The Froedtert & MCW Health Network Engages Digital Platform to Roll Out Clinical Nutrition Program to Patients and Employees

Integrating the Season Health clinical nutrition program into the Xealth digital health platform streamlines provider referral flow, increasing access and improving outcomes


froedtertseasonxealth press release

MILWAUKEE and SEATTLE, Oct. 21, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Xealth, the leader in enabling digital health at scale, today announced that the Froedtert & The Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) health network is leveraging its digital health platform to engage select patient populations with Season Health, the leading clinical nutrition provider. Through Xealth’s digital health platform, the Froedtert & MCW will offer Season Health's scalable, clinically-driven nutrition services to employee and patient populations, starting with a focus on patients with diabetes. This collaboration aims to improve clinical outcomes by integrating nutrition as a critical element of chronic condition care.  

“As a health system, we are always looking for ways to connect our patients with the right resources to improve lives,” said Bradley Crotty, MD, MPH Chief Medical Officer of Inception Health, the innovation arm of the Froedtert & MCW health network; and Associate Professor of Medicine, MCW. “Using the Season Health program, we want to make it easier for people living with chronic conditions, like diabetes, to stay connected with their nutrition and care between appointments to improve their health, including A1c and blood sugar levels. Including it on our digital health platform makes it a more seamless process for our clinical team and improves the program’s impact.”

Outcomes of chronic conditions can often be impacted by diet. Season’s programs include one-on-one, virtual, medical nutrition therapy visits from Season’s network of Registered Dietitians, home delivery of affordable medically-tailored meals and groceries, an accredited Diabetes Self Management and Education (DSME) program, and an integrated benefits bank that supports patients in accessing available health plan-sponsored food benefits and government programs. By connecting this program into the clinical record via Xealth, eligible patients are easily identified, with no extra steps from the care team. Xealth facilitates outreach, coming from the Froedtert & MCW health network, and offers deeper insight into program enrollment and engagement.

“It’s broadly accepted that improper nutrition complicates chronic conditions and that is impacted by several factors,” said Josh Hix, CEO and co-founder of Season. “Our work with Xealth is critical for two reasons: it makes the referral process that much easier on Froedtert providers and allows us to proactively target and outreach to the patients we believe will benefit most from our care. Overall, this leads to increased access to high quality nutrition services that complement the care patients receive from their Froedtert care team.”

The Froedtert & MCW health network has been using the Xealth digital health platform, which is integrated into its EHR system, since early 2018. Season is the 11th digital health partner that the health system has added to this platform, which covers a variety of clinical areas, including mental health, maternity, diabetes and others.

“Digital programs scale clinical resources and may improve patient outcomes by engaging them in their care between appointments, especially in areas that require daily decisions, such as nutrition,” said Mike McSherry, CEO and co-founder of Xealth. “By leveraging Xealth’s connected platform for its digital health programs, including Season Health, the Froedtert & MCW health network strengthens the impact of these initiatives for more patients in a way that is nearly seamless to medical providers.” 

Xealth is the driving force behind digital health programs at many of the nation’s largest health systems, bringing digital health vendors, programs, therapeutics and tools into clinical and patient workflow. When combined with the company’s custom data and analytics, health systems can track, analyze and evaluate everything through their digital health integration platform.

About The Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin
The Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin health network is a partnership between Froedtert Health and the Medical College of Wisconsin supporting a shared mission of patient care, innovation, medical research and education. Our health network operates eastern Wisconsin's only academic medical center and adult Level I Trauma Center at Froedtert Hospital, Milwaukee, an internationally recognized training and research center engaged in thousands of clinical trials and studies. The Froedtert & MCW health network, which includes 10 hospital locations, more than 2,300 physicians and more than 45 health centers and clinics, draws patients from throughout the Midwest and the nation. In our most recent fiscal year, outpatient visits were more than 1.6 million, inpatient admissions to our hospitals exceeded 57,500 and visits to our network physicians totaled more than 1.28 million.

About Season Health
Season Health is a national practice of Registered Dietitians; our providers our powered by the Season Health technology platform, which supports our patients with a personal nutrition prescription, hundreds of thousands of healthy meal and grocery options (all of which can be delivered directly to their home) and integrated Benefits Bank, which supports patients in accessing health plan benefits that subsidize health food. Season partners with leading health systems across the country as an extension of their care teams, acting as an integrated, comprehensive outpatient nutrition vertical for hospitals. By increasing access to longitudinal nutrition care, Season drives improved clinical and quality outcomes, while driving increased patient engagement within the health system footprint. Learn more at www.seasonhealth.com 

About Xealth
Xealth scales digital health programs, enabling clinicians to integrate, prescribe and monitor digital health tools for patients to drive engagement and utilization. Through the secure Xealth platform, clinicians can find and order the right digital health tools and programs for patients directly from the EHR workflow, send these digital health orders to the patient’s email or patient portal, and then monitor activity. Xealth spun out of Providence St. Joseph Health (PSJH) in 2017, and investors include Advocate Aurora Enterprises, Atrium Health, Cleveland Clinic, MemorialCare Innovation Fund, Cerner, McKesson Ventures, Novartis, Philips, and ResMed as well as Providence Ventures, UPMC and the Froedtert and Medical College of Wisconsin Health Network.

For more information, visit www.xealth.com or follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Contact:
Heather Caouette
508-579-3894
heatherc@rae-communications.com 

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/026b5e41-1c77-47b8-9ebf-9b9e5a4aa5c7