Several blue-chip healthcare companies, including payers, have announced $50 million in seed funding to blockchain startup Avaneer Health for secure data exchange.
- Founding participants: The founding network participants, who have extended the new funding, comprise Aetna, Anthem, Cleveland Clinic, Health Care Service Corporation, PNC Financial, and Sentara Healthcare, according to Avaneer Health.
- Data access: Using HL7’s FHIR specification, the blockchain network offers data access across healthcare players. Its prime focus is on payer-to-payer give and take of data. According to officials, Avaneer Health will utilize the funding to further boost its technology.
- Secure network: “Together, we’re changing the paradigm of healthcare data flows with a secure network empowered by blockchain, FHIR, and other leading technologies,” said Tim Skeen, Sentara’s CIO and co-chair of Avaneer Health’s board of directors. “To achieve truly frictionless and seamless care, healthcare needs greater transparency and ease of navigation for all parties involved, particularly as we move toward greater adoption of value-based care,” he added.
- Data fluidity: Stuart Hanson, founding CEO of Avaneer Health said, “Addressing administrative costs and creating a positive consumer experience requires connectivity and the type of data fluidity we have come to expect in other industries.”
- Additional growth: “We are very excited to jumpstart our network to enable healthcare organizations to work together with a foundation of trust to solve the ‘last mile’ problem in healthcare,” Hanson said. “This group of well-known industry backers gives Avaneer Health the initial capital, scale, and knowledge base from launch, and positions us for additional growth and industry venture investments in 2022.”
