UnitedHealth's Optum division apparently isn't wasting any time powering up a new health care innovation lab it is establishing with the Mayo Clinic in the Boston suburb of Cambridge.
Optum has purchased a Boston-based health IT firm, Humedica Inc., two sources familiar with the deal told the Boston Business Journal. The company will play a key role in the new research facility, which aims to pool data on more than 110 million patients to give researchers a chance to study how to improve medical care and lower costs.
A spokeswoman for Eden Prairie-based Optum said the company couldn't comment on the report.
Humedica is the seventh Massachusetts-based IT company purchased by United in seven years, according to the Business Journal report.
Humedica operates cloud-based Web platforms that include electronic health records and patient databases. Among its investors are Allscripts and Boston investment firm Leerink Swann.
JACKIE CROSBY
