Digital health news, funding round up in the prior week; May 30, 2023

ReNAgade Therapeutics raised $300M; FemTec Health shut down; Canary Speech partnered with Microsoft

Top Health News

• United States Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy released a new Surgeon General’s Advisory on Social Media and Youth Mental Health in which he urged policymakers, technology companies, researchers, families, and young people to do more to mitigate the potential harms of social media. For example, he wrote that policy makers can strengthen protections to ensure greater safety for children interacting with all social media platforms, which can including developing age-appropriate health and safety standards, requiring a higher standard of data privacy for children to, and supporting increased funding for future research on both the benefits and harms of social media use and other technology and digital media use for children, adolescents, and families. Tech companies, meanwhile, can conduct transparent and independent assessments of the impact of social media products and services on children and adolescents, while also designing and evaluating platforms, products, and tools that foster safe and healthy online environments for young people.
• H1, a company that uses data to identify and connect with the most relevant healthcare professionals in order to facilitate clinical trials and research, partnered with The Michael J. Fox Foundation. MJFF selected H1's Trial Landscape solution, which allows organizations uncover a diverse pool of investigators and sites that have access to the right patient population to run a successful clinical trial based on past performance and future indicators, to improve and transform its education and research initiatives. Through this partnership, MJFF will be able to identify physicians who are treating PD and gaining a deep understanding of their patient populations, who research and clinical trial teams can then partner with, gaining them access to a more representative population. In addition, Trial Landscape will help the Foundation gain insights into underrepresented patient populations.
• Centrient Pharmaceuticals, a business-to-business company in sustainable antibiotics, next-generation statins and anti-fungals, and Ginkgo Bioworks, which is building a platform for cell programming and biosecurity, announced they are expanding their existing partnership aimed at broadening Centrient's portfolio of environmentally friendly active pharmaceutical ingredients, following the success of previous work together. Ginkgo's ongoing partnership with Centrient focuses on improving the sustainability of fermentation and enzymatic syntheses of beta-lactam antibiotic APIs. In the first phase of this project, Ginkgo delivered an enzyme with significantly improved efficiency, reducing the environmental footprint of enzymatic production of amoxicillin and cephalexin APIs. These semi-synthetic beta-lactam antibiotics are widely prescribed to both children and adults and are on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines. Centrient aims to build on these improvements through ongoing strain projects on Ginkgo's platform which focus on reducing carbon emissions and waste production compared to traditional chemical routes.
• Simple HealthKit, addressing health inequity with the first human-centric, end-to-end healthcare platform that builds and delivers diagnostics, treatment and follow-up care for all, launched an expanded at-home sexual health kit for the five common STIs in the U.S.: Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, Trichomoniasis, HIV & Syphilis. The test is simple to use, easily available, inclusive and affordable, and includes a telehealth visit and aftercare for those who test positive for one or more conditions. Tests are processed at Simple HealthKit’s CLIA-certified labs within 24 hours of receipt.
• 29 health systems across the U.S. pledged to join a nationwide health information sharing framework called Trusted Exchange Framework and the Common Agreement. TEFCA is a public-private partnership authorized in the 21st Century Cures Act, a bipartisan congressional initiative to advance interoperability across the country. The health systems that have pledged to join TEFCA include some of the most renowned and respected medical organizations in the U.S. and span from large hospitals to safety nets. These health systems already use Epic’s interoperability tools to advance information sharing and have pledged to use Epic’s software to share health information through the emerging TEFCA framework.
• Women's health startup FemTec Health is out of money and winding down operations, according to public legal documents and social media posts. A document emailed to several shareholders and dated May 12 says FemTec "has decided to discontinue its business" and is transferring all its property and assets to an unaffiliated assignee named FemTec Health LLC. Signed by FemTec CEO Kimon Angelides, the document also says FemTec is "indebted to various creditors and is unable to pay its debts in full."
