Digital health news, funding round up in the prior week; February 6, 2023

Vinbrain partnered with Microsoft; Clearsense raised $50M; WHOOP integrated with Hyperice

Top Health News

• Kaiser Permanente announced a $25 million commitment over the next five years to its Center for Gun Violence Research and Education, which it established this past June. The company says the money will go toward expanding and scaling its prevention research efforts, more public and professional education programs, and evidence-backed community initiatives, hospital-based violence intervention programs. The idea is to identify patients at risk of repeated violent injury and link them resources that identify and address the underlying risk factors for violence. The center's stated goal is to reduce the incidence and impact of gun violence, including intimate partner violence and suicide, in the U.S.
• CVS Health announced a new initiative called The CVS Health Community Equity Alliance, which will specifically address disparities in heart health and mental health outcomes. The Alliance already has its first three institutions who have joined: Meharry Medical College, Sinai Chicago and Wayne State University. CVS Health will provide all three with funding for locally tailored initiatives to help make health care more accessible and decrease health disparities.
• MyndVR, a provider of VR-based, digital therapeutic experiences designed for the aging population, announced a partnership with AgeWell New York so MyndVR will, for the first time, be covered by insurance, as CareWell members will now have access to its virtual reality therapy sessions. AgeWell New York is a specialty managed care organization serving Medicare and Medicaid populations in the New York metropolitan area, including the Bronx, Manhattan, Queens Brooklyn, Nassau, Westchester, and Suffolk counties.
• Headspace Health announced it is expanding its services to the rest of the globe by partnering with organizations headquartered outside of the U.S. for the first time. The company's first stop outside of the U.S. is the United Kingdom. The selection of the U.K. as its market seems to come from Headspace Health's own research: a recent study done by the company on employees in Australia, Germany, the UK, and the US show that one in three British workers feel their employer isn’t doing enough to support their mental health, and 63% said they missed at least one day of work over a 12 month period due to stress, anxiety, or other mental health challenges. The company is already looking to extend its services into additional markets throughout the coming year, though Headspace Health didn't specify which markets it's currently looking at.
• Survey results from MedStar Health, showed that 43% of survey respondents knew that heart health as the leading cause of death, though they also seem to think of mostly as a problem for men, as only 29% identified it as the leading cause of death in women as well. In all, 22% of the 1,000 U.S. adults surveyed in December 2022, said heart disease was their number one health concern; that was greater than other major conditions, including mental health, cancer, and COVID-19. Yet, more than a third still said they don't discuss heart health with their provider when they have their annual physical. On top of knowing about the death rate from heart disease, MedStar Health also asked whether people could identify the five symptoms of a heart attack, finding that only 12% of Americans knew them allL chest pain or discomfort; feeling weak, light-headed, or faint; pain or discomfort in the jaw, neck, or back; pain or discomfort in one or both arms or shoulders; and shortness of breath. In addition, less than half of Americans have been trained in CPR, and only 41% said they would feel comfortable administering CPR. Finally, only 4% knew that the recommended age for cholesterol screening is at age 9 to 11.
• Digital Diagnostics, developer of an autonomous AI diagnostic system that allows diabetic retinopathy to be diagnosed at the point-of-care in front-line care settings, announced a strategic partnership with Tamer Healthcare, a nationwide health and wellness network in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, to distribute IDx-DR, Digital Diagnostics' flagship product, for the detection of diabetic retinopathy, including macular edema. This partnership will give Digital Diagnostic access to the 8 million people in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia living with diabetes that need their eyes tested for diabetic retinopathy each year. Along with its plans to distribute IDx-DR in more care settings, the partnership with Tamer Healthcare also includes plans for future development and expansion of artificial intelligence technology.
