impact and other OU units are emphasizing biotechnology and launching startups in coordination with the OU Innovation Initiative. .
“Professor Hibbard is an example of one of the female innovators and entrepreneurs on faculty at UO, whom we hope to grow through the Women’s Innovation Network,” he said. “Phreesia’s acquisition of Insignia Health and patient activation metric demonstrates the value of the contributions of OU professors like Judith Hibbard in innovating new ways to help people, in this case by empowering patients to take control of their medical care,” said Cass Moseley, interim vice president for research and innovation.
—By Emily Halnon, University Communications
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