AI-enabled text-first virtual healthcare clinic Curai Health announced it partnered with healthcare system Tufts Medicine to expand access to virtual care in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. 

Curai Health offers a primary care team and AI-powered software that embeds into a provider's care delivery services. 

Its offerings include personalized primary care providers and urgent care services, referral management and network navigation, care programs and condition-management services, clinical workflow integration, prescription and lab ordering, and white-label care services.

Tufts Medicine will integrate Curai Health's offerings into its patient portal app, MyTuftsMed. The app allows patients to message their doctor, make appointments, view test results, manage their prescriptions and more. 

Through the partnership, patients can receive virtual care through MyTuftsMed powered by Curai or chat with a licensed clinician anytime, 24/7. Following the virtual visit, if a patient needs in-person care, they will be referred to physicians in the Tufts Medicine network. 

"With a shortage of primary care practitioners in Massachusetts, this partnership with Tufts Medicine is a great model for expanding access to care. We're integrating with a strong brick-and-mortar health system to offer a convenient, text-based virtual option for their patients," Neal Khosla, CEO of Curai Health, told MobiHealthNews in an email.

THE LARGER TREND

In 2020, Curai Health secured $27.5 million in Series B funding.

Last year, the digital primary care provider announced it would join Amazon Clinic's virtual healthcare marketplace to provide message-based care for individuals seeking care for UTIs, birth control, COVID-19 and other conditions. 

In February, the company announced it was expanding access to its services for individuals experiencing homelessness by collaborating with the street-based medical group Healthcare in Action. 

Healthcare in Action provides care services for behavioral health issues and substance use disorders, as well as housing navigation and care-management support.

Another direct primary care provider in the digital health space is Everside Health, which last year merged with employer health provider Marathon Health to offer primary care to patients, employees and union-sponsored clients using a value-based care model.