Here’s what we know so far about Quil Health, the Comcast-IBX joint venture

Comcast and Independence Blue Cross’ parent company, Independence Health Group, went into business together a year ago in a then-unnamed joint venture at the intersection of digital and healthcare.

Fast forward to 2019 and the project now has a name — Quil Health — plus a more-defined mission amid the crowded digital health landscape and a newly-named CEO in Carina Edwards, a long-time healthcare exec who relocated to Philly from Boston to lead the new organization.

Per its website, Quil is a digital platform that delivers “actionable, personalized health itineraries that empower patients and caregivers to engage in their healthcare” — in other words, a digital roadmap for the often-complex patient journey.

“This is a problem that has to be solved,” said Edwards in a conversation with Technical.ly. “I myself as a patient am always digging for information. When I looked to the power of the parent [companies], Comcast and IBX, that’s what drew me here.”

Have a look at a panel discussion featuring Quil staffers:

Edwards, who spent the past six years at health IT company Imprivata, said the company will be deploying a series of pilot programs to gather insight from over 1,000 patients, and iterate on the product based on the info they gather.

At the time the 50/50 joint venture was announced, IBX exec Brian Lobley said both companies were committed to making sure the venture had the capital “both human and financial” to succeed. We asked the CEO exactly how much capital the project had access to, but she declined to say.

(She also declined to say how many staffers the company employed at its Philly and New York offices, but a quick LinkedIn search reveals the company around 34 people are connected to Quil Health, between board members, freelancers and employees.)

In a healthcare landscape mined with digital engagement solutions from different providers, aimed at patients, how does Quil plan to stand out? Edwards said to think of Quil it more like a platform than an app, one that can plug into different elements of the provider system to ensure patients know what’s next.

“We’ll be coming to market quickly to deliver personalized health information to patients where they need it,” Edwards said.