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

FDA rejected Neuralink; CodaMetrix raised $55 million; Walgreens partnered with Doordash and Uber

Top Health News

• OrthoVentions and the Hospital for Special Surgery announced they entered into an agreement to support the development of technologies crafted by the premiere musculoskeletal surgeon group. The dedicated fund managed by OrthoVentions principals will be tasked to steward the innovative technologies developed by HSS surgeons and create individual early-stage companies focused on bringing the respective inventions to market. Under the terms of the agreement, the management of OrthoVentions will conduct a competitive process to select technologies developed by surgeons at HSS. Technologies identified for funding will be structured as stand-alone subsidiaries of OrthoVentions LLC with the goal of utilizing the funds to complete product development and achieve the appropriate regulatory approval and limited market release. The selection process will focus on those technologies addressing unmet clinical needs that also provide compelling innovation that is distinguished in the marketplace.
• Healthy.io, a company that transforms the smartphone camera into a medical device, and Reset Kidney Health, a hybrid care platform that offers gold-standard multidisciplinary care to patients with kidney disease, announced a partnership that will give patients the option to utilize at-home, smartphone-powered kidney testing. Through this partnership, Reset will provide eligible patients with Healthy.io's Minuteful Kidney™ test to complete at home. Additionally, patients who are interested in re-engaging with their kidney care can request a test kit through the Reset Kidney Health platform. The Minuteful Kidney test will help Reset identify the patients with evidence of disease and enable them to actively participate in their kidney care. With Reset's team of nephrologists, nurses, dietitians, and therapists, combined with the health insights from Minuteful Kidney, eligible patients in Ohio, Alabama, Wisconsin, Florida, and Montana will receive convenient and personalized care by improving access and removing traditional barriers which may otherwise be inhibiting their care management.
• ConcertAI's TeraRecon, an advanced visualization and AI Clinical SaaS company, announced its Eureka Clinical AI platform is now available to European healthcare providers. The company initiated distribution agreements with seven leading CE-marked AI software developers —Cercare Medical, Combinostics, Coreline Soft, Imaging Biometrics (CE pending), Infervision, Radiobotics, and Riverain Technologies. Eureka Clinical AI is now one of the leading unified solutions for clinical AI algorithms in Europe, providing clinical and diagnostic benefits across radiology, neurology, oncology, pulmonology, and cardiology.
• TekTone, a manufacturers of nurse call systems and monitoring solutions for the healthcare, residential and commercial markets, partnered with Vayyar, a 4D imaging radar company. TekTone will now provide touchless, fully automatic fall detection that works in all lighting conditions and even in the dense steam of a bathroom, where 80% of falls occur. Vayyar's imaging technology allows caregivers to see the human body without identifying the person, ensuring rapid response in all scenarios, while maintaining privacy at all times. This is a key consideration for care providers whose end users may be resistant to the installation of cameras in their living spaces.
• Toyota Motor North America announced a new initiative called the Way Forward Fund, which it describes as "a multi-year initiative aimed at strengthening access to care and injury recovery support for individuals and their families." The initial focus will be on children who have TBI: the fund will dole out $8.5 million it its first year to institutions that provide programmatic operations designed to support children and their families; research and development of innovations and technologies that advance treatment; and the provision of equipment to increase access to tools for treatment. So far, three institutions have been selected: Michigan-based Beaumont Children’s/Corewell Health, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Foundation, and ImPACTS (Improving Pediatric Acute Care Through Simulation).
• Metro Mommy Agency, which looks to improve the quality and coordination of maternity care for Black women in Miami-Dade county by providing increased access to doula services announced a partnership with Unite Us, a technology company connecting health and social care. The idea is to connect people in need with community-based resources that it would be difficult for them to otherwise navigate. Through this partnership, Unite Us will help facilitate referrals between healthcare providers and Metro Mommy Agency, thereby effectively eliminating the time-consuming process for patients seeking maternal care services.
