Digital health news, funding round up in the prior week; October 17, 2022

Rite Aid partnered with Google Cloud; Walgreens bought CareCentrix; Brave Health raised $40M

Top Health News

• PointClickCare Technologies, a healthcare technology platform enabling collaboration and access to real‐time insights, announced the launch of its Virtual Health offering – an integrated telemedicine solution to the Skilled Nursing Facilities market. With the help of partner Sound Physicians, this technology is currently being implemented in more than half of the states across the U.S.
• Eon, a health data science company, partnered with UCHealth to complete an implementation of the Eon Patient Management platform that not only helps the health system track potentially dangerous abnormalities in more patients, but improves the flow of electronic information among providers and patients. UCHealth's version of EPM is the first to use a communication standard called FHIR that stems from a 2016 federal law aimed at eliminating information blocking among different electronic systems in healthcare. Thanks to the new standard, UCHealth can now automate many kinds of patient and provider communications, such as reminders to check on a potentially hazardous abnormality that was caught in a radiological image. In addition to the EPM implementation, several UCHealth hospitals are using Eon's Care Management service to track incidentally found lung nodules due to the challenges of hiring an on-site care navigator. Research shows that the earlier a lung nodule is detected, the better the potential outcome is for the patient.
• England soccer player Harry Kane launched a foundation with the aim of changing perceptions of mental health. The Harry Kane Foundation will use the Tottenham striker’s high profile to help normalise conversations around mental health and promote positive habits that end stigma around the subject. Announced on the morning of Mental Health Day, Kane, who has previously supported mental health charities through his shirt sponsorship at Leyton Orient, is fronting a number of initiatives and partnerships to highlight the cause. He will feature in animation that charts his rise from grassroots football to his position as England captain, join a star-studded list of people to narrate children’s stories on the BBC’s CBeebies Bedtime Stories and team up with the Premier League to feature in educational material for schoolchildren.
• Skincare retail ecosystem Corpus Group, personalized brand experience Revieve, and Relational Shopping platform Clientela announced the launch of Coralai, a multi-brand digital skincare retailer built to pair shoppers with products, routines, services, and professionals through computer vision, artificial intelligence, and smart booking for in-person and virtual video appointments. As part of this launch, Coralai is the first retailer to integrate Revieve’s latest development in the U.S, “Skin Coach”, which allows users to trace changes in their skin over time and build customized routines that automatically adjust to evolving personal data and fluctuating environmental factors such as pollution and UV index levels. The partnership brings together Coralai’s skincare retail ecosystem, Revieve's AI Skin Coach experience, and Clientela’s omnichannel, customer relationship management, and clienteling solutions.
• Insurance group Prudential plc and Google Cloud today announced a strategic partnership to enhance health and financial inclusion for communities across Asia and Africa. Under this alliance, Prudential will leverage Google Cloud's data analytics capabilities, secure and sustainable infrastructure, and the broader Google ecosystem, to accelerate its digital transformation and to enhance user engagement of its health and wealth platform, Pulse. For Google Cloud, this partnership presents an opportunity to collaborate with a leading insurance provider to make protection, health and savings solutions simpler and more accessible across Asia and Africa.
• LCMC Health, a  not-for-profit hospital system, and Tulane University announced intentions to partner to expand access to comprehensive and specialty care across Southeast Louisiana, enhance the region's capabilities as a destination for medical innovation and training, and provide community investments and benefits. Upon approval of the proposed partnership, Tulane Medical Center, Lakeview Regional Medical Center, and Tulane Lakeside Hospital will be acquired from HCA Healthcare and will join LCMC Health. Both LCMC Health and Tulane University value our providers and employees and are committed to retaining our staff across both organizations.
• The Chopra Foundation, through its mental health initiative, Never Alone, and NFTs for Good start-up, Seva.Love, partnered with The Girl Generation, the world's largest collective of organizations working together to end Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting, in a global campaign to end gender-based violence and empower those who are survivors or at-risk of FGM/C with the education, tools and mental-health resources to navigate and overcome the societal, emotional, spiritual and physical complexities of this issue. Alongside its on-the-ground efforts, the Chopra Foundation, Never Alone and Seva.Love will be deploying a long-term awareness and fundraising campaign over the next year intended to ignite a global dialogue around this issue, while simultaneously raising the funds needed to tackle it in a meaningful way by rallying the web3 community. Through this holistic approach, they intend to dismantle the structures that enable FGM/C to exist and to provide survivors and those at risk with the tools and resources needed to live safe, healthy lives now and for generations to come.
• The Leidos Partnership for Defense Health announced it successfully delivered the MHS GENESIS electronic health record to an additional 10,000 clinicians and providers as part of its latest double Wave deployment, spanning 18 new Military Treatment Facility Commands in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi and South Carolina. The latest revenue cycle capability integrates new patient accounting, medical coding, and patient registration/access capabilities into the existing MHS GENESIS system. LPDH designed and developed MHS GENESIS, the Military Health System's new electronic health record, and has been providing program management and technical expertise to the Program Executive Office Defense Healthcare Management Systems (PEO DHMS) since 2015.
• ARTIS Ventures, a venture firm pioneering investments in the TechBio space, announced Henry Klingenstein has joined its investment team. In this role, he will contribute to deal sourcing, due diligence, and portfolio support and will play a key role in the ARTIS Ventures Fellows Program, established to connect current MD and PhD students with venture and startup experience. Prior to joining ARTIS, Klingenstein incubated Spur Laboratories, a computational medicine startup using machine learning algorithms for diagnostics, as a researcher in Sendhil Mullainathan’s lab at the University of Chicago. He previously worked at Quid, an ARTIS portfolio company, where he focused on healthcare and industrial clients.
• Global eye care nonprofit Orbis International and UC Davis Health announced the launch today of a two-week training project on board the Flying Eye Hospital, a fully accredited ophthalmic teaching hospital on board a plane. Orbis’s clinical staff and volunteer faculty, along with UC Davis Health physicians and staff, will share their knowledge with nearly 50 ophthalmologists, ophthalmology residents, nurses, and biomedical engineers from Bolivia, Chile, and Peru, helping them build skills to fight avoidable blindness in their communities. The ophthalmologists and ophthalmology residents participating in the training will hone their skills using leading-edge ophthalmic surgical simulation training technology on the Flying Eye Hospital, which is currently at Moffett Federal Airfield, in Mountain View, California.
• Quality and compliance company Radar Healthcare announced plans for a software integration with leading care management platform Nourish Care. The partnership will enable care services to report incidents directly to Radar Healthcare from within the Nourish app. The integration, which will enter beta testing this month (October 2022), will reduce the need for multiple systems to be accessed at the point of care delivery and in turn, release more time which can be spent with residents. The two systems will work seamlessly together. Care providers will be able to record incidents, such as a resident fall, from within the Nourish app. Radar Healthcare will then capture the incident data for analysis and reporting, while a process designed by the customer will be triggered from within Radar Healthcare – ensuring the information at the point of care can be accessed in real-time across the whole care team.
• Prime Care Technologies, provider of integrated, on-demand technology and business intelligence to change the way senior care and other business operators make decisions, and Century Rehabilitation, provider of therapy, recruiting, and consulting services to skilled nursing and outpatient facilities, announced a strategic alliance to deliver better patient outcomes by integrating therapy and clinical electronic health records (EHR) data to senior care providers. Prime Care will use its industry-leading primeVIEW dashboard application to offer these consolidated data analytics to mutual Century Rehabilitation clients. The partnership’s new therapy capabilities achieve three important goals. First to identify differences in assessment data captured by therapists and clinical staff. Second to present those differences in a near real-time alerts-based tool, to be addressed proactively before a care plan and its associated reimbursement is finalized. Third to reduce reliance on manual and time-consuming analysis of assessment and care data. The result is improved patient care and reimbursement accuracy. The therapy capabilities also enhance primeVIEW’s existing analytics and dashboard capabilities. Therapy, clinical, and administrative staff can view current statistics and trends for a single facility or as an aggregate of multiple facilities. This helps providers identify opportunities to train employees and improve coordination between therapy, clinical, and reimbursement staff.
