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

The CDC restructures; AliveCor raises new funding; Caregility integrates with Eko

Top Health News

• Telehealth provider Caregility partnered with smart stethoscope platform Eko. The partnership with Caregility integrates Eko Connect, Eko’s suite of telehealth APIs, with Caregility Cloud, so that Caregility's customers, which are typically 2,000+ bed health systems or integrated delivery networks with several facilities and channels for care delivery, now have access to live-streaming stethoscope sounds with real-time phonocardiogram and electrocardiogram waveform visualization. The integration is compatible with all of Eko’s smart stethoscopes. That means that, during an virtual care session within Caregility’s iConsult application, care teams can perform a complete stethoscope examination on a patient. Users wirelessly connect an Eko stethoscope directly with a Caregility APS telehealth device or tablet, which allows the care team to stay within Caregility’s iConsult application.
• At-home testing solution imaware announced its collaboration with Favor, an integrated digital healthcare platform, to offer at-home sexually transmitted infections testing for it’s more than 220,000 patients across the country. This custom, one-of-a-kind test kit goes beyond existing at-home STI tests on the market to provide women and people who menstruate with a more comprehensive and accurate picture of their reproductive health.
• Average costs for U.S. employers that pay for their employees' health care will increase 6.5 percent to more than $13,800 per employee in 2023, according to global professional services firm Aon. This projection is more than double the 3 percent increase to health care budgets which employers experienced from 2021 to 2022; but is significantly below the 9.1 inflation figure reported through the Consumer Price Index. On average, the budgeted health care costs for clients is $13,020 per employee in 2022. The analysis uses the firm's Health Value Initiative database, which captures information for nearly 700 U.S. employers representing approximately 5.6 million employees.
• Trillium Community Health Plan announced a partnership with Unite Us, a technology company connecting health and social care services, to further enhance the health plan's ability to collaborate with providers and local community-based organizations to provide integrated healthcare services for Oregon Health Plan members in Lane, western Linn, western Douglas, Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington counties. In alignment with Trillium's health equity strategy, the health plan will analyze metrics from the platform to track health outcomes and inform future partnerships and initiatives designed to invest resources where they are most needed, continuing to transform community health for all Oregonians.
• Penn State Intercollegiate Athletics partnered with WHOOP, a human performance company, to positively impact student-athlete wellness via WHOOP wearable technology and personalized health insights. This new multi-year partnership features an athletic department-wide rollout of WHOOP 4.0 alongside a holistic student-athlete health and engagement program. Penn State is prioritizing student-athlete wellness by incorporating WHOOP into its program coupled with actionable feedback grounded in the WHOOP Unite solution. WHOOP Unite combines targeted insights that enable behavior change with organizational analytics, reporting, and coaching, supported by a scalable platform and customer success program.
• MedAllies, a multimodality connectivity services company, partnered with Lyniate, a healthcare data interoperability, to better serve its healthcare clients and partners. This integration will bolster MedAllies’ identity data management capabilities to increase the accuracy of the data it exchanges. Lyniate EMPI has the flexibility to support on-premises and cloud deployments with the ability to adapt and scale over time. It offers options for resolution of data issues using referential data as well as manual data remediation.
• athenahealth, a provider of network-enabled software and services for medical groups and health systems nationwide, announced that The Good Clinic, a primary care practice that co-partners with clients ages 12 and older, will leverage athenaOne to support its rapid growth and meet consumer demand for accessible, relationship-driven primary care services. athenaOne provides The Good Clinic with access to a cloud-based healthcare solution that reduces IT and administrative burden for staff and allows them to focus on maximizing clinical outcomes and financial performance. The Good Clinic will enable multichannel, symmetrical, and asymmetrical patient engagement tools, such as text and email messaging, a patient portal for online scheduling and viewing health records, and more, to encourage patient participation in their health and well-being.
• Carrum Health, a digital health company connecting employers and employees to Centers of Excellence, announced a partnership with Accolade, a personalized health platform. Accolade clients can now activate Carrum's value-based COE program through their existing contract and quickly offer their employees access to personalized guidance and treatment from best-in-class providers that have been rigorously evaluated and selected using industry-leading quality algorithms.
• Parker Health, a full-stack cloud-based Healthcare Management System, partnered with FDB Vela, a cloud-native electronic prescribing network that enables the flow of medication prescription information, benefits verification, and clinical decision support between prescribers, payers, pharmacies, and other constituents. FDB Vela's allows Parker Health to control how the Parker Suite Health Management System displays prescription information inside the web and mobile application for prescribers. It also enables Parker Health to automate aspects of prescribing, such as drug lookup and recommendations based on patient condition. This eases the burden on prescribers and staff.
• Hicuity Health, a provider of high-acuity telemedicine services, announced the launch of tele-ICU services at MUSC Health Columbia Medical Center Downtown in Columbia, South Carolina. The new service launch draws upon MUSC Health's long-standing collaboration with Hicuity Health which delivers 24/7/365 telemedicine services to hospitals across the state. Since 2014, MUSC Health and Hicuity Health have worked together to ensure the citizens of South Carolina have access to state-of-the-art critical care regardless of location. The two organizations currently partner to ensure critical care access across the state, collaborating on tele-ICU programs in hospitals across a variety of geographic markets.