• The FTC fined GoodRx $1.5 million for illegally sharing user data. According to the FTC allegation, GoodRx not only violated its own policies around sharing health information, but also the Health Breach Notification Rule, which requires vendors of personal health records to notify consumers following a breach involving unsecured information. On top of that, the FTC also says that the company misrepresented its HIPAA Compliance by displaying a seal at the bottom of its telehealth services homepage that suggested it was complying with the law. In addition, by not notifying consumers it was sharing this data, GoodRx violated the Health Breach Notification Rule. The proposed order still has to be approved by a federal court to go into effect, and if it does then GoodRx will have to take actions to remedy the situation, including requiring user consent before they can share their health information. The company will be permanently prohibited from disclosing user health information with applicable third parties for advertising purposes, and will also be required to direct those other apps to delete the consumer health data that it already shared with them, to limit how long it can retain personal and health information according to a data retention schedule, and to put in place a comprehensive privacy program that includes strong safeguards to protect consumer data.
• Wildflower Health, a provider of digital health and value-based maternal care, launched a value-based maternity care initiative in New Jersey, through a newly announced a partnership with Healthcare Transformation Consortium, a collaborative of independent health systems in the state, made up of providers from Atlantic Health System, CentraState Healthcare System, Holy Name, Hunterdon Health, Saint Peter’s Healthcare System, Valley Health System, and Virtua Health. The new model includes a digital platform that helps help doctors, nurses and other caregivers engage, support, and remotely monitor patients between visits while expanding access to existing resources and virtual services. The platform also includes educational content and tools for patients, and data for providers that can be accessed at point of care. Additionally, clinicians will be able to use Health Advocates and Coaches from Wildflower who will help connect patients to available resources, while also escalating care for at-risk women who need additional clinical support. As part of this initiative, Wildflower and HTC will also be working with OB-GYN practices, including those affiliated with Unified Women’s Healthcare and Axia Women’s Health, two of the largest OB-GYN networks in the U.S.
• The Nova Scotia Health Innovation Hub partnered with Medable, a decentralized clinical trial (DCT) platform, on a two-year pilot study. Launched in January of this year, the long-term goal of the study is to improve patient access and trial diversity across Canada. Using Medable’s services, including its Total Consent Management and Televisit solutions, differentiated thyroid cancer patients in Nova Scotia will be able to speak with a physician without having to leave their home. Nova Scotia Health, which conducts around 400 clinical trials per year, also noted that one of its goals is to empower primary care providers to be more involved with their patients post-trial through a shared care model, supported by DCT technologies.
• The White House announced a slew of new initiatives for its Cancer Moonshot program, including a new accelerator, called CancerX, from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), and Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH). CancerX will look to develop tools, including digital solutions to improve cancer patient care coordination and communication, new software technology to help community organizations meet cancer patients where they are, and new platforms to support patients with their post-treatment care. CancerX follows in the footsteps of previous accelerators that have come out of the HHS InnovationX program accelerators, including KidneyX and PandemicX. One of the other big announcements was new initiative from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), called the Childhood Cancer – Data Integration for Research, Education, Care, and Clinical Trials, which will support children and adolescents and young adults with cancer. It will provide patient navigation support for families, while also establishing a portable, shareable, standardized cancer health record so that families can reach out for support and also have the opportunity to participate in research through clinical trials and data sharing initiatives.
• Biofourmis, a technology-enabled care delivery provider, announced an agreement with Beacon Health System for a multi-hospital post-discharge remote patient monitoring program for complex chronic conditions to reduce readmissions, expand care access across the region, and improve clinical outcomes. Beacon is launching its post-discharge RPM program with Biofourmis across two of its largest hospitals—Elkhart General Hospital and Memorial Hospital. Patients with congestive heart failure or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease who meet certain criteria are to be enrolled in the program in the first year. Heart failure is responsible for nearly 1.3 million hospitalizations per year in the U.S. while COPD is attributed to more than 650,000 hospitalizations per year. Both conditions also have among the highest rates of hospital readmissions within 30 days—23% for heart failure and 20% for COPD.
