數字醫療投資重現火爆局面大綱

Ah, November, that special time of year when Americans get to re-enroll for health insurance and find out whether their costs will go up “just” 5% or whether they face a double-digit increase for the year to come.
對於美國人來說，11月是個特殊的月份，因爲他們要在這個月重新登記參加醫療保險，並且他們將算清楚來年的醫保費用是“僅僅”增加5%，還是增加兩位數。

This year technology’s potential role in controlling seemingly unjustifiable increases is getting more attention than ever—in part because of wildly optimistic expectations surrounding consumer gadgets such as fitness bracelets. By June, funding for digital healthcare technology companies reached $2.3 billion—surpassing the previous year’s total, according to Rock Health, a startup incubator.
今年，在控制這種看上去不合理的醫保費用上漲方面，科技的潛在作用得到了更多人關注——這在很大程度上是由於人們對運動手環等消費類電子產品的樂觀期望。據創業孵化器Rock Health統計，截至今年6月，數字醫療科技類公司的融資總額已達到23億美元——超過了去年的總額。

Two illustrative examples from this month alone: Xerox’s unprecedented investment in telemedicine company HealthSpot, which plans to install its kiosks not just at medical facilities but also at big companies; and pharmaceutical giant Novartis AG’s growing interest in wearable technologies that can track the effectiveness of its drugs.
僅本月就有兩個明顯的例子：施樂（Xerox）史無前例地投資遠程醫療公司HealthSpot，後者計劃將其遠端臨場醫療設施安裝到醫療機構和大公司內；製藥業巨頭諾華製藥公司（Novartis）對能夠跟蹤藥效的可穿戴技術表現出日益濃厚的興趣。

Another indicator is the customer traction being reported this autumn by Castlight Health, which made its rather controversial I.P.O. in March. (The company debuted with a market cap of almost $3 billion, but its value currently stands around $1.01 billion.)
數字醫療成爲熱門的另外一個跡象，是移動醫療公司Castlight Health在今年秋天公佈的客戶吸引力。該公司在3月進行了頗具爭議的IPO。（公司最初上市時的市值約爲30億美元，但其現在的市值卻一直維持在10.1億美元。）

Every year, U.S. employers spend a whopping $620 billion on healthcare benefits with very little visibility into where that money goes. Castlight puts those costs under the microscope for at least 40 Fortune 500 companies including Google, Kraft Foods Group, Microsoft, and Wal-Mart.
美國僱主每年的醫療福利支出達到驚人的6,200億美元，但他們卻很難跟蹤這筆錢的去向。而Castlight則可以將這筆支出摸得一清二楚，供至少40家《財富》美國500強公司瞭解其流向，這些公司包括谷歌（Google）、卡夫食品集團（Kraft Foods Group）、微軟（Microsoft）和沃爾瑪（Wal-Mart）。

Its service, called Enterprise Health Cloud, shows the prices a company’s employees pay for everything from cholesterol tests to magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, scans to wellness visits to their doctor. The vision is to help employers better understand these cost and to let employees make more informed decisions about what they can expect to pay and about the quality of care they will receive.
這項企業醫療保健雲服務，將顯示出公司員工的醫療支出，包括膽固醇測定、磁共振成像（MRI）掃描以及健康體檢等多個項目。這些數據不僅可以幫助僱主更有效地瞭解醫療福利費用，也可以讓員工對他們想要付費的項目和可以獲得的保健質量做出更明智的決定。“They have a cockpit where they get a ton of analytics about where the money is spent,” said Castlight CEO and co-founder Giovanni “Gio” Colella, whose previous company, RelayHealth, was acquired by McKesson in 2006. Collela’s co-founders were Todd Park (co-founder of Athenahealth and the tech guru who helped fix the troubled site) and venture capitalist Bryan Roberts (Venrock).
Castlight Health公司的CEO兼聯合創始人喬瓦尼o“吉奧”o科萊拉表示：“他們有一個系統，其中包括對醫療福利費用的大量分析。”科萊拉之前的公司RelayHealth在2006年被麥克森公司（McKesson）收購。科萊拉的聯合創始人包括託德o帕克（電子病歷管理公司Athenahealth的聯合創始人，同時也是一位技術專家，曾幫助解決美國醫保網站的故障）和風險投資人布萊恩o羅伯茨（風投公司Venrock）。

