RALEIGH – Phreesia (NYSE: PHR), a provider of software-as-a-service for healthcare clients that relocated its headquarters from New York City to the Triangle last year, has bought Insignia Health, the company announced this week.

With the purchase, Phreesia acquired the exclusive worldwide license for the Patient Activation Measure® (PAM®) that is held by Insignia Health.  PAM® was created by a team of researchers at the University of Oregon led by Dr. Judith Hibbard.  Hibbard has joined Phreesia in an advisory role, the company statement noted.

“When we first created PAM, we wanted to provide clinicians with a tool to quickly and easily understand a patient’s ability to self-manage their healthcare, so they could individualize their approach and better engage their patients through tailored, incremental changes,” said Hibbard, who is a Professor Emerita and Faculty Fellow at the University of Oregon’s Health Policy Research Group, in the statement. “The subsequent years of research have revealed the essential role that activation plays in determining outcomes for patients.”

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According to Phreesia, PAM is a “gold standard of patient activation measures” and is validated by research conducted in the prior 17 years.

The statement described the company’s acquisition as “redoubling its commitment to improve patients’ experiences and outcomes.”

“Phreesia’s expertise in empowering patients to gain more control over their health and care experience through technology was hugely appealing to us,” said Chris Delaney, co-founder of Insignia Health. “The number of patients we can reach in a single week through Phreesia’s platform would otherwise take us months. We’re thrilled with this opportunity to dramatically expand PAM’s reach and to help so many more patients become more successful managers of their health.”

The company noted in its statement that the acquisition will enable the company and the company’s clients to engage patients in more personalized ways.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.  The company announced third-quarter 2021 earnings last week.  It went public earlier this year.