• House Rx, a platform for medically integrated dispensing of specialty medications, and Oregon Oncology Specialists announced a partnership to speed cancer medication delivery. Using House Rx's MID model, which consists of both services and technology support, the community clinic will expedite filling cancer patients' specialty medication prescriptions across its statewide network, providing more comprehensive care and improving health outcomes. House Rx will augment the Oregon Oncology Specialists team, working directly with patients to fill prescribed medication by supporting activities such as benefits investigation, prior authorization, financial assistance and medication counseling. This reduces the burden on patients and their medical team and eliminates the back-and-forth communication typical of siloed medical and pharmacy care.
• Care.ai, an ambient monitoring patient platform announced a new partnership with health agency Emirates Health Services, to deploy smart care facilities across the entirety of the United Arab Emirates. The partnership will provide services such as AI-powered fall monitoring, real-time updating and analyzing patient data, and sssistance for doctors in patient diagnoses through computer vision. 
• The Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company, PBC and OncoPower announced a collaboration to build on OncoPower’s cancer care support with the launch of a Medication Savings Suite, which leverages Cost Plus Drugs competitive pricing on generic medication to seamlessly allow the cancer patients that use OncoPower to look up pricing and order less expensive medications. This Medication Savings Suite integrates with OncoPower’s Pill Reminder tool, creating an end-to-end experience for the patient that improves treatment adherence, provides cost transparency, engages the patient at home, and is completely free, opening up affordable access to supportive care for every cancer patient.
• Lunit, in partnership with precision oncology company Guardant Health, announced the integration of its AI-based PD-L1 scoring algorithm into Guardant's testing workflow to enhance biomarker detection in the Guardant360 TissueNextTM PD-L1 test for non-small cell lung cancer. The newly integrated algorithm will enable Guardant to offer augmented biomarker assessment for NSCLC patients through AI-based quantification of tissue samples using a scoring system generated by Lunit SCOPE PD-L1. The enhanced Guardant test is designed to support pathologists in diagnosing PD-L1 status with higher accuracy and efficiency. Through the AI software, the test showed improved detection of PD-L1 by more than 20 percent compared to manual pathologist interpretation in the most challenging cases in NSCLC1.
• Ada Health, a digital health company focused on improving human health at scale, announced the launch of its first digital condition-based care journey, designed to help people understand if they meet current criteria for progression to severe COVID-19 and connect with a health care provider for evaluation of their COVID-19 symptoms and treatment options. Users can access the Ada COVID-19 Care Journey via Ada's dedicated COVID-19 Care Journey website, by conducting a self-screening in the Ada app, or following a symptom assessment in the Ada app which indicates COVID-19 as a possible condition.
• Garner Health Technologies launched Garner DataPro, a provider recommendation platform that equips organizations with physician referrals based on the most detailed and accurate provider performance and directory data in the industry. The platform provides directory data validated at 94% accuracy to ensure patients are guided to the highest-quality providers in their network that have appointment availability. This further delivers on Garner's mission to transform the healthcare economy by delivering high-quality and affordable care to all patients.
• VinBrain, a company working to transform global healthcare through its artificial intelligence products, partnered with Microsoft to expand AI-based healthcare services in Vietnam. One of VinBrain's primary products is DrAid, an AI pathology prediction platform that has demonstrated its usefulness in over 150 hospitals and earned a prestige ACM SIGAI Industry Award 2021. DrAid is a value-added use case for Microsoft to collaborate on the validation of the impact of Florence, a new foundation model for computer vision developed by Microsoft. In addition, DrAid is the first and only AI software for X-ray Diagnostics in Southeast Asia to be cleared by The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), putting Vietnam on the map of 6 countries owning an FDA-cleared AI product for Chest X-ray Pneumothorax finding. Microsoft will bring trusted and integrated cloud capabilities to VinBrain's developers, to deliver a better experience for users. This collaboration will implement data sharing through Microsoft Azure and apply it to the data gathered by DrAid.
