Digital health news, funding roundup in the prior week; July 25, 2022

Amazon buys One Medical; Apple outlines health strategy; President Biden tested positive for COVID

Top Health News

• Ziegler, a healthcare investment bank, and Link•Age Ventures, a venture firm focused on investing in leading companies that provide products, services and technology to the aging marketplace, formed Ziegler Link•Age Fund III. Key investment themes will include, but are not limited to workforce solutions; emerging managed care models; patient and provider engagement solutions; coordination of care; telehealth, including telemedicine, virtual care, and remote monitoring); value-based care enablement; and social determinants of health.
• Israel-based life sciences venture capital firm aMoon raised $340 million for its second fund, aMoon Growth II. It will follow the same strategy as aMoon Growth I, investing in companies operating at the convergence of technology, biology with the goal of helping people live better, longer and healthier lives and accelerate cure.
• Synchron, an endovascular brain-computer interface company, announced the first human BCI implant in the United States. This procedure represents a significant technological milestone for scalable BCI devices and is the first to occur in the U.S. using an endovascular BCI approach, which does not require invasive open-brain surgery. The procedure marks the first U.S. patient implant in Synchron’s COMMAND trial, which is being conducted under the first investigational device exemption (IDE) awarded by the FDA to a company assessing a permanently implanted BCI. The U.S.-based trial is being conducted with support from the NIH Neural Interfaces Program.
• The Department of Justice announced criminal charges against 36 defendants in 13 federal districts across the United States for more than $1.2 billion in alleged fraudulent telemedicine, cardiovascular and cancer genetic testing, and durable medical equipment schemes.The nationwide coordinated law enforcement action includes criminal charges against a telemedicine company executive, owners and executives of clinical laboratories, durable medical equipment companies, marketing organizations, and medical professionals. In connection with the enforcement action, the department seized over $8 million in cash, luxury vehicles, and other fraud proceeds. Additionally, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Center for Program Integrity (CPI) announced today that it took administrative actions against 52 providers involved in similar schemes.
• Aural Analytics, a provider of clinical-grade speech analytics, entered into a partnership with Medidata, a company enabling speech analytics as part of the Medidata Sensor Cloud Network. Aural Analytics’ platform Speech Vitals supports Medidata’s objective of enabling the discovery and delivery of third-party algorithms at scale, leading to breakthroughs in advancing the understanding of disease progression. This will drive the development of more effective treatments for patients.
• Carl Zeiss Meditec, a medical technology company, and Precise Bio, a regenerative medicine company advancing the use of bio-printed tissues and organs, entered into a partnership to develop and commercialize fabricated corneal tissue for transplants in patients that require endothelial keratoplasty and natural lenticule transplants for treating keratoconus and vision correction. Under the terms of the agreement, Carl Zeiss Meditec will invest in Precise Bio and fund the further development of Precise Bio's two cornea transplant products and has exclusive worldwide commercialization rights for these products.
• Xandar Kardian, a company that develops contactless health monitoring solutions powered by digital ultra wide-band radar signal processing, announced a strategic partnership with TapestryHealth, a multi-specialty healthcare practice that utilizes advanced technology to provide face-to-face evaluation and treatment at the patient's bedside in skilled nursing facilities and other post-acute environments. The partnership between Xandar Kardian and TapestryHealth focuses on leveraging Xandar Kardian's revolutionary radar-centric technology to support specialized remote patient monitoring for skilled nursing facilities, using autonomous and continuous vital sign management. 
• Hearing aid compant Signia partnered with the Dallas Cowboys to raise awareness for hearing health. As part of the partnership to build hearing health awareness, consumers will have the chance to win prizes such as club seat tickets to see the Dallas Cowboys in action at their home stadium. Through a hearing health game, consumers can learn more about hearing, the risks of leaving it untreated and how Signia technology can help them optimize their hearing and overall health. The game also connects individuals with a local hearing care professional to provide a demo of Signia hearing aids, enabling them to hear the Signia advantage directly.
• Leadership from Digital Diagnostics, maker of IDx-DR, the first-ever FDA-cleared, fully autonomous AI system for the diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy, signed a memorandum of understanding with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Investment during a ceremonial visit with United States of America President Joe Biden. With this MOU in place, the Kingdom and Digital Diagnostics agree to explore potential collaboration around medical services, medical technology, and digital health with a significant economic investment and 1,950 jobs created by 2030.The prevalence of diabetes in the Kingdom is estimated to be 23.9 percent of the total population, and that figure has been increasing for more than two decades. Additionally, diabetic retinopathy, the most feared complication of diabetes and the primary overall cause of blindness from any disease, has a prevalence from 19.7 percent to 44.7 percent in Saudi Arabia.
• Lisa Health, a digital health company creating advanced technology solutions for menopause and healthy aging, launched Midday: an app that leverages AI, sensor technology, and digital therapeutics to support women on their menopause journey. Midday is a personalized digital health solution that illuminates what is happening physically and emotionally during menopause and provides the right intervention at the right time to promote healthy aging. As part of a collaboration with Mayo Clinic, the app combines Lisa Health’s advanced technology with expert medical guidance from the nation’s top health care organization, providing a 360-degree approach to managing menopause symptoms.
• Solarity, an intelligent automation engine that identifies and analyzes all patient data, announced a strategic referral partnership with Lyniate, a healthcare data interoperability company. The partnership brings together Solarity's automation engine and the Lyniate Interoperability Suite. As a result of this collaboration, hospitals and health systems can process all data, digital or unstructured, to be indexed and delivered to the EHR. This produces more complete health records, enabling a better patient experience through improved response and care. It also reduces the strain on an already-stressed labor force, which in many cases is not capable of executing this level of data integration.
• Memora Health, a technology platform for virtual care delivery and complex care management, announced a partnership with Edward-Elmhurst Health, an integrated Illinois health system that operates three hospitals and serves 1.7 million residents across the west and southwest suburbs of Chicago. The partnership will leverage Memora's clinical intelligence platform across oncology specialties to automate clinicians' routine care tasks, streamline call center operations, improve the patient experience, and increase patient engagement. This partnership will enable clinicians and providers at Edward-Elmhurst Health to automate tasks that they would normally complete manually so they can prioritize the most critical patient needs.
• Medable, a SaaS platform provider for patient-centered clinical trials, announced a new partnership with Withings Health Solutions, the business-to-business division of Withings, an at-home connected health company. Withings’ devices will connect to Medable’s decentralized clinical trial platform, reducing the burden on sponsors and sites while empowering patients to participate in trials from home. With Withings' devices, Medable can remotely capture and integrate critical medical-grade measurements, including temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, sleep patterns, and weight.
• SIMBA Chain, a blockchain-as-a-service platform, announced a new partnership with Equideum Health, the Web3 and blockchain-powered health company. The collaboration aims to significantly enhance global healthcare by building a decentralized marketplace, dubbed the Equideum Exchange, for empowering individuals to monetize health and health-relevant data about them. The integration of SIMBA Blocks enables Equideum Health to achieve cross-blockchain protocol interoperability across its health data applications seamlessly and with significant cost savings. All user data provided remains completely decentralized and anonymous unless a user explicitly consents to be identified, while users also have the option to set certain conditions for the use of their data, such as time limits or purposes, which are ensured through smart contracts and Equideum Health’s enterprise-facing consumer-centric data policy verification and enforcement tools.
• Apple shared a new report that offers a snapshot of the ways its products are empowering people to be at the center of their health, and acting as an intelligent guardian for their health and safety. Apple’s efforts to advance health primarily fall into two categories, which are detailed in two corresponding sections of the report. The first section describes Apple’s focus on personal health and fitness features on Apple Watch and iPhone that offer actionable, science-based insights and help protect users’ health and safety. The second section shares Apple’s work with the medical community to support research and care. 
• President Biden, who is fully vaccinated and received two booster shots, tested positive for COVID-19. He reported “very mild symptoms," and it likely he has the BA.5 Covid-19 variant but his symptoms “continue to improve,” according to the White House. Kevin O'Connor, Biden's physician, wrote in a letter released by the White House that Biden's primary symptom was a sore throat and that his runny nose, cough and body aches had all "diminished considerably" by the end of the weekend. 