• Nightingale Health Plc , a technology company promoting preventative health with its proprietary health risk detection platform, received six patent approvals for its proprietary health risk detection platform. The patents were granted for the company’s health risk detection platform’s ability to determine whether an individual is at risk of developing renal disease, atrial fibrillation, digestive system disease, and pre-eclampsia. Additionally, patents were granted for the ability to determine whether an individual is at risk of dying from breast cancer and risk of dying from prostate cancer.
• Atlantic Health System, a not-for-profit health system providing care for more than half the state of New Jersey, parts of New York and Pennsylvania, partnered with behavioral health infrastructure company NeuroFlow to launch and facilitate the use of the collaborative care model - known as the gold standard of integrated care models - across 16 accountable care organization sites. The partnership will be activated with an initial focus on migrating clinical workflows to NeuroFlow’s registry, or caseload management tool, providing care team members with the ability to track and measure patient progress in between appointments and improve resource allocation. The initial rollout of NeuroFlow to support behavioral health screening for adult patients in the ACO will begin in June. The additional enrollment of younger patients and launch of collaborative care programs will take place in subsequent months.
• Canary Speech announced that it will apply the power of artificial intelligence voice analysis technology to address a variety of mental health challenges and enable early intervention, reduce healthcare costs, and scale remote patient monitoring (RPM) solutions. As part of the collaboration, Canary Speech has become a Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare co-sell partner and will use Microsoft Azure as its cloud solution to extend its robust machine learning speech models to new customers. The API-first platform is designed to integrate with existing solutions to enhance a users' experience and improve clinical outcomes. Partners can also configure the Canary Speech app to capture additional data points in addition to the voice recording / analysis. One way Microsoft customers can easily access and scale Canary AI vocal insights is through its integration with Microsoft Teams.
• League, a provider of healthcare consumer experience platform technology, announced a partnership with Publicis Health, a provider of healthcare communications specializing in pharmaceutical marketing, advertising, consulting, market access and brand management. The partnership will enable better, more connected patient experiences that foster more meaningful healthcare engagement and, ultimately, drive better health outcomes.
• Royal Philips and Vanderbilt University Medical Center announced a collaboration that aims to reduce the health system’s carbon footprint while determining a blueprint to guide industry efforts. The project is with the radiology department, where efforts will focus on measuring and addressing energy consumption of VUMC’s diagnostic imaging devices including MR, CT, ultrasound and X-ray. The two organizations plan to publish their findings with the aim of promoting knowledge exchange and enabling others in the industry to enhance their environmental strategies.
• Sparta Group launched an Autonomous Medicine Project, bringing together several of the Company's technology partners to potentially transform healthcare delivery in situations where access to medical assistance is limited or slow, including remote areas like Canada's northern Territories. When complete, the project is expected to offer healthcare professionals a medical decision support software that is Health Canada/FDA approved as a medical device and is capable of autonomously diagnosing illness and prescribing treatment. The project is initiated through Sparta's newly formed division, Sparta Health Corp.
• Linkwell Health, a consumer engagement technology company in healthcare, and Avēsis, a provider of dental, vision, and specialty benefits, announced their partnership to improve access to quality care among Medicaid members. Linkwell Health will partner with Avēsis to deploy technology-enabled omnichannel digital engagement solutions to support two of Avēsis’s signature programs: eye exams for people with diabetes and in-school dental visits for children. The omnichannel program will include action-oriented content that educates members about eye and oral health, guides them to actions that can improve their health, and drives them to book appointments.
• eClinicalWorks, an ambulatory cloud EHR, announced that New Life Health & Concierge, a primary care practice specializing in patient-centered concierge medicine, selected eClinicalWorks and healow to improve efficiency, drive patient acquisition, enhance patient engagement and lower costs. With eClinicalWorks and healow, the newly founded Fort Worth, TX based New Life Health & Concierge can leverage tools that will allow the company to spend more time focusing on improving and expanding their business and less time organizing their front and back office. In addition to eClinicalWorks Cloud EHR, healow TeleVisits helps the organization deliver in-office quality remotely, and improve safety, while also providing access to healthcare and convenience for patients and providers.
• Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts announced that Tufts Medicine is now part of the health plan's pay-for-equity financial payment model. Blue Cross is the first health plan in Massachusetts — and among the first in the nation — to introduce these contracts, which link financial incentives to achieving measurable improvements in health equity. With the addition of Tufts Medicine, 53% of Blue Cross' Massachusetts members now receive care from clinicians taking part in these equity-focused value-based agreements. Tufts Medicine joins four of the state's other leading health systems who signed the agreements in December 2022: Steward Healthcare Network, Beth Israel Lahey Health, Mass General Brigham and Boston Accountable Care Organization, Inc., which is part of Boston Medical Center.
• Pear Therapeutics had its assets sold in an auction this week for just over $6 million. Click Therapeutics, a developer of apps to help treat migraine, smoking cessation, depression and more, offered $70,000 for the patents behind the Pear Platform for digital therapeutic development, sans those related to the company’s Invention Science Fund, or ISF. The ISF licenses and patents went to Harvest Bio, which also won the bids for Pear’s assets related to schizophrenia, multiple sclerosis, depression and other pipeline projects as well as its corporate trademarks, its PearConnect commercial platform and the rights to the reSET and opioid-specific reSET-O programs, all for a total of $2.03 million. Sleep-focused company Nox Health Group offered the largest bid of the group—$3.9 million—solely to acquire the assets related to Somryst, Pear’s FDA-cleared insomnia treatment, while digital health maker Welt doled out $50,000 for Pear’s migraine-focused program.
• Mastercard and HealthLock partnered to offer millions of Americans help in protecting themselves against medical bill fraud, claim errors and overcharges. Consumers who link their insurance accounts to the HealthLock platform gain the ability to monitor all healthcare claims in one place and benefit from automated reviews to potentially help reduce expensive medical bills and reverse claim rejections.
• Tomorrow Health, a home-based care company, announced that it has closed its first-party home medical equipment supply business to remove barriers and unlock new opportunities for its network of home-based care providers. Tomorrow Health serves as a partner for home-based care needs to leading suppliers, including AdaptHealth, Apria, Home Care Delivered, Lincare, and Rotech Healthcare, providing each with holistic technology solutions that streamlines end-to-end workflows and enables unparalleled operational efficiency at scale.
• Mural Health, a clinical trials technology company that improves the patient and caregiver experience in order to improve enrollment rates, participant retention, and increase protocol compliance, announced a strategic partnership with Clinflash, a provider of information technology in field of clinical development. Building on Clinflash's IT specialism in clinical trials, the partnership will expand the capacity and global market of patient payments for clinical trials. Having reached an exclusive global agreement the partnership consolidates technical, market and commercial forces, enabling sponsors to access patient payment solutions in the Chinese market and beyond. The two organizations are currently preparing for further collaboration projects.
• Verato, an identity company for healthcare, and Contexture, a health information organization, expanded their longtime partnership to better support physicians, hospitals, behavioral health, emergency medical services, public health, long-term care, laboratories, imaging centers, health plans, communities and patients. Through the expanded relationship, Verato’s healthcare master data management (hMDM) solution will provide patient matching for Contexture’s health information exchange (HIE) serving stakeholders across Arizona and Colorado, ensuring more accurate and complete patient information to support quality care and robust data analytics.
• GE HealthCare announced its largest ever CT deal in the United States – a $30 million order by St. Luke’s University Health Network, a nationally recognized nonprofit healthcare network, to install 21 of GE HealthCare’s innovative CT systems, powered by Artificial Intelligence, across their system. This order builds upon the more than 30-year relationship between the two organizations. The new scanners will include a comprehensive suite of clinical applications, and the latest AI, through GE HealthCare’s Smart Subscription that seamlessly connects and integrates with St. Luke’s existing network. As a result, GE HealthCare will provide St. Luke’s with access to the latest CT technologies and solutions, helping to extend the life of these devices and making it a more consistent experience for patients.