• Abdul Latif Jameel Health announced a new distribution agreement with iSono Health, a medical technology company in San Francisco, USA, to transform breast care with automated imaging and artificial intelligence. The partnership, announced on the first day of Arab Health 2023, will see Abdul Latif Jameel Health become the exclusive distributor of iSono Health’s ATUSA scanner in the Global South, making it available to hundreds of millions of women in an initial 31 countries covering the Middle East and North Africa, Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.
• Huma Therapeutics Limited, a digital health company, and Bayer, a global life sciences company, partnered to develop the Bayer Aspirin Heart Risk Assessment, an online tool that quickly assesses an individual's risk factors for developing cardiovascular disease over the next 10 years, which can be shared with a healthcare professional as part of ongoing health management. Huma developed the algorithm using data from the UK's Biobank which predicts long-term risk of cardiovascular disease, and the research has been validated and published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
• Presight AI, a AI and predictive intelligence company in MENACA, signed an MOU with G42 Healthcare, an AI health-tech company based in Abu Dhabi, to develop a foundational big data model. Leveraging Presight’s omni-analytics platform and G42 Healthcare’s in-depth knowledge and expertise in the health industry, the collaboration will result in the exploration of population health management, wellness and performance data prediction, and time-sequenced events and behavioral analysis prediction.
• Blue Water Vaccines, a biopharmaceutical company developing transformational vaccines to address significant global health challenges, announced a collaboration with AbVacc for the joint development of vaccine candidates targeting monkeypox and Marburg virus disease. Both candidate vaccines will utilize BWV’s norovirus shell and protrusion (“S&P”) virus-like particle platform, which allows for the presentation of multiple antigens on the surface of either the S or P particle of a norovirus backbone. BWV previously announced plans to explore a novel monkeypox vaccine candidate using this platform and under this agreement, AbVacc & BWV plan to work collaboratively to optimize the vaccine design and conduct preclinical immunogenicity and efficacy studies. In addition to monkeypox vaccine development, AbVacc will utilize its extensive expertise in MVD to develop a novel vaccine targeting Marburg virus using BWV’s VLP platform.
• Australian health and wellness company, Care A2 Plus Pty Ltd, and American pharmaceutical company Gensco Pharma, announced a partnership to bring the already established Australian Infant formula into millions of American homes. The Food and Drug Administration the U.S., certifying that the Australian-made Care A2+ Infant Formula meets the standards set by the FDA. In early January 2023 the FDA extended the approval for Care A2+ to be sold in the US to October 2025.
• Aster Pharmacy, the retail arm of Aster DM Healthcare and pharmacy chain in the UAE, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with talabat UAE, an online food delivery and q-commerce platform, to enable prescription medicine purchases. Starting February 2023, talabat users will be able to upload their medical prescriptions securely and easily on the app to be sent to Aster Pharmacy and have them delivered by talabat within 90 minutes. Customers will also be able to purchase OTC medicines and Health and Wellness items from Aster Pharmacy with a delivery time of 30 minutes or less.
• MIT’s K. Lisa Yang Center for Bionics entered into a collaboration with the government of Sierra Leone to strengthen the capabilities and services of that country’s orthotic and prosthetic sector. Tens of thousands of people in Sierra Leone need orthotic braces and artificial limbs, but access to such specialized medical care in this African nation is limited. The agreement between MIT, the Center for Bionics, and Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Health and Sanitation provides a detailed memorandum of understanding and intentions that will begin as a four-year program. The collaborators aim to strengthen Sierra Leone’s O&P sector through six key objectives: data collection and clinic operations, education, supply chain, infrastructure, new technologies, and mobile delivery of services.
• CVS Health Clinical Trial Services, a unit of CVS, signed up to begin enrolling patients for ProKidney’s phase 3 trial of its ReACT cell therapy designed to treat chronic kidney disease. Under the agreement, CVS Health will recruit participants at 39 sites by using a machine learning model to identify patient populations that align with trial inclusion/exclusion criteria.
