Health information site WebMD is looking into the patient education space with its acquisition of Wellness Network for an undisclosed sum.

Wellness Network creates educational resources and engagement tools for patients. The company works with hospitals and health systems, insurance companies, life science, public health agencies, health tech companies and others. 

Its services include a library of videos and printable resources, called HealthClips, that touches on 24 therapeutic areas. Its products also include patient engagement tablets that can deliver information to a patient and offer TV programming, which can be streamed in waiting rooms.

Clinicians are able to assign and track a patient's engagement with the content through its HealthClips 360 program, which is able to integrate with existing EHRs. 

WHY IT MATTERS

The new acquisition is expected to help WebMD build out its digital information services. While WebMD got its start in providing information directly to consumers, this M&A provides an opportunity for the company to work with more provider organizations to deliver information. 

"The Wellness Network shares a core mission with WebMD Provider Services to enable education to be integrated into patient workflow, enabling our customers to inform, educate and support patients and caregivers through the healthcare journey," Dave Ross, CEO of the Wellness Network, said in a statement.

"WebMD's extensive reach with health-seeking consumers and patients enables us to broaden our ability to deliver understandable and empowering content for the benefit of patients, hospitals and health systems." 

THE LARGER TREND

This isn’t WebMD’s only recent acquisition. In May the company announced its plans to acquire ADDitude, a platform focused on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) resources and information for an undisclosed sum. 

In 2018 it announced its purchase of the Vital Consumer Services Division for Mdx Medical. The division is focused on connecting consumers to clinicians. It also acquired Jobson Healthcare Information, a fellow digital health content brand.

The Wellness Network has also made acquisitions in the past. In 2017 the company acquired patient-education video publisher Milner-Fenwick for an undisclosed sum.