M&A

• Amazon acquired One Medical,  a members-only technology platform that runs its own clinics across the U.S
• FemTec Health, a company on a mission to revolutionize women's health care to provide  a single destination that is personalized to them acquired Ava, a fertility tracking wearable
• Patient Square Capital, a dedicated health care investment firm entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Hanger, a provider of orthotic and prosthetic patient care services and solutions
• ImagineSoftware, a provider of medical billing automation software and revenue cycle management applications, acquired Exchange EDI, a patient engagement and workflow automation organization
• Arcaea, a platform with the mission to build a new foundation for the beauty industry through expressive biolog, acquired Gadusol Laboratories, a company using synthetic biology technology to produce the natural sun protective compounds found in marine life
• CloudMD, a healthcare technology and innovative health services company transforming the delivery of care, entered into a settlement agreement for its acquisition of VisionPros, its online vision care platform
• Colorado State University College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences acquired a second SRT System from Sensus Healthcare, a medical device company specializing in treatments for oncological and non-oncological conditions
• Astorg, a contract research organization focused on the management of clinical studies for medical technology, IVDs, biologics, and device-drug combination products, acquired a majority stake in Avania, a MedTech contract research organization
• ArchiMed, an investment firm focused exclusively on the healthcare industry, completed its acquisition of Natus, a provider of medical device solutions to screen, diagnose, and treat disorders affecting the brain, neural pathways, and eight sensory nervous systems
• Medical technology company BD completed its acquisition of pharmacy automation company Parata Systems

Funding Roundup

• Oncoustics raised $5.3 million to detect liver disease using ultrasound signals
• Humanity Health raised $6 million to bring diversity to healthcare leadership
• Centivo, a provider of health plans for self-insured employers built to address health care affordability for employees and their families, raised $30 million
• Eka Care, an Indian connected healthcare platform, raised $15 million
• Fold Health, an interoperable digital health tech stack for primary care, raised $6 million
• Health Note, a pre-clinical intake automation platform that uses digital patient intake to prepare clinical notes for providers ahead of patient visits, raised $17 million
• Ilumivu, a predictive and personalized decision support system to pre-diagnose health conditions, raised an undisclosed amount of funding
• Verv Technologies, provider of an in-home blood testing solution, raised $3.8 million
• Fitterfly, a digital therapeutic solution that helps people with diabetes and weight loss, raised $12 million
• CortiqaHealth, a company with a mission is to create a healthier community by democratizing wellness with computer vision and deep learning, raised $1 million
• BigHat Biosciences, a biotechnology company developing safer, more effective antibody therapies for patients using machine learning and synthetic biology, raised $75 million
• ForSight Robotics, an ophthalmic robotic surgery company, raised $55 million
• Healthie, an infrastructure platform for digital health companies, raised $16 million
• Theator, a surgical intelligence platform that combines artificial intelligence and computer vision to improve surgeon performance, raised $24 million
• Persephone Biosciences, a synthetic biology company reimagining patient and infant health through the development of microbiome-based medicines, raised $15 million
• Acuamark Diagnostics, an early cancer detection company, raised $11.3 million
• Medical Microinstruments, a robotics company dedicated to improving clinical outcomes for patients undergoing microsurgery, raised $75 million

(Image source: mindful.org)