• Sonoma Pharmaceuticals, a company developing and producing patented Microcyn technology based stabilized hypochlorous acid products, entered into a distribution agreement with Daewoong Pharmaceutical Co. for the marketing and distribution of Primocyn Skin Solution products in South Korea. Pursuant to the distribution agreement, Daewoong Pharmaceutical will have the exclusive right to market, sell and distribute Primocyn Skin Solution products, containing Sonoma's Microcyn technology, in South Korea.
• Jopari Solutions announced their partnership with Veradigm, formerly known as Allscripts, to provide electronic medical claim and attachment solutions to customers using Payerpath for the processing of Property & Casualty billing. Veradigm Payerpath, a revenue cycle solution and interoperability platform, delivers financial, administrative and clinical workflows that connect and empower providers, health plans and patients across the U.S.
• Loyal, a consumer health platform, announced an expanded partnership to offer provider data management and physician search services for PeaceHealth, a nonprofit Catholic health system that provides care to more than 2 million patients annually in Washington, Oregon, and Alaska. The multi-year deal includes enterprise-level storage as well as provider and location data management enhanced with Loyal’s comprehensive clinical taxonomy library. Additionally, Loyal will help PeaceHealth provide user-friendly, reliable digital search results to consumers seeking care using clinical and everyday natural language terms.
• Netsmart and Jefferson Center, a nonprofit, community-focused mental health care and substance use services provider, announced the launch of a strategic collaboration to drive integrated remote patient monitoring and engagement for behavioral health services, to advance positive outcomes for the children, adults and families they serve. Jefferson Center is leveraging the Netsmart consumer engagement platform, myHealthPointe, to engage with individuals, facilitate proactive interactions, automate and prioritize outreach and monitor data. The myHealthPointe solution recently achieved ONC 2015 Cures Update Certification, enabling Jefferson Center to leverage advanced interoperability capabilities. The Netsmart and Jefferson Center strategic relationship has allowed the two organizations to collectively innovate to help design and shape the solution, advance collaborative care and ensure positive outcomes.
• Senet, a provider of cloud-based software and services platforms that enable global connectivity and on-demand network build-outs for the Internet of Things, and Telli Health, a provider of medical remote patient monitoring devices, announced the launch the first remote patient monitoring hardware powered by LoRaWAN. This technology will allow providers to reach more patients in remote and underserved areas - such as indigenous communities worldwide - boosting healthcare equity and inclusivity, and creating the foundation to provide more smart home services in the near future.
• Eye care nonprofit Orbis International announced a renewed partnership with Vision Care company HOYA, which will commit its support over the next three years to improve health through vision for all. The support will focus on helping school children get access to eye care in low- to middle-income countries and on training eye care professionals around the world through Cybersight, Orbis's award-winning telemedicine and e-learning platform. Over the next three years, HOYA's contribution will enable Orbis to screen more than 500,000 children and provide more than 15,000 eyeglasses as part of the Refractive Error Among Children program in India. REACH aims to reduce visual impairment due to uncorrected refractive error (a vision problem that makes it hard to see clearly) among school-going children and provide a sustainable and scalable solution to a shortage of care for this issue. Orbis develops teams of ophthalmic personnel and supports them with digital and clinical equipment to perform screenings and provide spectacles. The teams also provide referrals for children who require further examination and treatment to an Orbis partner hospital or to the nearest Vision Center
• Ikove Venture Partners, a venture development company founded to pursue early-stage investments with an emphasis on technology commercialization, announced that they licensed certain technology from the University of Miami and The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, to launch Ulevo Health, a provider of medical devices which detect and stop debilitating muscle spasms due to neurological disease, paralysis, spinal injury and chronic cramping of any kind. Ulevo Health offers a wearable device that detects muscle spasms and produces a corrective stimulation as needed to immediately arrest the spasm and associated discomfort.
