It’s almost hard to imagine that 2020, one of the most challenging years in history, is behind us. Perhaps more so than any other industry, the Covid-19 pandemic threw a big curve ball for all of us in healthcare. Navigating the new landscape alongside our nation’s providers, payers, PBMs, and public health organizations was a learning experience for us all. 

The unprecedented crisis called for an unprecedented response — our efforts this year helped healthcare organizations protect the most vulnerable patients and recover revenue lost from cancelled elective procedures and growth in uncompensated care.

In March, Jvion launched the Covid Community Vulnerability Map to help direct resources to the most vulnerable communities. The Map has since been viewed by over 2 million people — including members of the White House Task Force, FEMA, every branch of the US military, and state and local governments — and informed public health outreach efforts. We followed this up with Patient Vulnerability Lists and an Inpatient Triage Assessment to help health systems understand the risk to individual patients, as well as our employee vulnerability assessment tool to help workers return to their jobs safely. As new vaccines are approved, our AI insights will help public health officials prioritize vaccine distribution to the populations at greatest risk. 

Our collaborations with Microsoft and our customer community on these initiatives have set the standard for proactive and preventive care during the pandemic, earning the attention of the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, HealthLeaders, HealthcareITNews, ModernHealthcare, and TIME, who noted that “flattening the surge of an infectious disease also requires action, and that’s where the advice gets muddier — but also where Big Data and artificial intelligence (AI) can provide clarity.”

Covid-19 was not only a public health crisis, but also a financial crisis that strained hospitals’ revenue streams in ways that threatened to cripple our healthcare delivery system. Jvion recognized that our AI could help health systems recover revenue by bringing staff back safely, identifying patients at risk of deteriorating after months of deferred care, and getting them the clinical and community support they need to prevent avoidable hospitalizations. Once the ongoing surge subsides, we will help providers prioritize their resources to re-engage with their most vulnerable patients.

But providers can’t do it alone. Payers will also play a key role in engaging with patients to prevent a surge in care costs due to late-stage disease diagnoses and deteriorating chronic illnesses after months of deferred care. In July, we released a suite of solutions to empower payers to proactively mitigate unforeseen risk to their members. An analysis performed for one of our health plan customers (a payer covering 20 million lives), found that within a subpopulation of 500K members, Jvion would help save $7.5 million per year in avoided sepsis events and $3.7 million in avoided admissions.   

Addressing the converging pressures on our healthcare system will take collaboration and trust. That’s why we were proud to be a founding member of AIMedConnect, a community group connecting AI developers and end users to accelerate critical new solutions and build a shared consensus on the proper use of clinical AI.

In a year of heroic efforts throughout healthcare, we were honored and humbled to be recognized among the most impactful companies in healthcare this year. Our Chief Product Officer, Dr. John Showalter, MD, MSIS, was named one of the Top 25 Innovators of 2020 by Modern Healthcare for his leadership with the Covid Community Vulnerability Map. Furthermore, Jvion was named an IDC Innovator for applying AI to promote patient engagement, and Frost & Sullivan gave Jvion the 2020 North American Technology Innovation Leadership Award for the Prescriptive Analytics Industry. 

These accolades were rooted in real customer success. Northwell Health, the largest healthcare provider in New York State, reduced readmissions by 23.6% this year by applying the CORE to their Transitions of Care Management Program. And through a partnership with Cardinal Health, oncology practices operating under the value-based Oncology Care Model (OCM) have also seen results: Northwest Medical Specialties reduced unplanned admissions by 15% and nearly doubled their palliative care consults, as covered by STAT and Healthcare IT News. Under the same partnership, the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders in Texas saved over $3 million after deploying the CORE, as covered by Healthcare Finance and Healthcare Innovation. 

As we push healthcare forward, we couldn’t do it without some of the most talented people in the industry on our team. The people make all the difference at Jvion, and we are proud to promote Soy Chen to Chief Data Scientist and Drew Stovall to Chief Financial Officer, in recognition of their leadership and strong contribution over the years. We also say farewell to our CEO Jay Deady, who is returning to his roots in RCM at Zelis after leaving Jvion in a significantly stronger position. The leadership team at Jvion looks forward to building on an accelerating the company’s market leadership position in 2021.

2020 may have been a trying year for us all, but 2021 will be the year for ending the global pandemic, rebuilding our economy, and transforming the healthcare system to ensure every patient receives the highest quality of care they deserve. We could not be more excited for the role that Jvion will continue to play in all of this, with the strong support of our customers, our board, and our investors – who all participated in our recent $10 million Series C funding round to further support our growth.