• Viva Vita and Waya Health are joining forces to simplify the integration of virtual reality technology for healthcare providers. Through this collaboration, patients, including residents in senior living communities, will gain access to advanced VR experiences that will revolutionize their daily healthcare journey. By seamlessly integrating VR solutions across health systems, senior living brands, rehabilitation systems, and more, Viva Vita and Waya Health aspire to drive industry-wide transformation.
• Ascend Vision Partners, ab administrative service provider for ophthalmology practices, announced its partnership with Central Florida Eye Care, a prominent ophthalmology practice serving Central Florida. This strategic partnership marks a significant milestone in Ascend Vision Partners' mission to expand its reach and provide exceptional eye care to more patients across the Southeast United States.
• Healthy Together, a government software provider, announced a new partnership with Amazon Web Services after being approved to join the AWS Partner Network. As a member of the APN, Healthy Together will have access to a wide range of tools and resources to help them optimize their cloud solutions and improve the delivery of their services to customers. This partnership will also enable Healthy Together to expand their reach and capabilities, leveraging the scalability and reliability of AWS to drive innovation in the healthcare industry.
• Opus EHR, a clinical solution that empowers providers to customize, measure, and assess clients’ treatment, partnered with Saisystems Health, an outpatient billing software, to provide real-time analytics and reporting for Behavioral Health and Substance Abuse Treatment Centers. The partnership will enable treatment centers to seamlessly capture critical data and analytics to drive operational efficiency, enhance revenue cycle management, and improve client outcomes. With Saisystems Health's robust billing software and Opus EHR's clinical solution, centers can easily monitor their insurance mix by filtering transactions and claims by source, forecasting, and strategizing operations.
• Private AI, a provider of data privacy software solutions, and Replica Analytics, an Aetion company, a Synthetic Data Generation technology provider for the healthcare industry, announced a new partnership. The need for a privacy-preserving solution in healthcare is urgent and this strategic partnership aims to provide a comprehensive solution for healthcare's data privacy and security challenges.
• Koa Health, a provider of digital-first mental healthcare, announced a new partnership with International SOS, a provider of an international health & security risk management solutions, to unlock the value of positive mental health and wellbeing in workplaces everywhere. Koa Health’s clinically validated mental wellbeing app, Koa Foundations, will become a part of the International SOS mental health ecosystem as the two companies partner together to support employee mental health across the continuum. Koa’s top-ranked, science-based app will be integrated into International SOS’ Workforce Resilience Subscription, making it easy for organisations to boost mental resilience and offer support for everyday mental health challenges to their employees around the world. Reducing individual and business risks and driving positive outcomes for workers and the organisations who employ them.
• ObjectiveHealth, an integrated research and technology platform company, announced a clinical research partnership with Urology of St. Louis. The companies’ joint clinical research center, Specialty Clinical Research of St. Louis, will offer access to innovative diagnostic tools, treatments and therapies aimed at improving health outcomes in urologic disease states. Urology of St. Louis has 27 practicing urology associates at 21 locations throughout St. Louis and the Metro East.
• Quantum Health, a consumer healthcare navigation and care coordination company, announced the expansion of its current musculoskeletal offering with the addition of Sword Health as a new Preferred Partner within its Comprehensive Care Solutions platform. Sword Health is the world’s first end-to-end platform to predict, prevent and treat pain, and with this partnership, Quantum Health will make Sword available to its members. Quantum Health will be the first partner to offer Sword Move to members, a fitness program that uses data from wearable devices and a dedicated personal trainer to create personalized exercise programs. The company will also offer Sword Predict and Bloom. Predict is the industry’s first AI engine using advanced machine learning to identify members at a greater risk of needing surgery, while Bloom is a comprehensive and clinical-grade digital solution to address women’s physical health issues.