• Mednow announced the launch of its enhanced Virtual Diabetes Management program, an end-to-end digital diabetes management solution, to enable convenient on-demand access to Dexcom G6 real-time continuous glucose monitoring supplies and personalized diabetes care services. The new integrated Virtual Diabetes Management program combines Mednow virtual pharmacy services with Dexcom rtCGM technology, to provide individuals with a comprehensive diabetes management solution. Services include access to a team of certified diabetes educators and clinical pharmacists for ongoing health coaching, personalization of treatment, and convenient home delivery of all diabetes-related medications and supplies. 
• TriNet, aprovider of comprehensive human resource solutions for small and medium-size businesses, announced a partnership with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention featuring training programs, volunteer opportunities, educational resources and more. AFSP is a voluntary health organization that is dedicated to saving lives and bringing hope to those affected by suicide.
• Shields Health Solutions, a specialty pharmacy accelerator, announced that it partnered with MyMichigan Health, a non-profit health system serving 25 Michigan counties, to collaborate in developing a specialty pharmacy program. The program will help to meet the unique needs of patients with complex, chronic conditions with access to specialized pharmacy services designed to lower costs, expand treatment options, enhance medication management, and improve overall health. The support services offered by Shields will initially serve MyMichigan Health’s neurology and oncology patients, with plans to expand to additional disease states over the next six months. As part of the collaboration, specialty pharmacy coordinators will work with patients at on-site in clinics, offices, and pharmacies, among other locations, to assist in filling their prescriptions with MyMichigan. In addition, the coordinators will assist patients and families with a multitude of tasks, including health insurance prior authorizations or securing financial assistance.
• MS Canada partnered with mental health app Sesh to provide the Sesh platform free of charge to Canadians living with MS to support their wellness journeys. This partnership provides access to virtual therapist-led support groups, as well as kickstarts research around mental health and multiple sclerosis; specifically, the impact of support groups for those living with MS. The partnership will provide Canadians affected by MS with free, unlimited access to Sesh's online support groups, as well as the opportunity for both organizations to work together on joint research efforts.
• IQVIA, a provider of advanced analytics, technology solutions and clinical research services to the pharmaceutical and broader life sciences industry, announced the first life sciences industry collaboration with Alibaba Cloud in China. IQVIA and Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and intelligence backbone of Alibaba Group, will be providing solutions hosted in Mainland China leveraging Salesforce on Alibaba Cloud. This will enable customers with a path to begin using or extending their investments on the best-in-class platform for engaging with their customers.
• Accenture, a provider of HR, payroll, and workforce management solutions for all people, is collaborating to help Ardent Health Services improve workforce visibility and agility across its network of 30 hospitals and 200 sites of care. From timekeeping to scheduling, Ardent is transforming workforce operations to empower frontline talent with more flexible scheduling solutions that support work-life experiences, while remaining focused on providing quality healthcare services.Accenture worked with Ardent to leverage UKG Dimensions, an AI-powered workforce management solution, to more effectively manage scheduling, payroll and attendance across its healthcare facilities. Accenture’s extensive talent management and healthcare operations experience, combined with UKG’s intelligent workforce management suite, designed to meet industry-specific needs, has empowered Ardent to reimagine its approach to workforce management with a strategic vision to support more than 24,000 team members across the country.
• iCRYO, a recovery and wellness brand that focuses on a series of health-related recovery services that target pain management, beauty & anti-aging, athletic recovery and overall wellness, announced its synergistic partnership with medical and aesthetic equipment manufacturer  BTL Industries for a multi-year contract. The partnership will allow iCRYO to continue to innovate and expand its capabilities to its fast-growing number of franchises across the United States.