• Global branded payments provider Blackhawk Network partnered with sleep and meditation app Calm to enable gift givers to share the benefits of mindfulness. Leveraging Blackhawk’s vast distribution network, shoppers can now give the gift of Calm via Calm Premium gift cards available at Giftcards.com and GiftCardMall.com, among other major stores and digital retailers. Calm gift cards join Blackhawk’s portfolio of more than 37,000 partners. Blackhawk’s proven best practices, including merchandising, marketing, promotions and end-to-end support services also simplify program management and help maximize gift card program sales for retail card partners.
• Phoenix Heart, a cardiology group, partnered with weight loss app Enara Health to launch a service that is focused on preventing heart disease and diabetes. Covered by most insurances, the physician-supervised medical weight loss program provides a practical and ongoing medical solution to weight loss, specializing in individual treatment plans for each unique patient. The average patient using Enara lost and maintained an average of 41 pounds over 18 months or 15% of their body weight. Through its partnership with Enara, Phoenix Heart enables its physicians to treat obesity by providing quality lifestyle management support. Patients receive tailored plans to improve their nutrition, physical activity, and overall health, ultimately reducing the risk of cardiovascular risk factors and events such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes.
• Zócalo Health, a healthcare service designed specifically for Latino patients, launched its primary care memberships for residents across California and Texas. The company chose to launch in those two states because they have the highest concentration of Latinos in the U.S, explained co-founder and CEO Erik Cardenas; 39% of California residents and 39.3% of Texans are Latino. Latinos living in these states also face significant health inequities: nearly 1 in 5 Latino Californians have no usual source of care; of those, 44% say they do not have enough primary care providers in their communities to meet local needs. In Texas, 39% and 19% of non-elderly Texan Latino adults and children, respectively, are uninsured. In addition to reduced healthcare access, Hispanic adults in Texas also experience high rates of heart diseases, diabetes, and cancer.
• Walmart announced the Walmart Healthcare Research Institute, which is being launched to "increase community access to healthcare research that may help lead to safer, higher quality and more equitable healthcare," will initially be focused on inclusion in studies on treatments for chronic conditions, as well as treatments for communities that are typically underrepresented in clinical trials, such as older adults, rural residents, women, and minority populations. Walmart will allow patients to connect through its MyHealthJourney app, which gives patients access to their data, including medical records and insurance information. Through MyHealthJourney, patients will also receive reminders for care services and research opportunities. Initial partners for WHRI include clinical research organizations, pharmaceutical companies and academic medical centers, such as CTI Clinical Trial & Consulting Services and Laina Enterprises. 
• A new pilot study involving Singapore teachers found that regular use of a mental wellness app solution combined with Fitbit wearable devices to track activity and sleep can have a positive impact on users' physical and mental health. The 10-week study integrated the MindFi app with Fitbit devices to track the progress and lifestyle changes of the participants, including activity level, sleep and heart rate, against user-reported metrics and question responses such as mood and general wellness. The study showed the benefits of using Fitbit to track and understand lifestyle data, in conjunction with the MindFi mental health solution to empower users to self-manage their overall health and wellbeing.
• Palo Santo, a venture capital fund focused on backing and building emerging psychedelic therapeutics companies, announced the closing of its $50 million fund, which is positioned to have a transformative impact on the field of mental health by funding a diverse portfolio of businesses developing innovative psychedelic medicines and therapies targeting both mental health as well as a range of CNS disorders. The Palo Santo Fund is currently invested in over 20 portfolio companies across the psychedelic ecosystem, including Beckley Psytech, Tactogen, Bexson Biomedical, Ksana Health, Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals, Delix Therapeutics, Journey Clinical, and Fluence, among others.
• Rite Aid and Google Cloud today announced a new, multi-year technology partnership that will help Rite Aid realize its vision of a modern pharmacy. Google Cloud technologies will provide Rite Aid with better insights, increased agility, and improved customer experiences. Modernized applications for personalized digital experiences will enable pharmacists to spend more time directly engaging customers. As part of the new partnership, Rite Aid will be migrating key applications to Google Cloud’s Anthos, a managed platform for application deployment. Applications include Rite Aid’s popular vaccine scheduling tool, customer messaging infrastructure, and digital engagement platform. With Anthos, Rite Aid’s approximately 2,350 pharmacies will have cloud computing capabilities on-site, providing resilient operations. Strategic business continuity enables the company to continue to provide elevated care during natural disasters through robust patient information, advanced prescription management, and offering recommendations without needing to be connected to centralized, legacy mainframe technology.
• Health insurance provider Regence and Accountable Care Organization MultiCare Connected Care launched the nation’s first implementation of the HL7 FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) Prior Authorization Support Standard. Developed by the HL7 Da Vinci Project, this application programming interface (API) provides an interoperable method for providers to submit pre-authorization requests directly from electronic health records at the point of care. This will enable faster determinations, reduce administrative burden and costs, and support better outcomes for patients.
• Ginkgo Bioworks, a horizontal platform for cell programming, announced a collaboration with Merck to engineer up to four enzymes for use as biocatalysts in Merck's active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufacturing efforts. Through this collaboration, Ginkgo will leverage its extensive experience in cell engineering and enzyme design, as well as its capabilities in automated high throughput screening, manufacturing process development/optimization, bioinformatics and analytics to deliver optimal strains for expression of targeted biocatalysts.
• Autolus Therapeutics plc, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing next-generation programed T cell therapies, announced that Moderna, a biotechnology company pioneering messenger RNA therapeutics and vaccines, has exercised its option to license Autolus’ proprietary binders against an undisclosed immuno-oncology target for the development and commercialization of mRNA therapeutics. This follows an original agreement with Moderna announced on August 2, 2021, granting Moderna an exclusive option to license Autolus’ proprietary binders for up to four immuno-oncology targets for incorporation in certain mRNA therapeutics. On exercise of the option, Autolus has received an option exercise payment and is eligible to receive development and commercial milestone payments for each product successfully commercialized. In addition, Autolus would be entitled to receive royalties on net sales of all products commercialized under the agreement.
• MitoQ, an advanced health company based in New Zealand, selected Recurly, a subscription management and billing platform, to drive subscriber lifetime value, offer more flexible, personalized subscriptions, and better utilize customer insights to grow their business. The Recurly platform allowed MitoQ to launch quickly, test subscription offers and trial lengths, and evaluate pricing and promotions in near real-time with powerful subscriber analytics. With the global nutritional supplements market expected to hit $624.7 billion by 2030 and the overall health and wellness markets burgeoning, MitoQ saw an opportunity to enhance their customer experience and increase subscriber lifetime value.
• Home care provider Home Instead partnered with Birdie, a home healthcare tech platform, to transform its digital care process and use technological innovation to allow care recipients to live at home longer. In the next 15 years, 1.7 million adults will need social care and the partnership with Birdie will allow Home Instead to implement intuitive technology to help drive efficiency across its 245-strong franchise network in the UK, expanding care professionals' capacity to deliver high quality, personalised, care to more people. The Birdie solution will be used to help the Home Instead network providers manage the entire care process; including care assessment, shift scheduling, employee payroll management, billing and analytics all in one place.
• TVM Capital Healthcare, an emerging-markets focused healthcare private equity firm, and Siemens Healthineers announced a cooperation to support and accelerate the growth of innovative healthcare companies in Southeast Asia. Under the agreement, TVM Capital Healthcare's portfolio companies in SEA will be able to leverage Siemens Healthineers' expertise in the medical technology industry, and its regional presence in Southeast Asia. Through its exclusive "Value Partnership" model, Siemens Healthineers enables healthcare providers to optimize business processes, expand capabilities and advance innovation. This partnership model goes beyond the entire Siemens Healthineers portfolio to generate added value above and beyond the medical technology itself. Siemens Healthineers will also provide access to its Consulting Hub in Singapore to provide consulting on healthcare strategy, development of "Centers of Excellence" in key areas such as Oncology, Cardiology and Neurology, digitalization and operational improvement. This hub is a part of the global Siemens Healthineers consulting network with Consulting Hubs located in the United States, Europe, and Singapore.