• Synapse Medicine, a medication success company, and CompuGroup Medical, a developer of software for providers, announced a partnership to accelerate innovation in prescribing and allow physicians to benefit from time-saving technological advances in clinical decision support. Thanks to Synapse Medicine and CompuGroup Medical collaboration, doctors will have access to actionable medical recommendations while maintaining control of their patient's care and will benefit from an optimized user experience to minimize administrative tasks like data entry and searching for information. Physicians will also benefit from the latest advancements in natural language processing, such as Synapse Copilot tool in their practice management software which enables personalized care based on their unique clinical profile. Through this strategic partnership, Synapse Medicine and CompuGroup Medical aim to make doctors' daily lives easier by providing three elements: time savings, personalization, and patient safety.
• Indegene, a digital-first, life sciences commercialization company, announced that it will be expanding its partnership with ConTIPI Medical Ltd, an innovator in the field of providing non-surgical and disposable solutions for women with various pelvic floor disfunctions, to bring a new device to the market. ConTIPI’s expanded agreement with Indegene includes several services across the commercialization process, including sales, PRMA (pricing, reimbursement and market access), medical affairs, medical communications, pharmacovigilance, regulatory, marketing and commercial operations support. Indegene will work with ConTIPI to drive revenue and ensure predictable cash outflow.
• Verge Genomics, a clinical-stage, tech-enabled biotechnology company pioneering the use of artificial intelligence and human data to transform drug discovery and development, announced that Emerald Innovations’ wireless digital health technology will be used to capture critical patient data in its planned Phase 1b proof-of-concept study of the PIKfyve inhibitor VRG50635, a novel therapeutic in clinical development for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Through the collaboration, Emerald’s wireless digital health sensors will be placed in study participants’ homes to continuously measure key neurological functions affected by ALS, including sleeping, breathing, walking, and mobility. Analyses of the Emerald data will be used to assess changes in patients being treated with increasing doses of VRG50635.
• Wellness technology innovator Therabody announced it is the official recovery partner of fitness pioneer Barry's. The announcement marks a milestone for both companies as Barry's aims to provide best-in-class recovery solutions that enhance customer experience and Therabody further solidifies its leadership in the fitness industry. The partnership is designed to pair Barry's signature workout with Therabody's wellness technology, providing the Barry's community with an end-to-end wellness experience before and after they work out. As part of the partnership, Therabody will be providing recovery stations that include Theragun PRO and WaveRoller devices in every single one of Barry's 49 US fitness facilities. Therabody will not only provide training to Barry's instructors and staff, but will also develop custom routines that ensure Barry's customers can enjoy routines in-studio and wherever they take their recovery. Members are free to use Therabody products to warm up before a workout and to help ease muscle soreness after training in the Red Room.
• KELLS, a provider of Artificial Intelligence-based oral health solutions, announced a partnership with LIBERTY Dental Plan Northeast. The collaboration will provide in-home and onsite dental evaluations to underserved community members, improving access to preventive checkups, oral wellness, and education. Through this partnership, KELLS and LIBERTY Dental Plan Northeast will deliver routine dental evaluations, detect early signs of disease or existing conditions, and continuously monitor risk to prevent more severe cases from developing. This collaboration allows plans to offer essential dental services to those who would otherwise not have access.
• ComForCare established a partnership with Connected Home Living to launch Connected Care, its remote patient monitoring program for seniors. Through the partnership, RPM technology will be implemented in ComForCare and At Your Side’s care delivery model in order to monitor vital signs, alerts, medications, as well as the mental and physical state of seniors.