• Clinical Research Alliance announced a new strategic partnership with Spesana, by which CRA will be utilizing the Spesana Healthcare Platform to enhance CRA's clinical trial solutions. By being integrated at the point of care with the Spesana Healthcare Platform, CRA will have several digital health tools at its disposal to efficiently identify and enroll patients in clinical trials. Together, CRA and Spesana will be bringing a new level of care to providers, clinical trial sponsors and patients in the New York City area.
• The Cleveland Browns and University Hospitals announced an extension of their partnership for UH to serve as the Official Health Care Partner of the team. Since 2014, UH has worked with the Browns to provide a comprehensive, innovative and scientific-based approach to caring for Browns players, staff members and their families while also emphasizing engagement in the Northeast Ohio community. UH has developed a transdisciplinary sports medicine team that addresses Browns players' medical, training and overall health care needs as a foundation for long-term health, a philosophy that also extends to patient services at UH's network of 21 hospitals (including five joint ventures) and more than 50 health centers. In conjunction with the team focus, UH offers essential support for the Browns' commitment to assisting the development, safety and growth of youth and high school football throughout the region. Through camps, clinics and various initiatives, the organizations jointly promote healthy, social, emotional, intellectual and physical development of youth by enhancing opportunities for youth football participation and education, along with other sports.
• Life Science Intelligence, a Medtech Market Intelligence company, announced an expanded partnership with MedtechWomen, an organization dedicated to highlighting and connecting women leaders in medtech. MedtechWomen will be an official sponsor of LSI USA '23. Event attendees can meet the organization's leadership team and hear how they are advancing healthcare at the MedtechWomen sponsored networking breakfast on March 21st. 
• 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 and LEDGER RUN, a company focused on optimizing clinical operations, announced a strategic partnership. Through this partnership, Mural Health's Mural Link™ platform and Ledger Run's unique ClinRun platform work together to improve clinical operations and materially improve the efficiency, and outcomes, of global clinical trials.
• WHOOP, a human performance company, and Hyperice, a high-performance wellness brand, announced a partnership, unveiling a data integration to help users better understand the connection between recovery and how it impacts overall health. Through a two-way integration by way of Apple Health, WHOOP members will be able to automatically log recovery activities in their WHOOP app when utilizing the line of Hypervolt percussion massage devices, and Normatec dynamic air compression systems. The integration is the first of multiple joint initiatives between the brands that aim to further understand the impact of percussion massage and dynamic air compression on physical recovery while advancing human performance through quantitative data.
• The UT Health San Antonio School of Dentistry entered into partnership with the Straumann Group, a provider of implant components and digital equipment and services, to establish a patient treatment center housing a comprehensive array of cutting-edge technological advancements. The center, the most complete of its kind nationwide, is providing the very latest in patient care while also supporting community learning for students, graduate residents, local practicing dentists and lab technicians. And it also comes with a donation of equipment from Straumann that will be used to provide dental implant treatment for vulnerable patient populations.
• Royal Health, a self-service healthcare cloud software provider in imaging, announced a partnership with radiologist-led healthcare technology company SCANSLATED. Through this strategic partnership, Royal customers will gain access to SCANSLATED's AI-driven software that transforms complex diagnostic reports into an interactive, patient-centered format with plain-language explanations and diagrams, empowering patients with a better understanding of their imaging results and their imaging care plan. The software's deep learning identifies incidental findings and automatically notifies patients and providers of the recommended follow-up imaging, empowering patients to act upon findings right away. When linked to Royal's self-scheduling, the patient-friendly report becomes an interactive experience that reduces leakage, nurtures the imaging care plan, and thereby improves care and drives imaging volume.