• DocGo, a provider of last-mile mobile health services, announced that it will build upon its existing partnership with Gary and Mary West PACE and introduce a remote patient monitoring solution. The RPM pilot program is with West PACE, a Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly, and funded through a research collaboration with West Health Institute. PACE participants have been enrolled in the pilot program, which runs through the end of 2022. In March 2022, DocGo and West PACE announced a collaboration allowing DocGo to provide rapid, in-home, non-emergency, mobile health services to PACE participants aged 55 and older within the San Diego market. Now, after the proven success of this initial launch, DocGo and West PACE will utilize RPM to monitor patients to improve quality of care, reduce episodic and acute healthcare events, and improve chronic disease outcomes. DocGo healthcare professionals can respond in real time to intervene and care for patients in their homes, consequently reducing unnecessary emergency visits and hospitalizations.
• Health Outlook Corporation, a health prediction company using modern proteomics to better predict health events and improve health outcomes, announced a partnership with Applied Underwriters, a global risk services firm, in the formation of Album Life Assurance, a managing general underwriter that will offer a suite of insurance products. The mission of Album Life Assurance is to find innovative ways to use life science and biotechnology to enhance valuable, personalized life insurance and related products that will help families manage some of the uncertainties of life.
• movr, a movement health company, announced a partnership with XTRA, a computer vision technology for health and wellness providers. XTRA's video capture will integrate with Prescribe, movr's recommendation engine, to provide organizations and their members with a personalized exercises experience tailored to individual fitness and movement abilities. XTRA captures exercise movement through any device with a camera, delivering personalized recommendations and a dashboard to track progress over time. XTRA primarily serves health and wellness providers, including physiotherapy, preventative care, fitness and health insurance.
• Pretaa, a behavioral analytics company that seeks to improve outcomes for the millions of Americans and their families affected by substance abuse, announced a Strategic Partnership with Fitbit Health Solutions, to incorporate Fitbit’s devices and services into their substance abuse recovery offering. Pretaa analyzes information from wearable devices worn by those recovering from substance abuse disorder and notifies their care providers, friends, and family members when they might need additional support. Fitbit Health Solutions helps partners use Fitbit’s advanced health and wellness platform to drive behavior change and improve outcomes within their populations. The two organizations recognized that together, they could more effectively use technology to help support people recovering from addiction and substance abuse. Pretaa will incorporate Fitbit data into their analytics platform to help providers have a more holistic view of their patients, and members will have access to Fitbit Premium, which provides more personalized and actionable health guidance.
• Beamtree, a provider of health technology solutions, entered into a strategic partnership to roll out its AI data and decision support products in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Its latest deal with Lean, a health technology enterprise in Saudi, involves the proposed implementation of Beamtree's technology offerings in over 450 public and private hospitals in the kingdom, including hospitals under the Ministry of Health. Those offerings include Beamtree's PICQ, a SaaS which automates the audit of classification and supports clinical record coders to improve data quality. Its AI decision support products, such as RippleDown, will also be promoted, along with its latest offerings in computer-assisted coding that facilitate real-time data analytics and decision support.
• Syneos Health, a fully integrated biopharmaceutical solutions organization, announced an expanded partnership with Datavant, a company that helps organizations securely connect health data. The increasing collaboration between the companies will further leverage the full suite of capabilities in Datavant Switchboard and Datavant’s large data ecosystem to accelerate the clinical development and commercialization of new therapies for patients. Syneos Health and Datavant have a long-standing strategic partnership, and through this expanded relationship, Syneos Health will use Datavant Switchboard to develop advanced analytics and AI-driven technologies to execute more efficient clinical trials, creating an improved experience for patients, sites and biopharmaceutical customers. Additionally, the relationship empowers HEOR, Medical Affairs, Market Access and Commercialization analytics and insights to drive better analysis for Syneos Health’s biopharmaceutical customers’ products.
• Vori Health, a care delivery model for treating musculoskeletal conditions, and TeleMed2U, a company that supplies its patients with real-time access to 120+ specialist care providers, announced a partnership focused on delivering holistic, integrated, and patient-centered care for bone health and more. The partnership unites Vori Health's nationwide, physician-led, virtual-first musculoskeletal medical practice and TeleMed2U's tech-enabled, virtual multi-specialty care model. The jointly-offered, full-spectrum solution will be able to treat a vast array of musculoskeletal conditions by connecting patients to Vori Health's care teams—consisting of board-certified specialty physicians trained in non-operative spine and orthopedics, nurse practitioners & physician assistants, physical therapists, nurses, registered dietitians, and health coach care navigators—as well as TeleMed2U's specialists in endocrinology and rheumatology. Throughout the treatment and recovery trajectory, patients are supported every step of the way to receive the right type of care, at the right time.
• Haleon, a consumer health company, and Microsoft announced a collaboration to make everyday health more accessible for people who are blind, have low vision or have difficulty reading product labels due to low literacy. Together, the companies are expanding functionality in the Microsoft Seeing AI app to provide consumers with more detailed labelling information for over 1,500 Haleon products across the U.S. and U.K. Seeing AI is a free mobile app designed to help people who have trouble seeing by narrating the world around them.
• A Bain and Company survey shows that around half of clinicians surveyed report their mental health has declined since the start of the pandemic. Of those considering leaving the field entirely, 89% cite burnout as the main cause, the consultancy firm's survey of nearly 600 clinicians found. Additionally, around 40% of all clinicians surveyed say they don’t have the resources they need to operate at full potential. They report a lack of effective processes and workflows, supplies and equipment. And 59% don’t believe their teams are adequately staffed. 
• Renew, developer of a denture procedure to make implant solutions more accessible and affordable for everyone, and ProHEALTH Dental, a provider of oral health services, announced a strategic partnership to rapidly expand Renew's existing footprint with new surgical center locations across the New York Tri-State area and New England. STORY3 Capital Partners, an alternative asset manager focused on the consumer value chain, has partnered with Renew to help finance the accelerated roll-out of its surgical centers and further bolster the trusted Renew brand. Together, with the help of ProHEALTH Dental, this first-class team is revolutionizing the dental space with solutions that make beautiful, strong teeth accessible to all.
• Synaptive Medical, a surgical planning, navigation, and robotic visualization technology, announced a joint-development partnership with bioelectronic medicine company Panaxium SAS to incorporate Panaxium’s iontronic electrocorticography platform into Synaptive’s Modus V robotic exoscope technology. This integration will provide unparalleled real-time intelligence on bioelectrical connections and decisive functional mapping information during procedures to help preserve important brain tissues during resection, reduce procedure duration, and improve post-surgery outcomes for the most life-threatening brain disorders.
• Andera Life Sciences, the business line specialising in innovative therapeutics and medical technologies of the asset management company Andera Partners, announced the finalisation of its fundraising for its BioDiscovery 6 fund at 456 million euros. The new fund will enable the management team to pursue its investment strategy focused on building a balanced portfolio of innovative companies developing therapeutics and medical technologies, at all stages of their development, in Europe and the United States. To date, BioDiscovery 6 has made six investments in Evommune, Amolyt, TargED, Tubulis, Mineralys and Imcheck.
• Koble, a digital health and well-being platform for expecting and new parents, announced a partnership with Maple, a virtual care platform that provides on-demand access to healthcare providers. The collaboration is Koble’s largest partnership to date, and will expand access to digital healthcare for Canadian families. Koble, a mobile health app supporting families through planning, pregnancy, postpartum, and return-to-work following parental leave, provides parents personalized guidance as they grow their family. Maple members will now have access to Koble’s evidence-based resources developed and curated by their clinical team that includes 16 types of interdisciplinary health professionals addressing the needs of the entire family.
• Qualifacts, a provider of electronic health record platforms for behavioral health, rehabilitative, and human services organizations, announced an enhanced partnership with current customer Woods System of Care to meet their expanding care needs. To support Woods' integrated care model, Qualifacts will bring its InSync platform primary care workflows together with its CareLogic platform behavioral health clinical engine to allow clinicians across disciplines to have the information they need at their fingertips to provide comprehensive care effectively and efficiently. This project has already begun and will be fully delivered and available to all Qualifacts customers and the market in 2023.