• Convatec Group Plc, a FTSE 100 global medical products and technologies company focused on solutions for the management of chronic conditions, announced its partnership with Beta Bionics for the iLet Bionic Pancreas which has now been FDA 510(k) cleared and set for commercial launch. Convatec is the global leader in design and manufacturing of infusion set technologies and insertion devices for insulin pump treatment. The iLet Bionic Pancreas is a pocket-sized, wearable medical device designed to autonomously dose insulin. This innovative device is the first of its kind to simplify the user experience by only requiring the user weight, the continuous glucose monitoring sleep target and overall CGM target.
• The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and Hall STEAM Magnet High School announced a partnership that will provide Hall students with hands-on learning opportunities and exposure to careers in health care. The collaboration is part of the Academies of Central Arkansas, an education initiative involving Pulaski County’s four public school districts and the regional business community. Under its partnership with UAMS, Hall High’s health sciences academy will be renamed as the UAMS Academy of Health Sciences.
• Nutex Health, an integrated healthcare delivery system, and MeMed, a provider of advanced host response technologies, announced a strategic partnership that expands access to the trailblazing MeMed BV test. The test distinguishes viral from bacterial infections in 15 minutes and applies machine learning to translate the complex signaling of the immune system into simple, actionable diagnostic insights. MeMed's technology helps physicians enhance patient management and make better informed antibiotic treatment decisions.
• Bryte, a provider of restorative sleep technology, and Fullpower-AI, an AI-powered IoT biosensing and sleep science provider, announced a strategic partnership to develop the ultimate sleep experience for consumers worldwide. The collaboration aims to integrate Bryte's restorative sleep mattresses into Fullpower®-AI's vetted and deployed AI-powered IoT biosensing PaaS platform worldwide, thus creating a transformative sleep experience.
• PaceMate announced its collaboration with AliveCor, a provider of personal electrocardiogram technology and remote patient management solutions for the cardiovascular industry. This collaboration will combine the strengths of PaceMate's world-class cardiac remote monitoring platform, PaceMateLIVE – designed to improve clinical, operational, and financial outcomes – with AliveCor's KardiaPro platform to capture and triage ECG data from the AI-enabled, medical-grade six-lead KardiaMobile(R) 6L and single-lead KardiaMobile Card. Through this collaboration, healthcare providers are able to access clinically relevant heart rhythm analyses and actionable reports via PaceMateLIVE to monitor at-risk patients; identify underlying arrhythmias, including atrial fibrillation (AF); and drive improvements to patient care and clinical outcomes. Additionally, healthcare providers can monitor heart failure risk factors, such as weight and blood pressure, for patients with AliveCor through it's Application Programmer Interface (API) with leading consumer health apps.
• BPGbio, an AI-powered biopharma that focuses on oncology, neurology and rare diseases, announced that it will continue clinical validation of a novel breast cancer diagnostic panel that was developed under a previous agreement with the Department of Defense’s Clinical Breast Care Project, including the DoD’s Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, The Windber Research Institute, and The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Inc. The new panel, developed with AI, is designed to identify women who are diagnosed with ER+ breast cancer but do not respond to hormone therapy, so that more effective options could be offered to improve treatment response.
• Numen Health announced a partnership with Aster Hospitals to provide preventive and rehabilitative medical attention to patients from their homes. As part of this collaboration, Numen Health platform will aid Aster Hospitals’ cardiologists in remotely monitoring the health data of their patients who have been diagnosed with heart failure. By having access to a complete overview of the patient’s health status and medical history, the doctors at Aster will be empowered to make informed decisions regarding diagnoses and treatments, as well as detect patterns that could aid in predicting potential health problems in the future.
• Trial Library, a healthcare company focused on improving health equity in clinical trials, and The Oncology Institute, one of the largest value-based community oncology groups in the United States, announced a new partnership to improve access to clinical trials. Trial Library provides a technology platform that aims to help TOI to identify more patients that are eligible for clinical trials. Trial Library also provides patient navigation services for patients that may need to travel to a different TOI facility to receive treatment.