• The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a final rule to improve access to hearing aids which may in turn lower costs for millions of Americans. This action establishes a new category of over-the-counter hearing aids, enabling consumers with perceived mild to moderate hearing impairment to purchase hearing aids directly from stores or online retailers without the need for a medical exam, prescription or a fitting adjustment by an audiologist. The rule is expected to lower the cost of hearings aids, furthering the Biden-Harris Administration’s goal of expanding access to high-quality health care and lowering health care costs for the American public.
• A federal judge in Cleveland awarded $650 million in damages Wednesday to two Ohio counties that won a lawsuit against national pharmacy chains CVS, Walgreens and Walmart, claiming the way they distributed opioids to customers caused severe harm to communities. U.S. District Judge Dan Polster said in the ruling that the money will be used to abate a continuing opioid crisis in Lake and Trumbull counties, outside Cleveland. Attorneys for the counties had put the price tag at $1 billion for the damage done to each of the counties. Lake County is to receive $306 million over 15 years. Trumbull County is to receive $444 million over the same period. Polster ordered the companies to pay nearly $87 million to cover the first two years.
• Britain became the first country in the world to approve a dual Covid-19 vaccine, which tackles both the original virus and the newer omicron variant. The updated Moderna vaccine — known as a bivalent because it targets two variants — is expected to be available to adults as a booster jab from the fall after receiving the go-ahead from the U.K.’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency on Monday. It also received endorsement from the British government’s independent scientific advisory body, the Commission on Human Medicines. The MHRA said that while existing vaccines — which were designed to combat the original strain of Covid — continue to provide good protection, the augmented version would provide better defense as the virus evolves.
• The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services facilitated an agreement between Bavarian Nordic and Grand River Aseptic Manufacturing, a pharmaceutical contract manufacturer, to accelerate delivery of additional smallpox and monkeypox vaccines using new U.S. production line. The Biomedical Advance Research and Development Authority, within the HHS Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, ordered 5.5 million vials of JYNNEOS from Bavarian Nordic to be filled, finished and delivered from U.S. government-owned bulk vaccine stored in Denmark.
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched an overhaul of its structure and operations in an attempt to modernize the agency and rehabilitate its reputation following intense criticism of its handling of the coronavirus pandemic and, more recently, the growing monkeypox outbreak. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky shared a series of changes with CDC leadership and staff designed to “transform” the organization and its work culture by improving how the agency shares information, develops public health guidance and communicates with the American public. The CDC restructuring follows two reviews conducted in recent months, one by Health Resources and Services Administration official Jim Macrae into the CDC’s pandemic response and another by CDC Chief of Staff Sherri Berger into agency operations. The reviews concluded that the “traditional scientific and communication processes were not adequate to effectively respond to a crisis the size and scope of the COVID-19 pandemic,” according to an agency statement.
• docs24, a provider of digital and print asset management solutions for the clinical research sector, entered a strategic partnership with Intrinseque Health, a provides clinical supplies and equipment to investigative sites. The new agreement creates a partnership enabling both organizations to expand the services offered to their customer base while continuing to provide exemplary levels of customer service. docs24 has the capacity to provide content and document management while Intrinseque Health provides the supplies and equipment necessary to conduct regulatory compliant trials on time and on budget.
• Medi-science International Limited and Afya Rekod, a health record management platform, announced a strategic collaboration that seeks to transform healthcare delivery through improved access to personal health data in Africa and Europe. The partnership will give patients an accessible record of their own health history, by enabling patients, doctors and hospitals to host health records securely on one platform through a digital application. Both patients and clinicians will be able to access imaging files and test results through an app on their phones or browser without having to go back to the health clinic to collect the files. To protect confidentiality, Afya Rekod uses various AI and blockchain modules, and the patient maintains the sovereign right of ownership to their health data.
• TCARE, an aging-in-place technology and data analytics provider in the elder care space, partnered with Nymbl Science, a falls prevention and balance training solution for older adults. This partnership allows TCARE and Nymbl to proactively engage family caregivers and their care recipients to maintain and improve their mobility independence to age-in-place. Together, TCARE Inc. and Nymbl Science share the same goal of not only delaying or diverting nursing home placement, but also driving better health outcomes, reducing claims costs by decreasing service consumption, and improving the overall quality of life for unpaid caregivers and their care recipients.
• GE Healthcare, a global medical technology, diagnostics and digital solutions innovator, announced a collaboration with Boston Scientific, a global medical device manufacturer, to provide end-to-end innovative interventional cardiac care solutions in India. The collaboration will enable easier access to treatment and is intended to improve heart care for patients, thereby addressing the disease burden prevailing in the country. The  medical devices and capabilities from Boston Scientific, coupled with GE Healthcare's strong medical imaging systems like cardiac catherization lab and related software, support diagnostics through treatment and monitoring of the cardiac patient-care pathway.
• Reliq Health Technologies, a global healthcare technology company that develops innovative Virtual Care solutions, announced that it signed five new contracts with two home health agencies, two physician practices and a multi-state wound care practice that provide care to patients in Kentucky, California, Florida, Nevada and Texas. The contracts are expected to add at least 10,000 new patients to Reliq’s iUGO Care platform over the next three quarters.

