Digital health content and services provider WebMD announced it has acquired technology and data analytics company Mercury Healthcare from private equity firm Vestar Capital Partners for an undisclosed sum.

Through the deal, Mercury will join WebMD Provider, the company’s business focused on consumer-physician engagement and clinical education. Mercury's analytics solutions are geared towards giving health systems the ability to analyze, target and communicate meaningful information to the targeted patient, while simultaneously offering transparency and performance data to the provider.

The company also offers services that aim to improve patient-retention strategies, patient-engagement solutions, including a library of pre-built connectors and APIs, and data analytics solutions with tiered data layering and predictive models.

"The addition of Mercury Healthcare accelerates our mission to inform every decision point along the patient's journey, from discovery to recovery," Ann Bilyew, health and group general manager of WebMD Provider Services, said in a statement.

She called the acquisition of Mercury, “a major investment in” WebMD’s continuing strategy to empower clients with the best data, content, technology and services.

"The merging of these two industry leaders will empower every health system with the solutions needed to ensure each and every patient receives the care they need when and how they need it," Bilyew continued.

WHY IT MATTERS

The pandemic has brought about major changes in the relationship between consumers and their healthcare providers, according to a recent interview on HIMSS TV with Kyruus' Scott Andrews and HealthSparq's Harlan Edlin.

As patient care channels become more fragmented, it is vital that coordination in patient-provider communications become more integrated.

THE LARGER TREND

The deal follows WebMD’s acquisition of Wellness Network last July, which created educational resources and engagement tools for patients, and included a library of videos and printable resources called HealthClips that touch on 24 therapeutic areas.

In February WellSky announced plans to acquire patient-engagement tool TapCloud, a patient-facing app that lets users communicate with clinicians and report symptoms,

On the clinical side, providers can access information about patient-reported outcomes. The EHR-agnostic technology also allows doctors to communicate with patients.