Cleveland Clinic, American Well to Launch Pioneering Virtual Care Firm

Happy Monday, readers. I hope you had a wonderful weekend.

The renowned health system Cleveland Clinic has never been shy about its digital health ambitions, whether by using virtual reality to treat surgeons or touting the promise of artificial intelligence. Now, it’s taking those ambitions one step further through a partnership with telemedicine giant American Well.

The two organizations are teaming up on a pioneering new venture to provide virtual medical care—including, importantly, care for complicated health conditions which require a specialist, and not just primary medical services—to an array of patients. These will be administered through a new, joint firm called The Clinic.

Cleveland Clinic CEO Tom Mihaljevic underscores how this will be different from existing telehealth platforms and virtual care services.

“This new venture marks the first time that a major digital health technology platform has partnered with a globally recognized healthcare provider to deliver digital solutions for complex healthcare problems,” he said in a statement.

And here’s a fascinating nugget: This isn’t just a fancy new technological foray for the firms. Cleveland Clinic fully expects telemedicine visits to be a growing part of its business strategy. In fact, the group projects that “50% of outpatient visits will be virtual” within the next five years.

Read on for the day’s news.

Sy Mukherjee, @the_sy_guy, sayak.mukherjee@fortune.com

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