IMS Health, a provider of information, services and technology for the healthcare industry, has acquired Semantelli, a Bridgewater, N.J.-based social media analytics company, to extend its marketing and consumer engagement capabilities for healthcare organizations around the world.

Semantelli offers clients a robust set of cloud-based tools that automate the collection of healthcare-specific social media content, providing real-time monitoring for reputation and opportunity management and delivering extensive insights into consumer and physician behavior and sentiments.

Semantelli will become part of IMS's innovative suite of social media solutions that support healthcare organizations in the areas of market assessment, competitive intelligence, brand performance, risk management and consumer/healthcare professional engagement. This addition complements IMS's advanced business intelligence and marketing solutions, and the company's ability to integrate its industry-leading healthcare information with social media content to drive improved business performance. Building on Semantelli's responsible use of information, IMS will apply its global expertise in privacy-enhancing technologies, methodologies and practices to advance strong data protection, patient privacy and accountability.

"This acquisition marks an important step in expanding IMS's capabilities in the social media management and analytics space, where there is accelerating demand for solutions that help clients take advantage of new channels to connect more actively with healthcare professionals and consumers," said Stefan Linn, senior vice president of strategy and global pharmaceutical solutions, IMS Health. "Social media has become an integral part of the healthcare experience, and navigating this channel effectively to unlock the right information for making decisions is critical. The combination of Semantelli's technology and IMS's healthcare data and privacy management expertise will fuel ongoing innovation in a responsible manner, enabling our clients to identify vital trends and take actions on real-world insights in real time."

Semantelli's proprietary technologies enable organizations to access, navigate and analyze both structured and unstructured data from thousands of online resources, including popular social networks and other social media platforms. The company's global web 3.0 platform supports more than 50 languages and leverages a comprehensive set of medical taxonomies and algorithms, as well as state-of-the-art Named Entity Recognition, Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning, to detect trends in disease areas and treatments. In addition, insights on healthcare professionals can be integrated into traditional customer relationship management (CRM) systems, making it easier for clients to get greater value from their commercial data.

"Life sciences companies, payers and providers need a fast and effective way to gain actionable insights from social media platforms,” said Siva Nadarajah, CEO of Semantelli. “As part of IMS, we can bring the quickest and most accurate access to these insights to help manage risks, grow brand awareness, generate leads and identify emerging trends. This combination will accelerate the development of comprehensive, integrated solutions that enhance value to clients.