• A team of Chicago Fire Department Community Paramedics are piloting a home visiting program focused on transforming care for patients who have chronic conditions or need extra help managing their health at home. The MHN Paramedic Partnership, a pilot program funded by Medical Home Network, connects Chicago Fire Department Community Paramedics with patients who live on the South Side to bring preventive care to those with the greatest medical need and build healthier communities. The first cohort of 12 community paramedics is making non-emergency field clinical assessments on South Side patients of Chicago Family Health Center, Friend Health and Sinai Medical Group.
• Netsmart, which builds and delivers electronic health record software, health information exchanges, analytics and telehealth solutions and services, and the Shasta County Health & Human Services Agency announced an extended partnership leveraging advanced solutions and services of the Netsmart CareFabric platform to provide whole-person care to California residents. Through this partnership, Shasta County will utilize a full suite of solutions from Netsmart to integrate with the county’s and consumers’ other care providers and establish shared clinical workflows that support the California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal program. Shasta County will utilize several components of the CareFabric platform to support CalAIM program initiatives, including data analytics, consumer engagement, telehealth and care coordination tools. The power of these solutions will drive clinical and consumer engagement, creating provider efficiencies in delivering integrated virtual care. Additionally, the agency will leverage the industry-leading electronic health record (EHR) myAvatar™ designed to simplify the coordination of complex behavioral health services in community-based, residential and inpatient programs across the county’s geographic footprint.
• DrugBank, an intelligent and comprehensive drug knowledge platform, announced a partnership with the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. This move will combine both organization's strengths at delivering reliable, trusted data and open the door for product development collaborations to address industry gaps. DrugBank will integrate ASHP's trusted products and data into its already expansive knowledgebase before making it all available through their industry leading API. ASHP customers can expect increased reliability of data delivery and frequency through DrugBank's secure and user-friendly platform. DrugBank's customerbase, which includes 13 of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies and users in more than 24 countries, will also gain access to ASHP's evidence-based information.
• Medline, a manufacturer, distributor, and solutions provider focused on improving the overall operating performance of healthcare, and Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian health system entered into a multi-year prime vendor partnership valued at $200 million. The strategic partnership will provide an extensive portfolio of essential medical supplies and solutions to the system's entire acute and non-acute care network in service of the full continuum of care for the Orange County community. The two organizations will collaborate to identify new strategies for enhancing the system's supply chain operations, patient outcomes, and clinical efficiencies. As part of the agreement, multiple Medline team members, including a full-time analyst and customer service specialists, will be dedicated to the health system to work hand-in-hand with leaders to address specific caregiver needs and help drive new ways of optimizing care. Hoag will also have the ability to easily monitor key metrics such as item utilization, contract compliance, price accuracy, and spend by product categories through Medline's advanced analytics platforms.
• Mindbody, an experience technology platform for the wellness industry, announced a partnership with Brivo, a provider in cloud-based access control and smart building technologies, to bring wellness businesses better security solutions. Through the partnership, studios and owners on the Mindbody platform will be able to use Brivo Access to protect their business, assets, and members with Brivo's signature cloud-based access control. When choosing Brivo's access control solution, fitness and wellness businesses are able to manage member access to one or multiple studios, allowing member information to automatically sync from Mindbody into Brivo Access and easily gather data to track occupancy, membership traffic, and trends, to help optimize operations. Mindbody customers will also be able to automatically allow their members to use mobile access using the Brivo Mobile Pass application, using their smartphone as their key.
• Illumina, a provider of DNA sequencing and array-based technologies, announced a strategic research collaboration with AstraZeneca, a global, science-led biopharmaceutical company, to accelerate drug target discovery by combining their strengths in artificial intelligence based genome interpretation and genomic analysis techniques along with industry expertise. The collaboration will evaluate whether a combined framework of these technologies can increase the yield and confidence of target discovery to find promising drugs based on human omics insights.
• DXC Technology, a technology services provider, is expanding the DXC Dandelion Program which helps neurodivergent individuals with autism, ADHD, dyslexia and other neurological conditions to build careers in the IT industry. DXC Technology a global technology services provider, is expanding the DXC Dandelion Program which helps neurodivergent individuals with autism, ADHD, dyslexia and other neurological conditions to build careers in the IT industry. Recruitment is now open across the new locations with employment opportunities in various fields including data analytics, software automation, user experience and cybersecurity.
• Oma Fertility, a full-service fertility clinic that combines AI and robotics in the lab and human-centered care in the clinic, announced new strategic collaborations with key agency partners in an effort to accelerate nationwide growth and reach more patients with its technology and improved patient experience. Oma Fertility's new strategic partnership agencies include: Fuseproject has been chosen to develop brand strategy and identity along with clinic design; Doyle, Dane, and Bernbach of Chicago to oversee brand creative and paid marketing strategies; Jack Taylor to manage public relations, corporate reputation, strategic partnerships and executive visibility; and Toast Media Group to oversee owned platforms, social media strategy & creative development and community cultivation.
• ConvergeOne, a services-led provider of cloud, collaboration and digital modernization solutions, and Redox, a healthcare interoperability solution, announced a collaborative partnership. Through this relationship, ConvergeOne's C1Conversations platform — a cloud-based solution that accelerates digital transformations and protects investments in contact center infrastructure — is now capable of integrating with 90+ leading Electronic Health Records or Electronic Medical Records (EHR/EMR) providers. With the integration of Redox, C1Conversations makes it possible for healthcare organizations to deliver an improved patient experience in weeks rather than months. C1Conversations and Redox will give healthcare clients the ability to preserve their existing infrastructure investments and upgrade best-in-breed solutions whether on-prem, hybrid cloud, or multi-cloud, while satisfying the needs of the CTO, CIO and Chief Patient Experience Officer. With Redox integration, C1Conversations' Intelligent Virtual Agent (IVA) will deliver market-leading patient experience automation and optimization in multiple languages, with record voice and digital containment rates.
• Sony Electronics launched its first over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aids for the U.S. market. The company developed unique products in partnership with hearing aid technology developer WS Audiology. Sony said they combine ease of use with comfort and wearability for an “unprecedented hearing experience.” Sony and WS Audiology began by launching two products from the partnership: the CRE-C10 and CRE-E10 self-fitting hearing aids. The companies designed them with the understanding that one size does not fit all. They aimed to offer options best fitting each person’s unique needs, situations and lives.
• Pacific Life announced a strategic partnership with Human API, an electronic health records provider. By incorporating access to electronic health records and attending physician statements through Human API’s platform, applicants can benefit from a more seamless underwriting experience. Pacific Life is focused on innovating the life insurance underwriting process. Access to electronic health records is the most recent of the many improvements that have been made to simplify the buying process by eliminating high friction points and making policies easier for consumers to buy and for financial professionals to sell.
• Xenetic Biosciences, a biopharmaceutical company focused on advancing innovative immune-oncology technologies for the treatment of hard to treat cancers, announced the signing of a patent assignment from CLS Therapeutics. In consideration of the patent assignment, Xenetic will also issue 850,000 shares of common stock to CLS. The Company's collaboration with Volition is an early exploratory program to evaluate the potential combination of Volition's Nu.Q® technology and Xenetic's DNase-Armored CAR T platform to develop proprietary adoptive cell therapies potentially targeting multiple types of solid cancers for which current CAR T cell therapies have shown limited or no effect. Under the terms of the collaboration agreement, Volition will fund a research program and the two parties will share proceeds from commercialization or licensing of any products arising from the collaboration.
• Activate Care, a social risk management solution, announced a partnership with Kronos Health, a primary healthcare provider, which has begun offering Activate Care’s Path Assist, a proactive model that addresses a person’s SDOH-driven needs and navigates them through an intervention with a Community Health Navigator to improve patient outcomes and lower costs of care. By driving action upstream, Path Assist takes a whole-person approach to care interventions – a departure from the traditional model that retroactively responds to healthcare events, such as a visit to the emergency room triggered by a lack of shelter. Path Assist is available to all patients within Kronos Health’s community. Once enrolled, patients are assigned a Community Health Navigator (CHN) who listens to their needs, helps create goals, connects them to local resources and services and coaches them to improve health confidence.
