Digital health news, funding roundup in the prior week; May 23, 2022

Digital health news, funding roundup in the prior week; May 16, 2022

Top Health News

• Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts announced the launch of the Health Equity Business Accelerator. The nine month long program is designed to provide "financial, strategic and mentorship support to founders of color focused on creating equitable health care services and solutions." That includes a $150,000 investment, along with programming in conjunction with partners, including The Capital Network and Healthbox, the later of which will sponsor two Pitch Day events, the first of which is planned for May 19.  
• Zoom Cares, the social impact arm of Zoom Video Communications, announced $165,000 of funding to a collection of 30 mental health leaders advocating for the health of young people at MTV Entertainment’s (MTVE) first-ever Mental Health Youth Action Forum. 
• The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, awarded the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health a $65 million grant establishing an Antiviral Drug Discovery Center to develop oral antivirals that can combat pandemic-level viruses like COVID-19. The center builds upon and is tightly affiliated with UNC’s Rapidly Emerging Antiviral Drug Development Initiative.
• Cerebral replaced Chief Executive Kyle Robertson with David Mou, the company’s president and chief medical officer. This comes as the company is facing a federal probe into its prescription practices and possible violations of the Controlled Substances Act. Robertson called his removal illegal and accused the board of making him a scapegoat for the company's troubles.
• Google hired Bakul Patel, the former head of digital health at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, to develop and lead its unified digital health and regulatory strategy. At the FDA, Patel led its regulatory and scientific efforts covering digital health devices. He also helped develop the FDA's framework for reviewing AI products and an action plan detailing a multipronged approach to advance oversight on aritificial-intelligence- and machine-learning-based medical software.
• Humana's CenterWell Senior Primary Care and Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe announced a second joint venture to further expand access to value-based primary care clinics for Medicare patients. The new JV will deploy up to $1.2 billion of committed capital to develop approximately 100 new senior-focused, payer-agnostic primary care clinics between 2023 and 2025 and operate them to profitability. This JV between Humana’s CenterWell Senior Primary Care and WCAS follows an earlier JV that is currently deploying up to $800 million of capital to open 67 clinics by early 2023 and support their ongoing operations.

M&A

• Futura Healthcare, a healthcare advisory, consulting, and technology solution, acquired Winola Lake Health IT, a healthcare IT solutions provider
• Tunstall Healthcare, a company that uses technology to support those requiring care and health intervention to live independently in their chosen home setting, acquired alarm monitoring services provider Oy Verifi Ab
• Genesis Research, a provider of tech-enabled Real-World Evidence and Health Economics and Outcomes Research services, entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Market Access Transformation, a provider of technology-enabled payer research platforms
• HealthLynked, a provider of healthcare technologies that connects doctors, patients, and medical data, acquired Aesthetic Enhancements, a provider of minimally and non-invasive cosmetic procedures
• Modivcare, a platform of integrated supportive care solutions focused on improving patient outcomes, acquired Guardian Medical Monitoring, a provider of remote patient monitoring solutions
• Envista, a global family of more than 30 trusted dental brands, entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Osteogenics, developer of regenerative solutions for periodontists, oral and maxillofacial surgeons
• Person Centred Software, a digital care management system, acquired electronic medicines management system Atlas from Invatech Health
• Sedgwick, a provider of technology-enabled risk, benefits and integrated business solutions, acquired Orchid Medical, a provider of ancillary medical management solutions for the workers' compensation industry
• Canopy Growth, a diversified cannabis and cannabinoid-based consumer product company, entered into definitive agreement to acquire Jetty, a producer of cannabis extracts and clean vape technology

Funding Roundup

• ThoroughCare raised $3 million to simplify delivery of value-based care
• Greater Good Health raised $10 million to provide nurse practitioners with tools and resources
• CarePoint, which operates a network of hospitals and clinics across Nigeria, raised $10 million
• Cayaba Care, a maternity health startup that loooks to improve community outcomes by reimagining how maternity and pediatric care is delivered, raised $12 million
• Mirvie, which allows women, expecting parents and their doctors to intervene before unexpected pregnancy complications become a crisis, raised $60 million 
• Zuri Health, a virtual hospital serving patients in Sub-saharan Africa, raised $1.3 million
• Vivasure, a vessel closure device company, raised $23 million
• Deciphex, a provider of pathology software and services, raised $11.5 million
• Mara Renewables Corporation, which provides sustainable plant-based nutritional and nutraceutical ingredients for human health, raised $39.5 million

(Image source: medcitynews.com)