One Castlight customer, for example, discovered an unusually high incidence of back pain issues within certain departments. The company came up with an ergonomic solution to this problem, paring back on those medical costs, Colella said.
例如，Castlight的一位客戶發現某個部門內背部疼痛的發病率之高，有些異常。於是，該公司針對這一問題提出了一項人體工學解決方案，削減了這部分醫療費用，科萊拉說道。

How did Castlight convince almost every insurance company (except United Healthcare because of an exclusivity clause) to disclose this information? By convincing businesses to demand the information. Right now, the service covers most medical procedures and pharmacy information. Offerings that cover dental plans and behavioral health are in the wings.
那麼，Castlight是如何說服幾乎所有的保險公司披露這些信息的呢[只有聯合健康保險公司（United Healthcare）因排他性條款未披露相關信息]？通過說服客戶索要這些信息。目前，該服務涵蓋了多數醫療程序和藥物信息。公司即將推出包括牙科保健計劃和行爲健康的服務。

Castlight boasted 159 customers at the end of the third quarter. According to its latest earnings report, the company expects to generate $43.9 million to $44.3 million this year, with anticipated losses of $74 million to $75 million. (Its CEO and CFO are scheduled to present updates at two investor conferences later this week.)
Castlight宣稱截至第三季度末共有159家客戶。其最近公開的收益報告顯示，公司今年的預期收益爲4,390萬美元至4,430萬美元，預期損失7,400萬美元至7,500萬美元。（公司CEO和CFO計劃在本週晚些時候召開兩次投資者會議，公佈最新財務數據。）

Christopher Lochhead, partner with consulting firm Play Bigger and advisor to Castlight’s management team, says healthcare costs are among the top three to five costs for most big businesses. The rise of powerful analytics technologies along with the transparency demanded by social media are driving interest in Castlight’s services. “This is a company, as corny as it may sound, that could do very well by doing a lot of good,” Lochhead said.
諮詢公司Play Bigger的合夥人、Castlight公司管理團隊顧問克里斯托弗o洛克希德表示，醫療成本在大多數公司的開支項目中排在前三至五位。功能強大的分析技術的興起和社交媒體需要的透明度，正在使更多人對Castlight公司的服務產生興趣。洛克希德表示：“雖然聽起來有些老套，但這家公司可以通過做好事把事情做得更好。”

Healthcare provider are also hungry for data that can help them make more informed decisions on behalf of their patients, said Mike Harden, co-founder and senior partner at ARTIS Ventures. This observation comes while during our chat last week about the role of wearable technologies in corporate wellness initiatives. “In order for make that information of value, it needs to connect to a professional,” he said. “It needs to connect to something that your nutritionist or doctor might be able to see. Together, you can make improvements to your health.”
投資公司ARTIS Ventures的聯合創始人兼高級合夥人麥克o哈登表示，醫療保健服務提供商也渴望得到這些數據，幫助他們爲患者做出更明智的決定。上週，筆者與哈登就可穿戴技術在公司健康計劃中的作用進行了交流，他當時提出了上述觀點。他表示：“要使這些信息產生價值，就必須將它們與專業人士聯繫在一起。這些信息需要與你的營養師或醫生可能看到的數據相關聯。多方合作一定會改善你的健康。”

That philosophy is behind ARTIS Ventures’ three rounds of financing for Practice Fusion, which manages electronic health records in the cloud for more than 112,000 healthcare professionals. So far, it has raised almost $160 million since it was founded in July 2005.
ARTIS Ventures參與Practice Fusion公司的三輪融資，也正是基於這樣的理念。Practice Fusion公司通過雲技術，爲超過112,000名醫護專業人員管理電子病歷。公司從2005年7月成立至今，已經獲得融資約1.6億美元。

Heather Clancy is the author of Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily newsletter about the business of technology.
希瑟o克蘭西是《財富》科技公司每日資訊欄目Data Sheet的作者。