Definitive Healthcare Acquires PatientFinder, Eyes Life Sciences

Nearly a year to the day after acquiring a portion of HIMSS Analytics, data analytics and business intelligence company Definitive Healthcare has announced the acquisition of software analytics firm PatientFinder.

The move further strengthens the acquiring company's market position as well as expands its business into the life sciences as the healthcare industry works to streamline care delivery with an eye toward improving patient outcomes and reducing costs.

“We've developed the single source of truth of data assets for healthcare providers. We have the best data; we have the broadest data, the most analytics. We're constantly trying to find ways to either enhance that data set,” Jason Krantz, founder and CEO, told HealthITAnalytics.

“With HIMSS Analytics, we got access to technology infrastructure that is best in class. PatientFinder will sit on top of our data platform and allow us to analyze in a way that nobody has done before.”

According to Krantz, Definitive Healthcare became interested in PatientFinder as a result of doing business with the same clients.

“We came across this company because we have a couple of joint clients, and they were putting our data into patient finder in order to supercharge the data,” he explained. “We determined together that it would make a lot of sense to integrate this fully onto our dataset to allow our clients to identify provider opportunities and grow their businesses more quickly. It's a pretty good fit from adding on a new analytical tool.”

The strength of PatientFinder is in its ability to create customizable patient cohorts by analyzing diagnosis and treatment history and matching that data with the physicians and facilities who provide care to those populations.

That linking of data is crucial to the success of the technology, Krantz stressed.

“What's unique about our approach to data acquisition is that the data set instantly becomes more valuable when you linked back to the best in class reference data that we have,” he said.

Case in point: The 3 billion commercial claims covering approximately 247 million patients now in the Definitive Healthcare database.

“That data on its own is very valuable, but when you link it into our dataset of all of the providers and the information we have about them, now you can understand that claims data in the context of the overall healthcare ecosystem,” Krantz continued. “Because many of these data sets stand alone, you don't get that context.”                   

The addition of PatientFinder to the stable should have broad appeal, though the implications for life sciences are most salient.

“Life sciences is certainly a big target market for this across both biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, but the medical device sector is also a fantastic potential client. Providers will be very excited about this, as will staffing and consulting firms that we work,” added Krantz.

With the official announcement earlier this work, the new capabilities are available to end users.

“We are trying to be the platform that allows a life sciences or technology companies to commercialize their products much more effectively,” Krantz stated. “If we can find additional information that tells them more about their clients, the issues their clients are having, and how their products and services can help those clients, that's what gets us really excited.”

And it's the first in a number of updates, Krantz mentioned, to roll out on the Definitive Healthcare platform this year.  One will target revenue leakage to assist healthcare organizations working in value-based care and quality improvement. Another is aimed at life sciences and medical device companies looking to evaluate the size of markets and determine the appropriate allocation of resources to product development.

In less than eight years, the data analytics and business intelligence company has undergone tremendous growth, earning recognition from Inc. Magazine and Deloitte as well as the Boston Business Journal. With more than 2,200 clients, the challenge for Definitive Healthcare remains adhering to a technical approach that allows for the incorporation of new and emerging data sets.

“We took the approach eight years ago when we started that we are going to be the platform of all data with respect to healthcare providers. We built a highly scalable technology platform that allows us to quickly bolt on new datasets and put new analytics on top of this data far more quickly than other people out there,” said Krantz.

“The fact that we have the universe of providers allows us to do that much more easily than if you're trying to combine certain data sets that don't really have a platform to latch onto. So, it is a ton of work, but we've invested a tremendous amount to allow us to continue to innovate quickly, either organically or through acquisitions like this.”

The MetroWest Daily News reports that PatientFinder’s six employees will join Definitive Healthcare, with the former’s CEO Dave Thornton assuming the role of senior vice president of innovation at the latter.