• Brightline, a mental health solution built specifically to care for children, teenagers, and their families, announced a partnership with Evernorth, which will make it available as an in-network benefit to all Evernorth clients and the millions of families that are Cigna Healthcare customers. That means it will be able to reach over 60 million lives across all 50 states. For Evernorth, adding Brightline to its list of behavioral health providers who treat children and teens means it can expand the options that parents have when their children need behavioral care.
• Abridge, a company that helps patients record their doctor appointments, using machine learning to transcribe and highlight the most important parts of the conversation, announced a partnership with The University of Kansas Health System. Abridge has already helped more than 2,000 clinicians and served more than 200,000 patients; with this new partnership, it has the potential to serve and support more than 1,500 practicing physicians across The University of Kansas Health System’s over 140 locations.
• Aledade, a network of independent primary care, and Humana announced a 10-year collaboration to provide value-based primary care for Humana’s Medicare Advantage members from in-network Aledade-enabled physicians. The two companies have been working together since 2019 in a limited number of markets, where they were able to increase primary care visits and bring impressive results, reducing inpatient hospitalizations by 5% and reducing readmissions by 12%, according to shared company data. By the end of 2022, more than 100,000 patients in Humana’s network received care under a value-based agreement with an Aledade-enabled physician practice. Building on their existing relationship, the two companies plan to phase in the 10-year term for current and new state-wide agreements, which include a pathway to full risk. The collaboration with Humana will continue to grow as new practices and prospective markets join Aledade’s nationwide network.
• PatientFi, a point-of-sale technology platform offering patients a friendly way to pay for medical and dental procedures, announced its strategic partnership with PracticeHwy’s electronic medical records solution, eIVF. The goal of this partnership is to help more fertility providers and patients access friendly patient financing directly within eIVF’s patient portal and broaden the accessibility and affordability of fertility procedures. PatientFi partners with healthcare practices and healthtech providers to remove cost barriers by offering patients friendly monthly payment plans to ease financial burdens and expand accessibility through best-in-class technology integration and payments solutions. This partnership will benefit both providers and patients across all 140 eIVF fertility clinics.
• Viz.ai, a provider of AI-powered disease detection and care coordination, announced a multi-year agreement with Bristol Myers Squibb, a global biopharmaceutical company, to deploy an artificial intelligence algorithm and provider workflow software intended to identify and triage patients who may require further evaluation for the detection of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Viz.ai has submitted a de novo request to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the algorithm as a Software-as-a-Medical-Device, and the filing has been accepted by the agency for review.
• Walmart Health announced plans to opening 28 new Walmart Health center locations in 2024. This will expand Walmart Health’s footprint into two new states – Missouri and Arizona – and deepen its presence in Texas. By the end of 2024, it will have more than 75 Walmart Health centers across the United States. That include 10 locations in Dallas metro area, 8 locations in Houston metro area, 6 locations in Phoenix metro area, and 4 locations in Kansas City, MO, metro area.
• HealthBook+, a digital-first care and guidance platform that allows individuals to own their health, launched with a near-term focus on addressing the acute and chronic issues related to the mental health of healthcare workers. Designed by doctors, the HealthBook+ platform aggregates an individual’s health data from many sources, including electronic health records, wearable health trackers and self-reporting via simple health checks. While keeping this data private and secure, it leverages proprietary predictive analytics and AI models to identify potential conditions early on and guides individuals to their next best health steps. This includes facilitating access to healthcare screening and services through secure chats, peer coaching, and education.
• Press Ganey, a provider of patient, member, employee and consumer experience across the healthcare ecosystem, announced an agreement with Epic to collaborate on deep integration of patient experience data into its more than 300 million patient records. The collaboration will aim to improve care by supporting personalized experiences and holistic understanding of all patients. Press Ganey is the first company to integrate experience data and guidance directly into Epic. This integrated solution, which will be available later this year, is an important step in supporting real-time insight into patient feedback, allowing providers to respond quickly and efficiently to concerns. Initially, Press Ganey data and insights will be integrated into Epic’s MyChart patient portal and Cheers CRM, with integration into additional applications to be added in the future.