• CarepathRx, a pharmacy and medication management solution, announced a new partnership with Yale New Haven Health System to provide comprehensive home infusion services to the health system’s patient population. This partnership will allow YNHHS to extend its reach into the home setting with services including intake, nursing, billing, reporting, and analytics.
• Healthfirst, a not-for-profit health insurer, and The MediSys Health Network=, a not-for-profit health insurer, announced they are using Hyphen to connect longitudinal data from claims, quality measures and electronic health records to identify gaps in care, making it easier for clinicians to address patient needs in real time. Hyphen is a cloud-based platform that uses Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resource standards to share member data directly into provider or hospital EHR systems, along with patient- and population-level analytics and predictive modeling tools.
• BrainsWay, provider of advanced noninvasive neurostimulation treatments for mental health disorders, announced that it will be collaborating with NOCD, an organization that facilitates access to online therapy for people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) through its innovative telehealth platform. The goal is to raise awareness about OCD treatments among patients, caregivers, and clinicians.
• eXp World Holdings, the holding company for eXp Realty, Virbela and SUCCESS Enterprises, announced the launch of SUCCESS Health, which was designed to provide consumers with the tools and resources they need to help them excel in every area of their personal and professional lives to promote health and wellness. Through the SUCCESS Health website, tools and resources will focus on three key areas: specially curated content, health coaching and a community of health partners. Wellness insights and guidance will be curated from the practices and philosophies of top coaches and thought leaders who work with today’s greatest achievers, top CEOs, and revolutionary entrepreneurs, and other extraordinary leaders. SUCCESS Coaching now offers group and one-on-one specialized health and wellness coaching in addition to other areas of coaching including financial, life, relationship, sales and leadership. SUCCESS Health will establish a community of health partners to provide consumers with wellness and fitness offers and tangible solutions to help them make sustainable life changes. Viome Life Sciences was chosen as SUCCESS's precision nutrition health partner.
• Humana and USAA Life Insurance Company announced a new Medicare Advantage plan designed with veterans in mind to provide a robust coverage option that complements healthcare benefits received through Veterans Affairs. This new co-branded Humana USAA Honor with Rx plan, available to anyone eligible for Medicare,is being offered in eight states starting in 2023 and provides the flexibility for veterans to see in-network local doctors and fill prescriptions at pharmacies close to home, outside the VA system. It’s the only Medicare Advantage plan developed in partnership with USAA.
• Empathia, full-service global provider of Employee Assistance Programs, partnered with Togetherall, a peer-to-peer online mental health service, to increase the mental health offerings available for its members. Togetherall is a leading virtual platform providing safe, clinician-monitored communities for peers to share mental health struggles while receiving and offering support. Championing security, anonymity, and clinical oversight, Togetherall’s technology is a valuable addition for many organizations. Empathia’s clients may now add Togetherall as a valuable resource to their existing plan. Together, Empathia and Togetherall are committed to expanding the reach of mental health services and ensuring individuals have access to reliable, convenient support.
• TranspareRx Corporation, a healthcare technology company bringing transparency to prescription drug pricing, announced its pharmaceutical industry launch of Cuverd, a next-generation prescription savings platform. Effective immediately, pharmaceutical manufacturers can integrate their prescription savings programs within the innovative platform, giving them direct access to millions of consumers through some of the world's largest retailers. Cuverd's point-of-sale technology will automatically alert pharmacy staff of participating copay savings programs for eligible patients. Next, the pharmacy will initiate a patient outreach and consult to streamline the patient's enrollment through the Cuverd app and website. Similarly, pharmaceutical brands can add their current copay savings programs into the Cuverd point-of-sale platform and app to participate and reach more patients. Independent data suggests patients who enroll in copay engagement programs stay on therapy an average of 50-70% longer.
• Everspring, a provider of education technology and services to universities seeking to build or expand their online capabilities, announced an expansion of its partnership with California State University, Chico, which includes a new online Health Services Administration MBA option, making Chico State the only school in the 26-university CSU system to offer this specialization for an online MBA. The Chico State Health Services Administration MBA combines management, finance, marketing and operations concepts with programming from the business side of healthcare for professionals looking to pursue administrative and leadership roles in the healthcare industry. Currently, the healthcare management field is growing four times faster than the national average for other fields, making the Health Services Administration MBA an in-demand area of specialization.
• iCoreConnect, a cloud-based Software-as-a-Service technology provider for healthcare business workflow, announced its integration partnership with toothapps, which provides various administrative technology solutions for dental practices including app-based billing, telehealth, and website design and hosting. iCoreConnect will integrate iCoreExchange, iCoreRx, iCoreVerify, and iCoreCodeGenius into the toothapps Connected Dentistry™ Preferred Products platform. The partnership leads to interoperability exchange and expands affordable access to oral wellness for more dental practices. toothapps customers will be able to leverage iCoreConnect’s innovative cloud ePrescribing, automated insurance verification, encrypted HIPAA email, and ICD-10 medical coding to increase administrative efficiencies. With the addition of iCoreConnect's supplemental offerings, toothapps makes it easier for dental practices to collect patient insurance data, remotely and electronically prescribe medications including controlled substances, ensure fast and accurate insurance coding and billing, and move patient health information easily in a HIPAA-compliant manner. The integration with iCoreConnect ensures toothapps’ competitive edge to continue growing rapidly and service their client base. The agreement also paves the way for the joint offering to grow into medical practices by filling gaps in the interchange of data in Electronic Medical Records.
• Nguvu Health, an on-demand digital mental health platform, and AXA Mansard, a financial services platform for life Insurance, motor Insurance, travel Insurance, health insurance and investment in Nigeria, announced that they entered into a strategic partnership that will allow each company to stay true to their mutual vision of improving access to healthcare, including mental health. The agreement brings together Nguvu Health’s connections to teletherapy services and AXA Mansard’s connections to thousands of users seeking proper health coverage. The partnership is a two-year deal that provides enrollees access to sponsored video therapy sessions claimed with generated codes. The B2B add-ons of the partnership include quarterly discounted wellness sessions and a mental health audit for AXA Mansard’s corporate clients and stakeholders. The B2C arm of the partnership not only focuses on providing discounts for users seeking different therapy types, but also expends a 15% off couple therapy and support group therapy.
• Mater Group and drone logistics company Swoop Aero partnered for integrated drone logistics networks to transport pathology samples from the Moreton Bay islands to Mater Pathology testing labs. Forming Australia’s first drone-enabled pathology collection network, the partnership will allow samples to reach Mater for testing up to six hours sooner. The network is expected to gather over 80,000 pathology samples each year from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Health Service patients, as well as patients from Stradbroke Island, Russell Island, Macleay Island and other Moreton Bay islands serviced by Mater Pathology, and the Redlands and Hope Island on the Gold Coast. Last year, Swoop Aero began operating in Goondiwindi, Queensland in 2021 to transport routine prescriptions to remote patients.
• Moderna and Merck announced that Merck has exercised its option to jointly develop and commercialize personalized cancer vaccine mRNA-4157/V940 pursuant to the terms of its existing Collaboration and License Agreement. mRNA-4157/V940 is currently being evaluated in combination with KEYTRUDA, Merck's anti-PD-1 therapy, as adjuvant treatment for patients with high-risk melanoma in a Phase 2 clinical trial being conducted by Moderna. Under the agreement, Merck will pay Moderna $250 million to exercise its option for personalized cancer vaccines including mRNA-4157/V940 and will collaborate on development and commercialization. Merck and Moderna will share costs and any profits equally under this worldwide collaboration.
• Dstillery, a custom audience solutions company, partnered with PurpleLab, a healthcare data and analytics platform provider, to power its Custom Patient Targeting solution with real-world data, including ICD-10 codes from claims data. With the PurpleLab partnership, Custom Patient Targeting leverages 40 billion medical and pharmacy claims capturing comprehensive coverage of the entire US population and 98% of payer data. Dstillery's data scientists can seed a brand's custom model with ICD-10 codes specific to a condition, in addition to search terms proven to reach the right patients. Custom Patient Targeting doesn't rely on any form of personal user information, making it compliant with HIPAA, NAI and activation platform guidelines.
