Digital health news, funding roundup in the prior week; February 22, 2022

UCLA launches new health accelerator; California shifts to endemic response to COVID

Top Health News

• UCLA Health, in partnership with BioscienceLA and UCLA Biodesign, launched the UCLA Health TechQuity Accelerator, called aimed at supporting long-term community health resilience and improvements in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic
• Global professional services company Accenture partnered with League, a health-focused platform-as-a-service company, to increase access in order to outcomes for people, providers, payers, and retail pharmacies
• CVS Health launched a new digital service that simplifies the process for locating, ordering, and picking up at-home COVID-19 test kits
• Walgreens Boots Alliance and VillageMD announced plans to open five new Village Medical at Walgreens coordinated primary care practices in the Jacksonville area, with plans to open 200 practices across the US by the end of this year
• California announced the first shift by a state to an “endemic” approach to the pandemic, emphasizing prevention and quick reactions to outbreaks over mandates

M&A

• Lightfully Behavioral Health, a mental health platform, acquired two treatment centers from Resilience Treatment Center for Mental Health
• VillageMD, a provider of value-based primary care services, acquired Healthy Interactions, which helps patients manage chronic conditions through interactive educational programming
• SimpleHealth, a reproductive healthcare company, acquired Emme, a healthcare technology company focused on women's health
• H1, a platform that act as a LinkedIn for the pharma and biotech industries, acquired research recommendation service Faculty Opinions
• Boston Scientific Corporation, a manufacturer of medical devices ,closed its acquisition of Baylis Medical Company, a company that manufacturers devices to support catheter-based left-heart procedures
• Vera Whole Health, an Advanced primary care provider, completed its acquisition of health navigation platform Castlight Health
• Private equity firms Bain Capital and Hellman & Friedman completed their acquisition of cloud-based electronic medical record provider athenahealth
• LifeSpeak, a mental health and total wellbeing platform, signed a definitive agreement to acquire Wellbeats, an on-demand physical wellbeing platform
• Capsa Healthcare, a provider of healthcare delivery solutions for hospitals, long-term care, and retail pharmacy providers, acquired Humanscale Healthcare, a manufacturer of flexible technology solutions and computing workstations
• Agilent Technologies, an instrumentation development and manufacturing company, acquired advanced artificial intelligence technology developed by Virtual Control, an AI and machine learning software developer
• Labcorp, a global life sciences company, closed its acquisition of Personal Genome Diagnostics, a cancer genomics company

Funding Roundup

• Veterinary telemedicine platform Dutch raised $20 million
• Ro, a direct-to-patient healthcare company, raised $150 million
• Corporate mental health and wellness platform MindFi raised $2 million 
• Tympa Health Technologies, a hearing health assessment system, raised $8 million
• NourishedRx, an intelligent food-for-health platform, raised $6 million
• Remedial Health, a company that develops solutions for Africa’s pharmaceutical sector, raised $1 million
• ExSeed Health, a male fertility startup, raised $3.4 million
• MindMaze, a neurorehabilitation company, raised $105 million
• Memora Health, a platform for virtual care delivery and complex care management, raised $40 million
• Variantyx, a precision medicine company, raised $41.5 million
• Climedo a digital platform for clinical trails, raised €5 million
• GOQii, a smart tech-enabled healthcare platform, raised $50 million 

(Image source: staticflickr.com)