• Thermo Fisher, a company serving science, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Research and Innovation Agency of Indonesia (BRIN, Badan Riset dan Inovasi Nasional) to enable and enhance the country's national research and innovation infrastructure and capability. This will create opportunities for direct engagements between the senior organizational levels, strengthening the partnership between the two organizations. By leveraging its expertise and extensive portfolio, Thermo Fisher will support BRIN's goal of improving research competencies and capacities. Recently, the company has also provided end-to-end portfolio solutions in advanced electron microscopy and single-use bioprocessing technology to BRIN's new facility in Cibinong, Java, Indonesia. Customized workshops and advanced training programs are being co-developed to address the specific requirements at BRIN.v
• eClinical Solutions, a global provider of digital clinical software and biometrics services, announced expanded artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities within the elluminate IQ offering. Embedded in elluminate Data Central – the elluminate Clinical Data Cloud’s data management workbench providing seamless access to comprehensive trial data across systems and sources – elluminate IQ Review (eIQ Review) enables data management teams to leverage these advanced AI/ML capabilities to conduct data review in a more efficient, scalable way. Detection of anomalous data by clinical reviewers has historically been difficult, manual, and time-consuming. Using the additional models deployed in eIQ Review, data issues are surfaced that wouldn’t be identified in a traditional review approach and manual efforts are reduced, enabling data managers and medical reviewers to focus on critical data. As a result, data quality is improved, productivity across data management teams is increased, and cycle times are reduced. There are several use cases deployed in eIQ Review that collectively automate over 25 clinical data review objectives.
• EverService Holdings, a provider of tech-enabled business solutions, partnered with Mental Health America and has been awarded the 2022-23 Silver Bell Seal for its commitment to promoting workplace mental health. The Bell Seal recognizes employer advances in workplace mental health, and to be awarded, EverService underwent a rigorous evaluation of its policies and practices in four areas: workplace culture, benefits, compliance and wellness programs.
• AION Labs, an innovation lab spearheading the adoption of AI technologies and computational science to solve therapeutic challenges, and German independent research institute BioMed X, announced the launch of its latest global call for applications to identify AI and machine learning professionals and biomedical scientists and inventors to form a new startup at AION Labs' headquarters in Rehovot, Israel. AION Labs' sixth startup will focus on the development of an AI platform capable of rapidly and accurately identifying active molecules for potential drug candidates – even in cases where the structure of the target protein and existing binding molecules are unknown – by screening for hits from a pre-defined library of small molecules and generating a short list of hits ranked by their potential binding affinity. The technology will enable accurate modeling of targets for small molecule design, accelerating the small molecule drug discovery process.
• RéVive expanded its roster of brand partners across the US and UK markets. This curated group consists of industry professionals, all highly sought after for their individual expertise and point-of-view. Each offers a like-minded approach to skin and lifestyle that speaks to the overall brand ethos. New additions to the brand include Medical & Cosmetic Doctor and Founder of SknDoctor, Dr. Ewoma Ukeleghe, and Content Creator, Leila Kashanipour, both based in the UK. Brand Consultant and former Editor in Chief of Allure, Michelle Lee, and Photographer, Sophie Elgort, round out the new ambassadors in the US. These new authorities will join long-term brand partner, Stylist Micaela Erlanger.
• Posh IT, a provider of integrated business and technology solutions in Kenya has inked a deal with PATH, in a partnership dubbed “African digital health entrepreneurs”. The partnership will see Posh IT receive a grant aimed at enhancing their capacity in collectively building and expand their digital health solutions using a common, open-source platform dubbed the community health toolkit, stewarded by Medic.