• GoodRx, a consumer-focused digital healthcare platform, launched Provider Mode, a new experience that is built specifically for healthcare providers to help them find affordable solutions for the medications they prescribe. Built by GoodRx’s own team of medical professionals along with external healthcare provider focus groups, Provider Mode offers customized tools designed to help HCPs and office staff support patients throughout their healthcare journey.
• Bright Health announced its decision to further focus its business on its Fully Aligned Care Model and will no longer offer Individual and Family Plans through Bright HealthCare, or Medicare Advantage products outside of California and Florida in 2023. With this announcement, in addition to the previously announced market exits, Bright HealthCare will not offer Individual and Family health plans in Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Nebraska, North Carolina, Texas, and Tennessee after 2022(1), or Medicare Advantage plans outside of California and Florida.
• MyndVR, a provider of VR-based, digital therapeutic experiences designed for the aging population, and Oroi, a virtual reality platform for seniors, announced a partnership to expand MyndVR's catalogue of cognitive, physical, and occupational therapies. Now available on the MyndVR network, Oroi Cognitive includes multiple exercises and games that simulate daily life situations, such as shopping in a market, orienting within a city, tidying up a room, getting dressed, and many other activities of daily living (ADLs), a common set of skills taught by professional therapists. In addition to Oroi Cognitive, MyndVR will be providing Oroi Fit – a VR exercise app that combines physical exercise with immersive content like biking through the countryside or rowing down a river.
• Over the past 25 years, Methodist Health System and Oracle Cerner have worked together to improve the patient and caregiver experience in Omaha and the surrounding communities. Continuing to deepen the relationship, Methodist committed to a 10-year contract extension. In the years since its first contract signing in 1996 – when it selected Oracle Cerner as its lab and pharmacy technology provider – Methodist has benefited from the full suite of Oracle Cerner solutions. This includes Cerner Millennium® electronic health record, Cerner Patient Accounting and Cerner HealtheIntent®, which have led to noted improvements in consumer engagement over the last several months. Oracle Cerner technology helps Methodist fulfill its patient-centric mission by providing tools to help consumers take control of their health while allowing clinicians to provide care with near real-time and actionable data. Possessing a significant share of the Omaha market, the health system aims to enhance quality care for patients by providing them access to their own data, as well as furthering its investment in interoperability and future innovation.
• Full Sail and AdventHealth University came together to launch a brand new lab on campus, the Full Sail University Healthcare Technology Lab powered by AdventHealth University. The healthcare tech lab is the latest addition to Full Sail’s 110-plus studios and labs, and is designed to give the teams at Full Sail and AHU a space to develop innovative solutions to enhance patient safety, training for nurses and other medical professionals, and collaborate on joint healthcare research projects. Focusing on the intersection of technology and healthcare, the new campus space will be accessible to students in Full Sail degree programs focused on emerging technologies as well as students in a variety of AdventHealth University degree programs including Occupational Therapy and Nursing. Students will be able to explore innovative healthcare applications and get hands-on experience with access to industry-standard equipment and technology including a Stratasys F770 Large Format 3D Printer.
• Royal Philips announced expanded rollout of its augmented reality surgical navigation solution, ClarifEye, to Japan, highlighting positive results in the first patients treated by the International University of Health and Welfare, Mita Hospital using this innovative 3D AR solution. Installed on a Philips interventional X-ray system in a hybrid operating room at Mita Hospital, ClarifEye helped the hospital’s orthopedic surgeon Dr. Ken Ishii to successfully treat patients with spinal stenosis (narrowing of the spaces in the spine) and scoliosis (sideways curvature of the spine) via minimally-invasive image-guided procedures.
• CCS, provider of clinical solutions and home-delivered medical supplies for those living with chronic conditions, announced a new technology partnership with Welldoc and ZeOmega to expand its established LivingConnected solution. This new, proprietary approach to managing chronic conditions will help improve patient outcomes and reduce costs of care for employer groups and health plan customers by integrating clinical device and care utilization data. The Welldoc digital health tool allows individuals to track device readings and access coaching, and the ZeOmega platform captures utilization patterns and claims data. With the combination of these digital health products powering the LivingConnected program, certified CCS clinicians will now have real-time visibility into glycemic control to customize member engagement and guide necessary clinical interventions. Also, employers and health plans leveraging LivingConnected will benefit from being able to better assess the health outcomes and the financial impact of CCS's holistic chronic care management approach.
• Synchrony, a consumer financing company, announced the availability of Allegro Credit, a point of sale consumer financing solution for the hearing industry, on Sycle's practice management platform. With the new integration, audiology providers can more quickly and easily deploy a comprehensive set of financing options – from a healthcare credit card to an installment loan. Sycle, a cloud-based practice management software for the audiology industry, is expanding its relationship with Synchrony to include both the CareCredit healthcare credit card and Allegro Credit installment loan financing solutions.
• PointClickCare Technologies, a healthcare technology platform enabling meaningful collaboration and access to real‐time insights, announced a partnership with findhelp, an end-to-end community social service network and referral management platform that addresses patients' social determinants of health. Through this partnership, patient referral data for in-community social services like transportation, housing, and food insecurity will now automatically be surfaced to present to care coordinators, case managers, and social workers in the highly integrated care collaboration platform for providers and health plans, ensuring clinicians have access to the right information as they need it.
• Virgin Pulse, a digital-first health and wellbeing company, announced the addition of five new or expanded partners to its curated ecosystem, providing more support in areas of growing importance for clients and members to drive better outcomes and manage costs. These include surgical centers of excellence, virtual care for chronic conditions, digestive health support, and resources for chronic condition prevention. Additionally, new workforce resilience offerings have been added to its VP+ partner bundle program. Available via its Homebase for Health® platform, Virgin Pulse's partner ecosystem streamlines access to more than 70 specialty solutions, making it easy for companies to connect members with a broad range of high-impact health and wellbeing programs. Virgin Pulse also offers its one-contract VP+ partner bundle program, which enables employers and health plans to easily curate a suite of pre-vetted, pre-integrated partner solutions that meet the needs of their populations.
• GRAIL, a healthcare company whose mission is to detect cancer early when it can be cured, and Carrum Health, a digital health company connecting employers and employees to Centers of Excellence through a technology-powered, value-based care platform, announced a partnership to include the Galleri multi-cancer early detection test as part of Carrum Health’s oncology offering to self-insured employers. This product integration will enable employers who offer Carrum Health benefits to provide eligible employees the Galleri test as part of the comprehensive cancer care Carrum delivers.
• Iterative Scopes, a precision-medicine technology for gastroenterology, announced that it partnered with One GI, a gastroenterology management services organization, to bring its AI Recruitment technology to One GI’s clinical research. Initially, One GI will use AIR at Gastro One, one of One GI’s clinical research sites in Memphis, Tennessee, with plans to expand to additional research sites within the One GI® network. The implementation of AIR will aid in the recruitment of patients for clinical trials focused on inflammatory bowel disease. The partnership between the two organizations will allow One GI physicians to leverage the AI-based technology from Iterative Scopes to standardize the endoscopic scoring process for patients and identify likely eligible patients to enroll in IBD clinical trials. By initiating the collaboration at Gastro One, the organizations are taking initial steps to develop a hub and spoke recruitment model for One GI, which will democratize access to the novel IBD therapeutics for all patients, regardless of where they receive care.
• Lumea, an integrated digital pathology solution, announced a strategic partnership with P4 Diagnostix to implement the newly launched Lumea Pathology LIS Upgrade System (Lumea+). Lumea+ will automate specific areas of P4’s specimen processing workflow and enable digital image analysis for prostate, breast, and other biopsy case types. Lumea+ incorporates Lumea’s leading-edge technology and proprietary consumables with any existing LIS. This upgraded system maximizes lab and pathologist efficiencies and improves quality throughout the entire pathology workflow. Lumea’s solution provides a seamless transition from traditional to digital pathology. P4 Diagnostix is a national network of laboratories servicing urology, gastroenterology, dermatology, and women’s health with offerings in anatomic, clinical, and molecular pathology. The P4 lab network is connected by VitalAxis, one of the industry’s leading lab information systems. P4’s robust IT infrastructure allows them to interface with clients’ offices, surgery centers, and physician-owned laboratories, creating a true end-to-end IT solution.
