OSF Ventures, the corporate investment arm of OSF HealthCare, is investing in PatientWisdom, a Connecticut-based company that's developed an online platform focused on capturing patient perspectives.

PatientWisdom is a digital application that makes it easy for patients to share stories about themselves, their health and their care so that providers can better understand what matters most to them. The information captured is made available to the care team in an easy-to-view dashboard that provides quick insights and the ability to know their patients.

"Listening to what matters to patients as people - goals, barriers, perspectives - facilitates communication, connection and collaborative health," said Gregory Makoul, Ph.D., co-founder of PatientWisdom. "This platform was developed to foster healing relationships within and beyond the care setting."

The technology also allows patients the chance to contribute ideas on how health organizations can improve. Using this data as well as the personal information shared by patients is expected to guide health care systems toward delivering a better patient experience, better population health management and ultimately, better care.

As part of this relationship, the OSF Innovation Partnerships team is also working with PatientWisdom to co-develop a new tool called ProviderWisdom, which collects and distills insights about providers' work lives as well as information they want other clinicians to know about them, ideas they have for innovation and thoughts they have about improving clinical workflows.

"This is a great example of how OSF can further partner with the companies it invests in," said Stan Lynall, Vice President of Venture Investments for OSF Ventures, a part of OSF Innovation. "We have an exciting opportunity to work with PatientWisdom to help mold their offerings in ways that are useful for us as they bring their products to market."

PatientWisdom has so far been piloted in the Streator market. It's expected to be offered in other OSF regions soon.

OSF HealthCare, headquartered in Peoria, is owned and operated by The Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis, and consists of more than 18,000 employees in 115 locations, including 11 hospitals throughout Illinois and Michigan. Its physician network employs more than 1,000 primary care, specialist physicians and advanced practice providers. More at www.osfhealthcare.org.

OSF Ventures specializes in venture optimization, partnering financially and operationally in companies that improve patient outcomes and reduce costs to health care systems. OSF Ventures is a division of OSF HealthCare. More at www.osfventures.org.

PatientWisdom, based in New Haven, is a digital platform that focuses on what matters to patients as people. The company drives value for patients, families, caregivers, providers and health organizations by turning patient perspectives into actionable insights to improve the experience and delivery of care. PatientWisdom is mobile-responsive, and offers seamless integration with electronic health record systems and patient portals. In 2017, PatientWisdom was named Start-Up of the Year at the Venture Capital Investment Competition (Northeast Region) and Venture of the Year at the Connecticut Entrepreneur Awards. More at www.patientwisdom.com.