• The Eureka Clinical AI platform, from ConcertAI's TeraRecon, the advanced visualization and clinical AI SaaS category company, now provides clinicians with the state-of-the-art clinical artificial intelligence and deep learning technology necessary to bring fast and accurate prostate cancer detection and diagnosis using bpMRI and AI in partnership with Bot Image, Inc. Bot Image, Inc. received FDA clearance for prostate cancer screening and detection/diagnosis in July 2022. Bot Image's prostate AI software, ProstatID, aims to increase the accuracy in PCa detection and diagnosis and has been shown to increase prostate cancer detection while decreasing false positives that may lead to expensive and unwarranted biopsies. Additionally, with its unique FDA clearance for screening using bi-parametric MRI, ProstatID can be used as a regularly planned screening mechanism*. This makes ProstatID an ideal tool for active surveillance to monitor progression of the disease. According to recent findings reported in the NEJM1, waiting and watching (i.e., surveillance of the cancer) can be more appropriate than intervention, thus saving healthcare dollars and undesirable side effects of treatments.

M&A

• Healthcare enablement platform Florence acquired virtual care solution Zipnosis
• Medtronic acquired wearable insulin patch developer EOFlow
• Intelligent Medical Objects, a provider of clinical terminology management and data quality solutions for healthcare, acquired Melax Technologies, which uses AI and Natural Language Processing technologies to extract information from biomedical textual data to solve real-world problems
• IDEX Corporation completed its acquisition of Iridian Spectral Technologies, a company designing and manufacturing thin-film, multi-layer optical filters
• LifeNet Health, a regenerative medicine and life sciences company, acquired the Wound business, including the skin substitutes TheraSkin and TheraGenesis, of Bioventus, a provider of innovations for active healing
• Nox Health, a sleep health company, acquired Somryst, an FDA-cleared Prescription Digital Therapeutic that delivers treatment for adults with chronic insomnia
• Suggestic, a provider of AI-enabled Telewellness solutions, acquired Wishroute, a provider of human-powered engagement and healthy habit coaching
• Freenome, a biotech company, acquired Oncimmune, a global immunodiagnostics developer 
• GraceMed, a consolidator in the plastic surgery, dermatology and medical aesthetics industry, acquired the Canadian Dermatology Centre, a clinic located in the GTA
• Pyxis Oncology, a clinical-stage company focused on developing next-generation therapeutics to target difficult-to-treat cancers, acquired Apexigen, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing innovative antibody therapeutics for oncology
• Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, a GI-focused healthcare company, acquired VectivBio Holding AG, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company pioneering treatments for severe rare gastrointestinal conditions
• Advent Home Medical, a medical equipment company, completed its acquisition of Aeratech Home Medical, a provider of home respiratory care and respiratory equipment technology
• Siemens Healthineers and CommonSpirit Health agreed to acquire Block Imaging, a provider of refurbished medical imaging equipment, parts, and services

Funding Roundup 

• Lifeforce, a health optimization platform, raised $12 million
• BenchSci, a provider of AI solutions for preclinical life sciences research and development, raised $70 million
• ReNAgade Therapeutics, a company unlocking the potential for RNA medicines to correct disease, raised $300 million
• BBy, developer of a food device that condenses breast milk to a powder, raised $3 million
• LEADOPTIK, a developer of a miniaturized imaging system for real-time imaging deep inside human lungs and enabling early diagnoses of cancer, raised $5 million
• Dock Health, an administrative hub for healthcare professionals, raised $5 million
• Patient21, a digi-physical healthtech company, raised €100 million
• Artelon, a developer of synthetic materials for real-world success in orthopedic soft tissue reconstruction, raised $20 million
• TISSIUM, a medtech company developing biomorphic programmable polymers for tissue reconstruction, raised €50 million
• Heartseed, a biotechnology company developing iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes for heart failure raised 2 billion JPY
• Alpha II, a provider of revenue cycle management technology solutions to healthcare providers across the care continuum, raised an undisclosed amount of funding
• Manus Neurodynamica, which develops and markets products and technologies for neuromotor assessment, raised £2.6 million
• Bredis Healthcare, a neurodegenerative diagnostics company, raised an undisclosed amount of funding

(Image source: nga.org)