In Commure, another chance for a General Catalyst-backed hospital OS
Illustration: Tiffany Herring/Axios
When a door closes, a window opens — and for General Catalyst, the shuttering of one portfolio company presents an opportunity for another to fill an Olive-sized hole in hospital platform technology.
Why it matters: With its plan to buy a hospital, General Catalyst may see in Commure a second chance to build an AI-powered, integrated hospital operating system — similar to the mission of recently shuttered Olive AI.
Yes, but: Commure faces considerable hurdles in the form of dominant electronic health records giants, whose comprehensive if imperfect tools represent 62% of the hospital market.
Catch up fast: Commure and Athelas merged in October, receiving an additional investment of $70 million from General Catalyst that values the business at $6 billion.
- The goal, per the firm's press release, is to create "a suite of hardware and software that connects patient care, clinical operations, and administrative functions (revenue cycle) operations into a single interface, augmented by powerful AI."
- Athelas co-founder and former CEO Tanay Tandon will serve as CEO.
- Commure will also launch what it calls a "center for health assurance transformation ... dedicated to bringing platform capabilities to our health assurance partners" overseen by General Catalyst head of health assurance Daryl Tol.
What they're saying: "Your articles on Olive contributed to our push to go serve that section of the market at Athelas, and eventually made the merger [with Commure] make sense," Tandon tells Axios.
- It "was clear that what Olive was trying to build really resonated with customers, but they failed to deliver on it."
Plus, Commure on Tuesday announced it was acquiring clinical care coordination platform Rx.Health, and that Rx.Health would change names to Commure Engage.
The other side: Commure's product will face steep incumbent competition from EHR systems like Epic and Cerner, whose firm clamp on the market will prove tough to overcome, several experts tell Axios.
- "You're up against what's generally a complete solution in the EHR," says PitchBook lead health care analyst Rebecca Springer.
What we're watching: "Hopefully our team gets it right this time around," says Tandon.