• Lumata Health, a technology-driven healthcare startup on a mission to prevent vision loss from chronic eye diseases through its human-led, intelligent eye care management platform, announced its partnership with Hadley, a global leader in helping adults with vision loss discover new ways to do everyday tasks, to combine their resources serving patients experiencing vision loss. Patients in Lumata’s network will be given free access to Hadley resources and assisted through the sign-up process by a Lumata representative to take advantage of all relevant tools and tutorials.
• Walgreens announced it will not sell abortion pills in several states where abortion remains legal. The move comes after Republican attorneys general in 20 states sent Walgreens a letter saying the company could face legal consequences if it sold abortion medication in those states. Walgreens said it responded to each attorney general and said it would not sell abortion pills — by mail or in their stores — in those states. Among them are states where abortion is illegal, like Kentucky, Mississippi, South Dakota, Texas and West Virginia. But Walgreens also said it wouldn't sell the pills in states where abortion remains legal, like Alaska, Florida, Iowa and Montana.
• The Global Health Innovative Technology Fund and global health agency Unitaid signed a cooperation framework that aims to strengthen collaboration between the two agencies to increase cooperation between the Japanese research and development industry and the broader global health response. The partnership will focus on tackling complex challenges such as emerging drug resistance in tuberculosis (TB) and malaria and shifting patterns of vector-borne diseases due to climate change. By reinforcing links between the GHIT Fund's research and development pipeline and Unitaid's expertise in product introduction and access, the framework will further efforts to connect partners and ideas dealing with topics of health innovation, access, and scale.
• Neuralink, a developer of implantable brain–computer interfaces, was rejected in early 2022 when it sought permission from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to start human trials. In explaining the decision to Neuralink, the agency outlined dozens of issues the company must address before human testing, a critical milestone on the path to final product approval, the staffers said. The agency’s major safety concerns involved the device’s lithium battery; the potential for the implant’s tiny wires to migrate to other areas of the brain; and questions over whether and how the device can be removed without damaging brain tissue. 
• Rambam Health Care Campus and Synch communication, with support and funding from the Israel Innovation Authority, together with the Ministry of Communications and partners, launched a smart 5G network and network-integrated application for the healthcare industry. Together with Pelephone, who provides the advanced 5G network, Rambam IT department who integrated the system to the hospital electronic patient record and Elbit Systems for the command-and-control capabilities, the Synch Collaboration app, leverages floLIVE 5G core network technology to enhance communication among medical staff in the hospital's emergency room. The app features push-to-talk functionality and uses voice recognition and keyword detection technologies to ensure a prompt and effective response in emergency situations. The smart network can detect and allocate resources based on emergency keywords used in communications among ER teams.
• One Mind, a  mental health non-profit, announced the eleven companies making up the inaugural cohort for the One Mind Accelerator. The intensive ten-week program aims to help founders rapidly build and scale early-stage startups developing real-world solutions to improve the lives of people facing mental health conditions. Out of 105 applications received, eleven early-stage startups were selected to participate and will each receive a $100,000 investment. The eleven companies kicked off the program on February 27 with a weeklong in-person series of workshops and seminars in Menlo Park, California. The Accelerator will provide 10 weeks of programming that covers all aspects of building a mental health company: from working with payers and providers, to pursuing regulatory approval, to designing category-defining companies that adhere to the highest ethical standards. Co-creating with the lived experience community will be an important aspect of the program, helping founders to build products that meaningfully address the needs of their target market.
• Tempus, a provider of artificial intelligence and precision medicine, announced a multi-year, strategic collaboration with Pfizer in which the two companies are working together to further AI and machine learning-driven efforts in therapeutic development. The goal of this collaboration is to more precisely gather insights that will inform novel drug discovery and development in oncology. Through this collaboration, Pfizer has access to Tempus’ AI-enabled platform and its library of de-identified, multimodal data to uncover insights that will power therapeutic development in oncology. Pfizer also has access to Tempus’ broad range of capabilities that support therapeutic R&D to advance its own oncology portfolio, including AI-driven companion diagnostic offerings and Tempus’ clinical trial matching program, TIME, that rapidly activates studies for patients in communities across the country.