• Cipher Skin, a hardware-enabled monitoring platform that delivers flexible, hybrid recovery for musculoskeletal care, launched an integration with Medistics, a care management platform that aggregates patient health data for more personalized, holistic care delivery. This partnership will allow Medistics' providers to access the motion and biometrics data captured by Cipher Skin's BioSleeve technology. Care teams using Medistics will also benefit from Cipher Skin's Recovery App, which gives end-to-end visibility into each patient's recovery journey.
• St. Joe’s, a research and academic health science centre, partnered with precision surgery company MOLLI Surgical to treat breast cancer patient with new surgical technology. In the past, St. Joe’s radiologists would insert a low-dose radioactive marker or a small wire into the abnormal tissue of breast cancer patients. These interventions can be uncomfortable and there may be anxiety due to the use of a radioactive marker. But now, the MOLLI Marker— the size of a sesame seed — is implanted to mark a patient's lesion, eliminating safety concerns from radiation and creating a more comfortable experience. This new technique allows St. Joe’s surgeon Dr. Peter Lovrics to create a smaller incision and better target the cancer cells. Since May 2022, MOLLI has been used for all localization procedures by St. Joe’s due to its ease of use and improved experiences for doctors and patients.
• AdTheorent Health, a privacy-first machine learning-based advertising solutions to drive measurable outcomes for healthcare marketers, announced the launch of AdTheorent Health Predictive Audiences. AdTheorent Health Predictive Audiences allow programmatic advertisers to target "audiences" in a more precise, data-driven and less opaque manner than was previously possible. AdTheorent Health Predictive Audiences are fully customized based on advertiser requirements and use primary-sourced healthcare data and statistics to identify the most qualified audiences for targeting consideration -- without relying on personalized information or user IDs.
• Healthy Blue, a collaboration of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City and Anthem Partnership Holding Company, along with EVERFI, a social impact education innovator, announced the launch of an interactive, health and wellness initiative across select communities in Kansas. The initiative includes a suite of digital courses that will cover topics such as mental wellness, prescription drug safety, underage drinking prevention, and the development of healthy habits. The curriculum, directed at middle and high school students, is made available at no cost to schools through Healthy Blue's relationship with EVERFI.
• The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital announced an academic collaboration to transform and accelerate the identification of vulnerabilities in pediatric cancers and translate them into better treatments. The collaboration is supported by a new joint funding investment by all three institutions of more than $60 million over five years. This investment will support infrastructure development and scientific work by a team currently composed of more than 80 collaborating investigators, data scientists and research staff. The effort is expected to reach 100 members as each institution adds employees.
• K4Connect, a senior living integrated enterprise technology platform, and Vayyar Care, an automatic fall detection and remote monitoring company, entered into a partnership to bring touchless, camera-free fall detection technology to senior living residents and operators across the U.S. Falls are the number one injury risk for older adults, accounting for tens of thousands of fatalities per year and billions in annual healthcare costs. Today, this problem is further compounded by the rapid decline in the caregiver workforce that supports the fast-growing older adult demographic. To address this nation-wide concern, Vayyar Care will integrate with K4Community, K4Connect’s solution for the residents, staff and operators of senior living communities, to deliver the industry’s most advanced automated fall detection solution available.
• Hospital for Special Surgery, an academic medical center focused on musculoskeletal health, and Lumoptik, a development stage medical device company with light-based technology, announced a new collaborative relationship. Lumoptik and HSS aim to develop cutting-edge technologies and products to assist with epidurals, pain management procedures and other potential orthopedic and neurology uses, in addition to clinically evaluating Lumoptik's BrightPoint™ System for assisting with epidurals. This unique relationship combines the clinical expertise of HSS's world-class Department of Anesthesia and Pain Management with Lumoptik's BrightPoint platform technology and product development capabilities to improve how patient care is delivered
• A report from the CDC, using 2021 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data, found that 37% of adults used telemedicine in 2021, including 42% of women and 31.7% of men. When broken down by race, the largest percentage of telemedicine usage came from the non-Hispanic American Indian or Alaska Native community, 40.6% percent of whom used it; that was followed by 39.2% of Non-Hispanic whites, 33.1% for non-Hispanic Black people, 32.8% among the Hispanic population, and 33% for non-Hispanic Asians. The percentage of adults who used telemedicine increased with age, though perhaps that just had to do with fewer young people seeing a doctor at all: 29.4% those aged 18 to 29 used these services, compared to 35.3% of those aged 30 to 44, and 38.9% of those aged 45 to 65. It was the 65 and over crowd who was most likely to use telemedicine, with 43.3%.
• Virtual primary care provider HealthTap announced a partnership with Samsung that will allow patients to conduct their virtual healthcare visits through their Samsung Smart TVs. Patients will be able to connect to HealthTap’s healthcare platform, and visit with a doctor of their choice, through the connected camera on the television. Consumers can also review the doctor's bio, credentials, and video interviews, and schedule an appointment within the same week. Founded in 2010, HealthTap provides its members access to a long-term primary care doctor who can orchestrate all their ongoing health needs. Patients pay $15 per month to get access to free texting with their doctor, $39 video appointments, and $59 visits for 24/7 urgent care. HealthTap also has a network of 90,000 volunteer U.S. doctors across 147 specialties who can give parients free informational answers to health questions. The company serves tens of millions of consumers online and provides thousands of doctor visits.
• DrOwl, a platform that empowers consumers with the access, knowledge, and data needed to help make better healthcare decisions, announced a strategic partnership with Senior.com to provide seniors and caregivers with the access and knowledge they need to help make more informed healthcare decisions. Users can save up to 80% on their prescriptions, store important documents and securely sync their medical records to DrOwl for free from Medicare, the VA, and thousands of other providers in the U.S. This new collaboration will enable millions of members to take control and manage their family's health needs from one convenient place. Seniors will have the ability to upload and share important documents, such as vaccination records, healthcare directives, and more, and they'll also have access to a list of their current prescriptions with descriptions and warnings. Users will also receive coupons for their medications with discounts of up to 80% off, and a list of the closest pharmacies will also be readily available. DrOwl also features a Personal Health Search Engine, which users can utilize to research their conditions and medications using physician-trusted sources of information.
• Nordic Consulting, a global health and technology consulting company, announced it is now a member of the Microsoft Cloud Partner Program. With Nordic’s niche and unique comprehensive healthcare expertise, this relationship will enable Microsoft and Nordic’s joint customers to advance digital implementation, innovation, and end-to-end healthcare modernization. By working with Microsoft, Nordic can meet its customers at any state of enterprise architecture, helping them with deep discovery and risk assessment, recommend strategies and migration, and develop cloud adoption approaches. To help customers with additional budget support, Nordic can facilitate its partner innovation fund to build key levers for cloud adoption including proof of concepts.
• RxSpark, a pharmacy discount platform, announced a new partnership with Capital Rx, a health technology company changing the way prescription drugs are priced and patients are serviced, to offer its users access to more affordable medications. Through the partnership, RxSpark prices are now cheaper 7 out of 10 times for the most purchased medications when compared against competitors. The RxSpark program is accepted at all major supermarket pharmacies, including Publix and Kroger. The cost of prescription drugs in the US is continuing to outpace inflation, putting many Americans in dire situations. According to a recent KFF study, eight in 10 adults say the cost of prescription drugs is unreasonable, and about three in 10 adults report not taking their medicines as prescribed at some point in the past year because of the cost. Patients with access to pharmacy discounts are more likely to fill their prescriptions and comply with their doctor-prescribed medication and treatment plans. RxSpark and Capital Rx share a joint commitment to transparent drug pricing and believe improving access to affordable medication is vital to improving health outcomes and adherence to treatment plans.
