EnvoyHealth adds to its patient-support IT platform

EnvoyHealth, the independently operated subsidiary of leading specialty pharmacy, Diplomat, has added partnerships with two web-based services in the past month. Combined, the services promise to improve speed to therapy and adherence to drug regimens, in the near term, and a higher degree of patient satisfaction with therapy, especially in chronic conditions, in the longer term. Envoy itself is a patient hub, providing manufacturers a way to offer benefit verification, prior authorization and other patient support tasks to healthcare providers, and to patients directly. The latest partnership is with HelpAround, a “mobile concierge platform” that provides messaging capabilities between EnvoyHealth and patients, as well as community-building features for rare diseases (Envoy has an exclusive relationship with HelpAround in the rare disease space). Behind the mobile phone app are a variety of behavioral analysis resources, which enable the app to tailor interventions or interactions based on the patient’s experience. Another innovative feature is tools and resources for creating a community of patients around a disease and its therapy; HelpAround can work with patient advocacy groups to provide them the community-building platform, or with manufacturer sponsors (through Envoy) to create these communities. The community-building includes a patient matching service, so that newly diagnosed patients can interact with more experienced patients going through the same therapy; Yishai Knobel, HelpAround founder and CEO, likens it to “Tinder for healthcare,” drawing an analogy with that dating app.