ARMONK, N.Y. and CLEVELAND, April 13, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced plans to acquire Explorys, a healthcare intelligence cloud company that has built one of the largest clinical data sets in the world, representing more than 50 million lives. The acquisition strengthens IBM's leadership position in healthcare analytics and cloud computing, and will help bolster its ability to extract and share deep insights to improve wellness and benefit patients.

Since its spin-off from the Cleveland Clinic in 2009, Explorys has secured a robust healthcare database derived from numerous and diverse financial, operational and medical record systems comprising 315 billion longitudinal data points across the continuum of care. This powerful body of insight will help fuel IBM Watson Health Cloud, a new open platform that allows information to be securely de-identified, shared and combined with a dynamic and constantly growing aggregated view of clinical, health and social research data.

Explorys provides secure cloud-based solutions for clinical integration, at-risk population management, cost of care measurement, and pay-for-performance. Headquartered in Cleveland, Explorys clients include some of the most prominent healthcare systems in the United States, together accounting for over $69 billion in care, 360 hospitals and more than 317,000 providers. Explorys' HIPAA-enabled cloud-computing platform is used by 26 healthcare systems and clinically integrated networks to identify patterns in diseases, treatments and outcomes. Its network includes Cleveland Clinic, Trinity Health, St. Joseph Health System, Mercy Health, Adventist Health System and many others with patients across the country. Market intelligence firm IDC just named Explorys global leader in Healthcare Clinical and Financial Analysis.

"As healthcare providers, health plans and life sciences companies face a deluge of data, they need a secure, reliable and dynamic way to share that data for new insight to deliver quality, effective healthcare for the individual," said Mike Rhodin, senior vice president, IBM Watson. "To address this opportunity, IBM is building a holistic platform to enable the aggregation and discovery of health data to share it with those who can make a difference. With Explorys, IBM will accelerate the delivery of IBM Health Cloud and IBM Watson cognitive solutions to model and apply medical evidence and large scale analytics to data."

"Every encounter that a patient has across the continuum of care spins off a meaningful piece of data that can help tell the whole story about an individual's health to improve the quality and effectiveness of their care," said Stephen McHale, CEO and co-founder, Explorys. "Information is changing the way care is delivered and paid for. The combination of Explorys technology with IBM's powerful Health Cloud and Watson cognitive capabilities will expand the reach of health insights so that Big Data can finally be used more easily to transform healthcare. This relationship will not only accelerate but enhance many of the projects underway with our provider organizations."

Explorys is now part of IBM's new Watson Health unit, launched today. Its offerings complement and strengthen the IBM Watson Health Cloud platform and will empower IBM's vast ecosystem of clients, partners and medical researchers to surface new connections among diverse and previously siloed healthcare data sets. Access to these insights are expected to spur the creation of a new generation of data-driven applications and solutions designed to advance health and wellness.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

About Explorys

Originally inspired by physicians and informatics leaders, Explorys combines the most powerful healthcare computing platform in the world with turnkey solutions for clinical integration, at-risk population management, cost of care measurement, and pay-for-performance solutions. Explorys addresses the national imperative to leverage Big Data in healthcare for the improvement of medicine and delivery of care. For more information, please visit www.explorys.com .

About IBM Watson Health

IBM and its vast ecosystem of clients, partners and medical researchers are accelerating the development of a new generation of data-driven applications and solutions built on IBM Health Cloud and IBM Watson cognitive solutions to advance health and wellness. For more information, please visit ibm.com/watsonhealth.

Join the social discussion, include the hashtag #ibmwatsonhealth. Follow Watson on Facebook and see Watson on YouTube and Flickr.

Contact:

Holli Haswell

IBM External Relations

[email protected]

720-396-5485

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