• Samsung announced it has set a target of screening 150,000 individuals in India for eye diseases using its unique 'EYELIKE Fundus' camera by the end of 2023. The camera has been developed by Samsung in partnership with the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB), Yonsei University Health System (YUHS) and Lab SD, Inc. To screen patients, Samsung has partnered with four eye hospitals – Sitapur Eye Hospital in Uttar Pradesh; Aravind Eye Hospital in Pondicherry; Guruhasti Chikitsalya in Jodhpur, Rajasthan; and Dr. Shroff's Charity Eye Hospital in New Delhi. So far, Samsung has upcycled nearly 200 units of old Galaxy smartphones and distributed the cameras to partners in India.
• Biomerica announced that under a General Merchandise Supplier Agreement with Walmart, the Company’s Aware Breast Self Exam device will now be sold in over 2400 Walmart’s retail stores. In July, the Company announced that Walmart had begun selling the Aware product online through Walmart.com. Walmart has now determined to also sell Aware in-store, at approximately 50% of their retail store locations. Biomerica has received and shipped an Initial stocking order from Walmart, and the product should be on store shelves within weeks. The product retails for $19.95. The Biomerica FDA cleared Aware® Breast Self Exam device is a revolutionary way for women to enhance tactile sensitivity to detect changes or irregularities in breast tissue, making breast self-exams easy and convenient. The Aware® device can facilitate an effective self-exam and can serve as a reminder to perform a breast self-exam every month.
• Inceptor Bio, a cell therapy biotechnology company and Avectas, a cell engineering technology leader, announced their collaboration to improve the development and manufacturing of next-generation CAR-T cell therapies for the treatment of solid tumors. Under the agreement, Inceptor will utilize Avectas' SOLUPORE technology as an alternative to electroporation for engineering T cells with the goal to yield a healthier T cell product. Avectas' SOLUPORE technology is well suited to Inceptor Bio's CAR-T cell process, which aims to improve the quality of the engineered T cells, and ultimately, enhance their durability in the tumor microenvironment. By combining Avectas' SOLUPORE® delivery with Inceptor Bio's CAR-T cell therapy platform, the engineered cells have the potential for improved performance and efficacy.

M&A

• BroadcastMed, a healthcare media company, acquired Harborside, a medical publishing and communications specializing in oncology
• Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, a private investment firm, and TPG, an alternative asset management firm, completed their acquisition of Covetrus, a provider of animal-health technology and services
• Custom Health, which helps people who take medication to have the best possible health outcomes, acquired Health in Motion Network, a provider of software that organizes patients' important health information
• Precise Behavioral, which offers staff and other management services for behavioral health operations, acquired Rose Health, a Behavioral Health Integration and patient monitoring solution
• Smart Data Solutions, a provider of data management, claim routing and workflow solutions to payers, acquired JMS and Associates, a provider of outsourced solutions to TPAs and other healthcare organizations
• Gradient AI, an enterprise software provider of artificial intelligence solutions in the insurance industry, acquired the analytics business underwriting unit of Prognos Health, a company whose mission is to democratize data to improve health
• Walgreens Boots Alliance announced the acceleration of its plans to acquire full ownership of home healthcare company CareCentrix
• WELL Health Technologies, a digital health company focused on positively impacting health outcomes by leveraging technology to empower healthcare practitioners and their patients globally, entered into an agreement to acquire Cloud Practice, a medical software application company
• Cambridge Cognition Holdings PLC, a provider of cognitive assessment software, acquired eClinicalHealth, a provider of virtual clinical trials
• Verustat, a full-service remote patient monitoring company, acquired MassCare, a provider of Annual Wellness Visit and Chronic Care Management services
• VITALHUB, a provider of software for health and human services providers, acquired Community Data Solutions, an online case management system
• Veranex, a service provider dedicated to the medical technology industry, acquired an ecosystem of full-service medical device consultancy companies, including Devicia, a full-service partner offering clinical expertise; Clarvin, a provider of strategic guidance in regulatory affairs and quality assurance; and affiliate companies Kickfile, Lea Reg, and Limulus Bio
• Nextech, a provider of a comprehensive specialty practice solution including Electronic Health Record and Practice Management functionality, acquired TouchMD, a visual consultation, marketing, and imaging software platform
• Emergex, a clinical stage biotechnology company addressing major global infectious diseases through the development of fully synthetic CD8+ T cell Adaptive Vaccines, acquired the assets of clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company Zosano Pharma Corporation, including intellectual property, license agreements, manufacturing equipment. and Zosano’s proprietary microneedle array patch intradermal drug delivery system
• Beckman Coulter Diagnostics, a clinical diagnostics company, acquired StoCastic, an AI  company that provides evidence-based decision support for hospital emergency departments
• Lovell Government Services, a a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business, announced a partnership with Northgate Technologies, a developer of minimally invasive surgical technology. Lovell will be the federal distribution partner to support sales through government healthcare systems such as the Veterans Health Administration, the Military Health System, and Indian Health Services. This allows government customers to purchase the NEBULAE SRS for the best possible price. In addition, placing products on contract vehicles with an SDVOSB contract holder streamlines the acquisition process while helping government agencies meet their SDVOSB procurement goals.
• Sebia, a global specialty diagnostic company providing innovative solutions for screening and diagnostics in oncology, metabolic diseases, genetic disorders and autoimmune diseases, acquired Zeus Scientific, an In Vitro Diagnostic company
• DexCare, a data-driven intelligence company focused on creating exceptional healthcare access experiences for everyone, acquired eCommerce and online merchandising technology company Womp
• Premier, a healthcare improvement company, closed its acquisition of assets from TRPN Direct Pay,  a claims payment process, and Preferred Provider Organization Devon Health, including contracts with more than 900,000 providers across 4.1 million U.S. locations, as well as licenses to TRPN’s proprietary cost containment technology
• Sentrics, a senior living and patient experience solution, acquired Connected Living, a resident engagement platform

Funding Roundup

• Clerkenwell Health, a psychedelic-specialist clinical research organisation, raised £2.1 million
• DocSun Biomed, a provider of non-contact, non-invasive, non-intrusive vital signs software as medical device, raised an undisclosed amount of funding
• OpenUp, a platform that enables employees to work on their mental health in an affordable and accessible way, raised €15 million
• Gennisium, a company who's mission is to provide newborn patients with suitable medicines, raised an undisclosed amount of funding
• FOLX Health, a provider of virtual care to the LGBTQ+ community, raised $30 million 
• Shimmer, an ADHD coaching platform, launched with $1.3 million
• Brave Health, which expands mental healthcare access for Medicaid patients, raised $40 million
• Liine, an AI-powered call recording and automation platform for specialty healthcare and dental practices, raised $3 million
• Lifestores Healthcare, a retail pharmacy start-up, raised $3 million
• Vezeeta,a digital healthcare platform in MEA that connects patients with healthcare providers and health services, raised an undisclosed amount of funding
• Spren, which transforms smartphone cameras into real-time biomarker sensors without additional hardware or wearables, raised $11.3 million
• Neumora Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology company pioneering precision medicines for brain diseases through the integration of data science and neuroscience, raised $112 million
• Evolt 360, an advanced health monitoring technology company, raised $12 million
• T-Shirt Ventures, a company that helps National Disability Insurance Agency participants easily access health support, raised $11 million
• Redmoor Health, a digital healthcare services partner, raised an undisclosed amount of funding 
• NeuroFlow, which helps identify patients who need mental health care and then gets them to the right level of care, raised $25 million
• Good Health Company, a D2C health technology firm, raised $10 million
• Strove, which empowers organisations to inspire their employees to live a healthy and active life, raised an undisclosed amount of funding
• Ateria Health, a biotech company that develops and distributes supplements for overall health, raised £1.5 million
• Obatala Sciences, a company that helps pharmaceutical companies bring new drugs to market faster through a diversity-focused testing technology, raised $3 million
• Matchpoint Therapeutics, a biotechnology company founded to leverage the power of covalency for the discovery of precision small molecule medicines, launched with $100 million

(Image source: hbr.org)