(Bloomberg) — Outcome Health, a Chicago-based health care technology company, said it had raised $500 million in its first round of funding, valuing the company at more than $5 billion.
The unusually large initial funding round — chief executive Rishi Shah joked it was his "seed" round — will let Outcome make its own investments in promising health care startups that complement its technology. And it will help Outcome expand its network, which gives doctors and patients information they use during office visits to make treatment decisions. The company offers one service, for example, that gives patients health information while they're sitting in a physician's waiting room. Other systems help physicians explain care options to the patients.
Annual health care spending in the U.S., at more than $3 trillion in 2015, accounts for 18% of the economy, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Outcome provides data that tries to maximize the time doctors and patients spend interacting with the goal of improving results, for example, by getting patients to stick to medical routines such as taking medicine.
The software is generally free to medical providers. Outcome bills other health care participants such as insurance providers and drugmakers for services that use the aggregated, anonymous information Outcome gathers about patients. For example, Outcome can help drugmakers find potential subjects for clinical trials.
