Lifechart.Com Closes Funding From Nokia And J&J

Alliances forged with health care and wireless technology leaders enabling personal health management for millions of individuals with chronic conditions.

LifeChart.com, a pioneering e-health company dedicated to improving the monitoring and management of millions of individuals' chronic medical conditions, announced today it closed a new equity financing of $25 million including debt conversions from Nokia and Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, as well as from the Finnish National Fund For Research and Development (Sitra), and private investors.

The company will use the funds to launch innovative new e-health services for consumers and health professionals.

LifeChart.com has been formed by combining the technology, personnel, marketing and assets of Nokia's health-related wireless applications business (Wellmate) with Silicon Valley health monitoring company ENACT Health Management Systems. LifeChart.com will combine Nokia's Internet and wireless health management system for diabetes and the personal health monitoring and management system for asthma that was the origin of ENACT. The company is now positioned as a powerful contender in the rapidly emerging online health care sector. Revenue will be generated from individual subscriptions to the LifeChart Network, device sales, Web advertising and sponsorships.

"The Internet health care revolution is just underway," said Matthew Sanders, founding CEO of ENACT and now chairman of LifeChart.com. "LifeChart.com intends to be a charter member of the new e-health community, with technology to shape a healthier future for millions."

LifeChart.com's service allows individuals with chronic conditions to transmit personal health data via electronic monitoring devices (such as the AirWatch Asthma Monitor), the Internet and cellular phones. The company's LifeChart Network then provides individuals with a personal, secure record containing trend reports of their own health information and an interactive, low cost, location-independent means to communicate with their health care professionals via fax, mail, telephone, wireless technology and the Internet. Data is accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week, empowering people to better manage their conditions and take control of their own health.

"LifeChart.com will empower people to better manage their own health conditions," said Hans Ehrnrooth, new CEO for LifeChart.com. "Our personal health management tools and technology are the next step in the convergence of health care and the Internet and the logical complement to the new Internet health information portals."

LifeChart.com encompasses the first, advanced, easy-to-use tools -- for both individuals and their care teams -- to effectively and interactively monitor chronic conditions. The most pervasive and costly conditions, such as diabetes, asthma and hypertension, affect more than 90 million people (one-third of the U.S population) in the U.S. alone and account for approximately $425 billion in annual treatment costs. LifeChart.com's technology has been tested and validated in clinical and pilot programs over the past several years in the U.S. and Europe, and studies have shown significant reduction in health care costs.

Wireless technology has long been used in Europe, especially Finland where Nokia is based, to monitor and facilitate everything from bank balances and payments to vending machine purchases. In the U.S., the rise of health care costs, proliferation of managed care and rising accessibility to home computers and wireless devices is driving a growing trend of consumers using technology to become better informed and take an active role in their health. The health care community, too, is increasingly going online.

About LifeChart.com

LifeChart.com, formerly ENACT Health Management Systems, will operate offices in Mountain View, Calif., and Helsinki, Finland. ENACT was founded in 1992 to offer monitoring and reporting services to large patient populations with long-term, high-cost, chronic illnesses. To date, the company has focused primarily on the asthma market with its AirWatch Asthma Monitor and LifeChart Network.

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