• Highmark Health is deploying Kinsa's real-time illness insights and season forecast to predict health care utilization, recognize staffing needs, and plan emergency department and ICU bed capacity when infectious diseases like COVID-19 and influenza spike. Highmark Health's integrated delivery network, Allegheny Health Network, will be the first health delivery system to utilize Kinsa's early warning system to model staffing needs and bed capacity. Businesses utilizing Kinsa's insights across other industries have achieved a 50 percent reduction in forecasting errors.
• North Carolina legislative leaders announced an agreement to expand Medicaid to hundreds of thousands of additional low-income adults through the Affordable Care Act. The deal, which likely won’t be voted on until later this month at the earliest, marks a milestone for Republican lawmakers, most of whom opposed expansion for a decade until recently, and for hospitals and patient advocates who sought it all that time. North Carolina has been one of 11 states that has not adopted Medicaid expansion. If the deal goes through, the state would start providing expansion coverage to people starting next January.
• PulsePoint, a technology company revolutionizing health decision-making in real time, announced the launch of integrated direct-to-consumer measurement solutions in partnership with Komodo Health, a leading healthcare technology company that has built the industry's most complete and connected view of patient encounters. PulsePoint clients using the Life platform can now leverage Komodo Health's advanced analytic capabilities and insights visualization tools for first-party audience profiling and measurement, in addition to PulsePoint's first-party and proprietary collection of intelligence tools. Combining PulsePoint data with the Komodo Healthcare Map and configurable measurement solutions provides unbiased, third-party DTC campaign measurement on exposed and unexposed audiences. This enables PulsePoint clients to harness actionable, privacy-safe audiences with Komodo's clinical and digital intelligence to rapidly respond to evolving patient behaviors driven by real-time campaign results planned, activated, and optimized on Life. Real-time measurement allows for real-time optimizations to better reach patients within the targeted health condition and drive improved outcomes.
• Iterative Health, a provider of precision-medicine technologies for gastroenterology, announced that it has partnered with Florida Research Institute, a provider of gastroenterology and hepatology research, to bring its AI-Recruitment technology to the Florida region to standardize endoscopic scoring and give patients better access to more precise therapeutics by way of clinical trials. The implementation of AIR will aid in the recruitment of patients to clinical trials focused on advancing therapies for inflammatory bowel disease. The two organizations will help to democratize access to novel IBD therapeutics for all patients, regardless of where they receive care.
• Clario, a healthcare research technology company that delivers endpoint technology solutions for clinical trials, announced a partnership with technology startup ArtiQ to increase certainty in respiratory clinical trials that require spirometry data. The new partnership enables access to AI-based reviews of spirometry data collected on the Clario platform for clinical trials. Spirometry is a test used to help diagnose and monitor certain lung conditions by measuring how much air a patient can breathe out in one forced breath. During clinical trials, spirometry tests can help scientists evaluate the effectiveness of potential new medicines. Consistent and accurate over-reading of the results is complex and requires significant scientific expertise to allow for comparability of readings. Deep integration of AI overreading of spirometry results, along with optional human supervision, provides increased speed and scalability of clinical trials and certainty in the data collected. Investigators and patients also stand to benefit through instant feedback on the quality of the test they perform. This means tests can be reliably performed at the patient's home or, if conducted on site, there is no need to re-book repeat tests if results are uncertain.
• Health Catalyst, a provider of data and analytics technology and services to healthcare organizations, announced a multi-year contract expansion with partner INTEGRIS Health, a not-for-profit health system, to advance analytics capabilities across the INTEGRIS Health network, elevating its analytics program through specialized staffing and expanded technology access. The three-year agreement deepens the existing relationship between Health Catalyst and INTEGRIS Health and will include an increased all-access technology subscription, Tech-Enabled Managed Services (TEMS), and TEMS Chart Abstraction services.Through this expanded partnership, Health Catalyst will staff, manage, and maintain INTEGRIS Health's Enterprise Integrated Analytics program to achieve data-informed healthcare improvements. INTEGRIS Health will reap the benefits of Health Catalyst's TEMS solution that will deliver technology-enabled efficiencies through standardization, automation, and consolidation.