• Solve.Care, a digital healthcare platform company that leverages blockchain to deliver better care, and EarthID, a Web3.0 focused company helping organizations prevent identity-frauds, drive compliance, and optimize costs, while empowering users with data-ownership, privacy, and consent, announced they formed a partnership to work together to empower individuals to have better control of their identity data for use in the healthcare industry. The collaboration will enable individuals to aggregate all data related to their identity for healthcare purposes, while maintaining complete control. They will be able to share portions of their identity data that is specific to the needs of the relevant healthcare stakeholders. This will result in lower risk for the individual, as well as for the person or party receiving the information. It is a bilateral risk management which will reduce the risk for the receiver from a governance and compliance perspective. They will receive only the necessary data that is required, protecting them from unnecessary exposure. In addition, every action is recorded on the blockchain, therefore making it traceable and auditable.

M&A

• Clinical trial company Science 37 acquired the life sciences platform from telehealth company Vault Health
• Sherlock Biosciences, a company engineering biology to bring next-generation diagnostics to the point of need, acquired Sense Biodetection, a molecular diagnostics company
• DrFirst, a healthcare interoperability platform, acquired select assets of Diagnotes, provider of a suite of team-based, patient-centered collaboration tools built specifically for the healthcare sector
• Workplace wellbeing company Unmind acquired Dublin-based employee mental healthcare platform Frankie Health
• Tivity Health, a provider of healthy life-changing solutions, acquired Burnalong, a digital health, wellness and fitness platform
• Thorne HealthTech, a developer of solutions for a personalized approach to health and wellness, acquired all of the outstanding stock of PreCon Health, a company focused on scientific discovery, innovation, and advancing safe and effective products that support healthy brain function
• Knack Global, a provider of Revenue Cycle Management solutions, completed its acquisition of Delta Business Systems, a provider of medical billing services, and practice management/electronic medical record software sales and support services to clients in and around Alabama
• Charles River Laboratories International acquired SAMDI Tech, a provider of label-free high-throughput screening solutions for drug discovery research
• Biosynex SA, a company specializing in the design and distribution of rapid tests, entered into a definitive merger agreement with Chembio Diagnostics, a point-of-care diagnostics company focused on infectious diseases
• Victori Group, a private equity investment group specializing in healthcare supply chain, liquidation channels and operations, acquired the assets of medical and surgical equipment provider The Alternative Source Medical
• ClariMed, a human-centered development and regulatory practice for medical products, acquired UserWise, a company committed to improving outcomes for medical products through human factors and useability engineering
• ROX Equity Partners, a UK-based private equity company, acquired health data technology platform HealthCloud

Funding Roundup 

• TBD Health, a sexual healthcare company, raised $4.4 million
• Healistic, a pharma-based speedy delivery service in the UK, raised £1 million
• PanopticAI, developer of digital health solutions that provide holistic health analysis, raised an undisclosed amount of funding 
• C-mo Medical Solutions, a developer of solutions for the diagnosis and management of cough-incident medical conditions, raised an undisclosed amount of funding
• Clearsense, a PaaS company that partners with healthcare organizations to increase data value, governance, and transparency, raised $50 million
• Aluna, a lung health management platform, raised $15.3 million
• AnswersNow, a platform for digital Applied Behavior Analysis with a mission to deliver high-quality, personalized therapy to all, raised $11 million
• Teal Health, an at-home cervical cancer screening, raised $8.8 million
• Levels, a software company that gives you real-time feedback on how food affects your health, raised $38 million
• Dxcover Limited, a clinical-stage diagnostics company developing spectroscopic liquid biopsy technology for early detection of multiple cancers, raised $11.9
• Vector BioMed, a biomanufacturing company specializing in the manufacture of lentiviral vectors, launched with an undisclosed amount of funding
• NOCED, a telehealth company that offers obsessive compulsive disorder treatment, raised $34 million
• Re:course AI, a provider of artificial intelligence flight simulator for healthcare training, raised $4.3 million
• Phlo, a UK-based digital pharmacy company, raised £10 million
• Allied Physicians Group, an independent provider of pediatric care, raised an undisclosed amount of funding
• Adjuvant.Health, a provider of physician-led medical practice administration, raised an undisclosed amount of funding

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