A Cincinnati firm has acquired a Federal Hill-based ophthalmology software company as the Ohio company looks to expand its reach into a new medical sector.
Patient engagement company PatientPoint acquired Baltimore's Rendia, a software company that helps doctors communicate with patients through videos, drawings and other tools, for an undisclosed amount on Oct. 5. PatientPoint CEO Mike Collette said he'd been hoping to get into the eye-care industry for some time and thought an acquisition or partnership would be a better strategy than trying to enter the market without a strong foothold.
As part of the deal, Rendia will become a wholly owned subsidiary of PatientPoint. All 29 employees at Rendia, 24 of whom work in the Baltimore region, will remain with the combined company. Collette will lead the combined company, while Rendia’s CEO Smitha Gopal will become PatientPoint’s executive vice president of subscription and procedure-based specialties.
PatientPoint has 575 employees and locations in in Chicago, Little Rock, Otter Creek, Ark., New York, Nashville and Tampa, in addition to its Ohio headquarters. The Rendia acquisition marks the second deal in the last two years for PatientPoint after it acquired Chicago-based Outcome Health in March 2021.
Rendia, which was founded in 2000, sells a web application that health systems can purchase for their patients. Patients who have a doctor partnered with Rendia can receive a variety of information, from over 1,000 videos produced by the company, explaining different medical conditions. Along with videos, the company offers interactive tools, such as a digital sketchpad for doctors. The company hopes to make it easier for patients to understand their conditions and the medical treatments they can receive.
Patients can be bombarded with misleading information online, so the content Rendia creates can save time that would normally be spent explaining basic facts about medicine. The platform currently boasts over 8,000 subscribers. Along with eye care professionals, Rendia also works with Ear, Nose, and Throat physicians and audiologists.
“You're saving time because you don't need to unwind those misconceptions," Gopal said. "You don't need to talk them off the ledge.”
PatientPoint is not the first company to approach Rendia for a merger, Gopal said. However, the Midwest company’s understanding of Rendia’s unique content creation platform made it a perfect partner. Like Rendia, PatientPoint also creates its own content to educate patients, but has not ventured into the eye-care space.
Collette said the acquisition will expand the number of patients Rendia’s technology can serve since the larger Ohio company has more resources that can fuel expansion. PatientPoint is able to offer products to health systems at no-cost through partnerships with pharmaceutical companies.
Rendia is not large enough to offer hardware to customers, so doctors have to find their own equipment, such as touch screens, for a waiting room or an exam room outfitted with the Baltimore firm's content. As part of PatientPoint, Rendia can now offer hardware as well so doctors don’t need to work with another company to buy equipment.
“Our customers really believe in our platform, so they're usually willing to go to Costco or Best Buy and buy the equipment, install it themselves, download the app and figure it out,” Gopal said. “But having PatientPoint now as the overall company is going to reduce friction in that process and make it a lot easier and a lot more accessible.”
