GDEcD: StayWell acquisition of ShareWIK expected to create up to 20 new jobs in Atlanta

ATLANTA, May 24, 2016–The Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDEcD) today announced that The StayWell Company, based in Yardley, Penn., which recently acquired ShareWIK, is expected to bring up to 20 new jobs to Atlanta and up to $2.0 million investment in capital to the Atlanta area. 'Georgia is an emerging leader in the Digital Entertainment industry as a result of our pro-business environment and highly-skilled talent pool,' said GDEcD Commissioner Chris Carr. 'In addition, our strong research and telecommunication's infrastructure positions Georgia as a global leader in the Life Science and Health Information Technology sectors. StayWell and ShareWIK will take advantage of these assets through a unique connection between these thriving industries, bringing quality jobs and investment to Georgia. We look forward to supporting them in future growth.' ShareWIK (short for Share-What-I-Know), boasts a library of over 600 videos that feature compelling stories of individual patients and caregivers sharing their personal experiences about a wide range of health conditions.  Additionally, the company offers its customers custom content development services, including 3-D animations, motion graphics, live event production, infographics, product demonstration videos and more.  Founded by award-winning health care journalist, Diana Keough, ShareWIK is rooted in the art of storytelling. 'You can't educate or inspire someone to change their mindset or behavior if you don't first engage them,' said Keough, vice president, founder and editor in chief of ShareWIK. 'Our team has decades of experience crafting stories that drive people to engage with topics they normally wouldn't.  We've spent years making complicated concepts simple and approachable.' StayWell, ShareWIK's parent company, is a leading provider of patient education, health engagement and population health management solutions that help its clients engage and educate people to improve health and business results.  StayWell fuses expertise in health engagement and the science of behavior change with an integrated portfolio of solutions and robust content assets, now including the ShareWIK solutions. The ShareWIK library adds a new category of patient engagement videos, focusing on the patient and caregiver experience, which complements StayWell's existing library of medically reviewed patient education materials that address a variety of health conditions and procedures. 'Patient engagement is being redefined from face-to-face encounters inside a hospital or clinic, to reaching patients and caregivers everyday via mobile and video platforms with content that is relevant, credible and entertaining,' said Brad Lawson, chief growth officer at StayWell. 'The addition of ShareWIK to the StayWell family allows us to create a new category of credible health entertainment that drives patient engagement in a way that is easy and enjoyable for the average person to consume, to reach patients anytime, anyplace.' GDEcD Project Manager, Asante Bradford, worked with ShareWIK and StayWell throughout the acquisition, in conjunction with the Metro Atlanta Chamber and LaunchPad2X, an organization that helps women entrepreneurs hone their business skills to accelerate growth and build strong networks to meet the challenges of growing a young business. 'ShareWIK dominates its market at a perfect time, with innovative approaches such as storytelling and other arts, based interventions being adopted in healthcare communication.' said Founder and CEO LaunchPad2X USA Inc., Bernie Davis. 'Under Diana's leadership, the company has grown from storytelling to providing patient engagement services second to none. The vision that Diana had a few years ago, has been accomplished with great people working on strong products to serve an ever-increasing market. Diana always had the spark, as an entrepreneur, to make things happen. Through her ideas, businesses skills and, mostly, solid grit, the company grew to the impactful and successful enterprise it is today. Since she participated in LaunchPad2X program, I have been proud to witness her success.' Over the coming two years StayWell expects to hire 15 to 20 digital media professionals, taking advantage of a Georgia talent-base which is home to over 44 thousand workers that include multimedia artists, animators, and software engineers. (EMSI, 2014.2) The State of Georgia has become an established center for thriving digital entertainment sectors. Georgia production incentives provide up to 30 percent of the state's digital entertainment production expenditures in transferable tax credits. These tax credits have led to increased growth in Georgia's economy and are a major initiative of the Georgia Department of Economic Development. About ShareWIK ShareWIK, a wholly owned subsidiary of StayWell, produces and syndicates a new category of content in the health care marketplace: Health Entertainment. With products ranging from custom marketing pieces and medical animations to short-form videos of patient, caregiver and expert personal stories, ShareWIK helps providers, payers, employers and health care innovators reach their audiences where they live, work and while they wait in line for coffee. Together with StayWell's trusted clinical, patient education and population health management offerings, ShareWIK uses the power of personal storytelling to engage, educate and inspire audiences to effectively manage their health conditions and make healthier lifestyle choices. ShareWIK is based in Atlanta, GA. To learn more visit: www.sharewik.com About StayWell StayWell is a health engagement company that helps its clients engage and educate people to improve health and business results. StayWell brings decades of experience working across the health care industry to design solutions that address its clients' evolving needs. We fuse expertise in health engagement and the science of behavior change with an integrated portfolio of solutions and robust content assets to effectively engage people to make positive health care decisions. StayWell programs have received numerous top industry honors, including the C. Everett Koop National Health Award and the Web Health Award for health engagement programs. StayWell also has received URAC and NCQA accreditation for several of its programs. StayWell's corporate headquarters are located in Yardley, Pennsylvania, and StayWell also has offices in various locations, including Salt Lake City, Utah, and St. Paul, Minnesota. To learn more, visit www.staywell.com.