M&A

• Boston Scientific, a biomedical/biotechnology engineering firm, acquired Obsidio, developer of the Gel Embolic Material technology used for embolization of blood vessels in the peripheral vasculature
• Intelerad Medical Systems, a provider of enterprise medical imaging solutions, acquired  PenRad Technologies, a software provider for enhancing productivity for breast imaging and lung screening
• Upfront, a patient engagement and access platform, acquired PatientBond, a provider of consumer science for healthcare
• ASG, a portfolio company of Alpine Investors that buys and builds vertical SaaS companies, acquired MediMatrix, a mobile healthcare software business for medical providers offering mobile radiology and imaging services
• Syneos Health, a fully integrated biopharmaceutical solutions organization, acquired Boco Digital Media, a global training and development company specializing in technology-enabled learning and communications solutions
• ACU-Serve, a medical billing company, acquired ECS Billing & Consulting North, a revenue cycle management, business operations consulting and training firm

Funding Roundup

• Incredible Health raised $80 million to be a career marketplace for nurses
• KeyCare raised $24 million to proviee health systems with virtual care services
• HIPAA compliant email solution Paubox raised $10 million
• Motivo raised $14 million to help mental health graduates get licensed
• AIRS Medical raised $20 million to upgrade MRI images
• Flossy, which connects patients to dentists at an affordable price, raised $14.7 million
• Love, a Miami, a pharmaceutical group leveraging a community driven DAO, raised $7.5 million
• CareHarmony, an AI-powered care coordination solutions provider, raised $15 million
• AliveCor, a provider of personal electrocardiogram technology, raised an undisclosed amount of funding 
• MiyaHealthm which develops technologies to improve the healthcare experience for patients, raised an undisclosed amount of funding
• Trial Library, an oncology clinical trials company, raised $5 million
• CureApp, which is involved in the research and development of prescription and non-prescription digital therapeutics applications, raised $51.4 million
• Remedium Bio, a biotechnology company developing novel gene therapies, raised more than $2.3 million
• CathVision, a developer of electrophysiology technology, raised $7.2 million
• ClaimLogiq, a healthcare payment integrity platform, raised an undisclosed amount of funding
• Porton Advanced Solutions, a cell and gene therapy CDMO service provider, raised $80 million

(Image source: wamda.com)