Emory Healthcare, Georgia’s most comprehensive academic health system, and Emory Healthcare Network, the health system’s clinically integrated network, today announced a new population health collaborative (PHC) with Guidehealth, a nationally acclaimed, AI-enabled health care and value-based managed services company. This new entity integrates Emory’s growing primary care service line and affiliate physician network to expand value-based care — a focus on quality and outcomes while containing costs — to more than 350,000 individuals across Georgia. Emory Healthcare’s Population Health Collaborative is aligning with Guidehealth to accelerate performance of quality of care and overall health outcomes across its primary care clinics and network.
In this initiative, more than 500 Emory primary care and affiliate primary care providers will offer patient care, education, research and community engagement in their locations. With a goal of seeing patients at least once a year, providers will assess patient health needs and determine their outlying risks to prevent problems and get ahead of diseases before they develop and advance. While at appointments, patients may have lab work and other screenings performed to look for chronic disease states — such as diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol — early in the process before patients need treatment.
The collaboration with Guidehealth will accelerate access and connectivity for Emory clinicians, who are focused on health outcomes and quality metrics.
Emory Healthcare CEO Joon Lee, MD, hailed the move as a significant step toward Emory’s mission to deliver high-quality primary care to patients, while also connecting patients to advanced specialties, when needed. “The Emory Healthcare Network and our primary care division will work together to build and scale its population health management capabilities across the state to proactively care for patients,” says Lee. “We are pleased to collaborate with Guidehealth, an organization that combines expertise, technology and a recognized clinical model to improve results while reducing administrative burden to practicing primary care physicians.”
Emory Healthcare includes more than 490 provider locations with 10 hospitals and comprises the Emory Physician Group and The Emory Healthcare Network, a clinically integrated network with more than 4,000 physicians, including more than 500 primary care physicians.
“The population health collaborative combines several strategies that will unlock a new level of performance in value-based agreements with patient care top of mind,” says Emory Healthcare Network CEO Patrick Hammond, who leads the newly formed PHC entity along with Emory Healthcare Population Health Collaborative Executive Director Tina-Ann Thompson, MD. “We evaluated a number of potential value-based care organizations, and Guidehealth stood out for a variety of reasons, including its ability to integrate its capabilities into our clinical workflows,” says Hammond.
Guidehealth has an award-winning value-based managed services platform and was recently recognized as Best in KLAS for the sixth year in a row, achieving the number-one ranking for Value-Based Care Managed Services in 2024. Its clinical support services integrate directly into provider workflows, empowering physicians to better coordinate care, reduce administrative burden and close care gaps at lower overall costs. A team of GuideHealth’s Healthguide virtually assist Emory affiliate network providers as they extend the reach of the practice and work closely with the health system’s clinical teams to better inform care for complex patients and their families.
