Alliance Health Networks Acquires Medify

Alliance Health Networks, the leading social networking company serving consumers and the healthcare industry, announced that it has acquired Medify, a leading provider of data-driven treatment information, to offer patients and caregivers the industry's most comprehensive social engagement platform.

Alliance Health will integrate Medify's unique treatment insights across the company's growing portfolio of social health networks - some 50 condition-specific sites that serve more than 1.5 million registered users. Likewise, Medify will integrate user-generated content from Alliance Health properties into its products. Medify.com will also remain a standalone website, providing aggregated research generated by its award-winning data analytics and knowledge extraction platform to help consumers and health care providers search and compare information across every health condition, treatment and drug.

Since its founding in 2010, Medify has raised venture capital from Voyager Capital and several leading angel investors. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Medify co-founders Derek Streat (CEO) and Jay Bartot (CTO) will join the Alliance Health leadership team as senior vice presidents, bringing deep expertise in business and technology development to help scale the company's social engagement platform.

"As social networks continue to transform industries and change the way people live, Alliance Health remains focused on empowering people to successfully navigate their personal health journey, free and independent of the healthcare system," said Stead Burwell, CEO of Alliance Health. "The acquisition of Medify brings us two critical elements - powerful data analytics technologies and an extremely accomplished team - which reinforce our status as the industry's most robust social engagement platform.
Combined, we will be in the best position to help consumers make smart health care decisions by providing a unique combination of relevant knowledge and tools for every drug, treatment and condition."

Medify's patent-pending technology mines more than 20 million studies of real patient experiences from disparate data sources, including research studies from researchers, doctors and other medical professionals, and presents them on an easy-to-navigate website. An additional 5,000 new studies are added to the site each day.

As the state of healthcare continues to evolve, transparency becomes an increasingly important factor for consumers striving to manage their patient experience. Through the Medify acquisition, Alliance Health will be able to offer more comprehensive access to relevant health information across all of its properties, including Medify.com, to aid consumers as they make important health decisions, including the ability to:
 

• View treatment details
• Compare side effects
• View the latest research on specific conditions
• Share personal findings and experiences
• Start evidence-based discussions
• View rankings of experts

"We could not be happier about the opportunities this new relationship brings," said Streat. "We are so like-minded in our commitment to transforming healthcare through social networking and data analytics that it's made joining forces a natural fit. I look forward to working with the Alliance Health team to integrate our products, capabilities and knowledge in order to bring people together and give them access to the tools and support they need to best navigate their health journey."  
(5.17.12)