SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University and Twig Health Announce Partnership to Advance Value-Based Care
By Office of Communications & Marketing | Apr 17, 2024
The partnership, focused on Medicaid populations, will increase patient engagement, reduce care team burden, and optimize value-based care services
BROOKLYN, APRIL 18, 2024 – SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University (“SUNY Downstate”) and Twig Health (“Twig”) have announced a partnership to accelerate the transition to value-based care that will focus on quality of care for SUNY Downstate’s Medicaid patient population. As Brooklyn’s only academic medical center for health education, research, and patient care, the partnership with Twig will enable SUNY Downstate to improve patient outreach, engagement and value-based care services.
SUNY Downstate clinicians see over 95,000 Medicaid patients each year. This patient population is eligible for many free services such as screenings, chronic disease management, wellness, and home care services. However, staffing and communication constraints have limited SUNY Downstate’s ability to engage and provide preventive services to these patients.
SUNY Downstate has partnered with Twig Health to help activate and engage hard to reach patient populations, leading to better performance on its value-based goals with insurers.
Twig Health is providing a turnkey service to SUNY Downstate: Twig’s remote nurses, co-piloted by AI, forge supportive relationships with patients, primarily via SMS messaging, transitioning care from discrete touchpoints to continuous collaboration. Through Twig, patients receive all the guidance, motivation, and support needed to make value-based services a success.
“Getting our patients involved in their health is key for prevention and reduction of care costs, but our current process is extremely resource heavy and doesn’t scale to meet the needs of our large and diverse population,” said Mohamed Rami Nakeshbandi, M.D., MHA, FACP, Chief Quality Officer at University Hospital at Downstate. “Twig Health offers a solution that elevates patient collaboration while reducing the burden on our clinicians; they can now focus on clinical care, a clear win-win situation. With Twig Health, we expect a significant increase in the number of value-based services that our patients access through the hospital.”
Twig’s highly scalable service is optimized for a high-touch, compassionate relationship between patients and clinicians. It enables stakeholders to rapidly and efficiently reach, collaborate, and activate target populations. “Designing our service architecture, we looked to the retail world and studied how top consumer companies engage with their customers. Twig brings this tried-and-true approach, adapted to healthcare, to payors and providers.” Says, Amir Kishon, Ph.D., Co-Founder and CEO of Twig Health. “We are thrilled to support University Hospital at Downstate in their mission to care for and improve the lives of their highly diverse patient population” adds Dr. Kishon.
“Medicaid populations deserve the same access to health as any other population. I have always believed that Digital Health, and now AI, can democratize the access to quality care,” says David Berger, M.D., MHCM, FACS, CEO of University Hospital at Downstate. “With Twig as our partner, we plan to offer value-based services at scale to our patients, while reducing the non-clinical burden on our staff.”
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About Twig Health
Twig Health is a New York digital health company that helps health plans and hospitals optimize care management operations and quality campaigns. Twig's remote nurses, copiloted by AI, forge supportive relationships with target populations via SMS texting, transitioning care from discrete touchpoints to continuous collaboration. Twig’s partners see a tenfold lift in engagement, increased star ratings, and significant ROI. For more information, please contact hello@twig.health or visit https://twig.health
About SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University
Downstate Health Sciences University (Downstate), located in Brooklyn, is one of four academic health centers in The State University of New York (SUNY) 64-campus system. It is the only SUNY academic medical center in New York City delivering health education, research, and patient care and primarily serves the borough’s 2.7 million residents. Downstate consists of five schools and colleges, a multifaceted biotechnology initiative, and University Hospital at Downstate (UHD), the 342-bed teaching hospital backed by Downstate’s outstanding medical school expertise and world-class academic center research facilities. Over 800 physicians, representing 53 specialties and subspecialties—many of them ranked as tops in their fields—comprise Downstate’s staff.
In addition to high-risk neonatal and infant services, pediatric nephrology, and dialysis (kidney diseases)—and offering the only kidney transplantation program in Brooklyn, among many other distinctive programs. Downstate comprises a College of Medicine, a College of Nursing, a School of Health Professions, a School of Graduate Studies, a School of Public Health, and a multifaceted biotechnology initiative, including the Downstate Biotechnology Incubator and BioBAT for early- stage and more mature companies, respectively. For more information, visit www.downstate.edu or follow us on X at @sunydownstate.