• Advantus Health Partners, a health care solutions company delivering more effective, efficient supply chain models to health care organizations, and GE HealthCare announced an agreement of up to $760M over 10-years to provide GE HealthCare’s Healthcare Technology Management services to Advantus Health Partners’ clients. Through this expanded relationship between Advantus Health Partners and GE HealthCare, healthcare providers will have access to a scalable, end-to-end solution for managing medical equipment performance and risk.
• Health at Scale, a provider of machine intelligence for value-based care delivery and management, announced a partnership with ATRIO Health Plans, a provider of Medicare Advantage plans serving approximately 30,000 members in Oregon and Nevada. The partnership will leverage Health at Scale's state-of-the-art AI and machine learning technologies to prevent low-value care corresponding to fraud, waste, abuse and errors in real-time; and drive greater quality, safety and affordability for plan members in support of ATRIO Health Plan's mission of delivering high quality health insurance at a reasonable price for Medicare Advantage beneficiaries.
• Netsmart, a healthcare technology partner serving community-based providers, announced a strategic collaboration with CAMS-care to integrate the CAMS Framework and the Suicide Status Form within the CareFabric platform. Through this collaboration, Netsmart will be the first healthcare technology provider to integrate the CAMS assessment tools within electronic health record workflows to better support intervention and improve clinical outcomes. Through this collaboration, the CAMS Framework will be integrated as part of the clinical workflow within the myAvatar electronic health record that has been developed to meet the unique requirements for human services providers, including addiction treatment, behavioral health and physical health. A variety of Netsmart clients have previously leveraged the CAMS Framework and through this collaboration, their providers and staff will now benefit from having access to a proven, evidence-based treatment embedded in their daily workflow.
• Illumina, a provider of DNA sequencing and array-based technologies, and Myriad Genetics, a provider of genetic testing and precision medicine, announced the expansion of a strategic partnership to broaden access to and availability of oncology homologous recombination deficiency testing in the United States. Under the agreement, Illumina TruSight Oncology 500 HRD (TSO 500 HRD), a research-use-only test, is now available in the US. The expanded partnership also establishes a unique companion diagnostic alliance for the pharmaceutical industry, which will enable more clinical research for gene-based, targeted therapies.
• Walgreens, in partnership with DoorDash and Uber, announced free, Same Day Rx Delivery of medications for the prevention and treatment of HIV. This service is available to eligible patients within 15 miles of thousands of participating Walgreens retail pharmacies nationwide. Eligible patients must have a prescription for antiretroviral medication or PrEP from a healthcare provider. After the pharmacy has filled the prescription and before it gets picked up, individuals can go online to choose Same Day Rx Delivery by visiting Walgreens.com/PrescriptionDelivery, the Walgreens app or by calling their store.
• Enterprise content management solution WorldView announced a new collaboration with HealthRev Partners, designed to utilize both organizations' best-in-class technology to help home health, palliative and hospice agencies achieve consistent, predictable recurring revenue. Later this year, an integration between the two platforms will automate the creation of the patient record in HealthRev's proprietary revenue cycle management platform, Velocity. From there, HealthRev will perform documentation review, coding and billing using Velocity to eliminate human error and remove variability.
• egnite, a digital healthcare company, announced a partnership with physicians from Morristown’s Gagnon Cardiovascular Institute, Philippe Généreux, a Director of the Structural Heart Program, and Linda Gillam, Chair of Cardiovascular Medicine. This partnership aims to elevate the standard of care for patients with cardiovascular disease, which affects an estimated 126 million adults in the U.S. i and is expected to increase by 30% by 2060 ii. The partnership will spearhead research initiatives to better understand optimal points of therapeutic intervention for patients with valvular heart disease, using egnite’s flagship digital health platform, CardioCare. This initiative furthers the use of precision medicine algorithms to help physicians design and deliver an individualized patient management plan.
• SOPHiA GENETICS, a cloud-native software company in the healthcare space, announced a new partnership with QIAGEN N.V. (NYSE: QGEN) that will pair QIAseq reagent technology with the SOPHiA DDM platform to enhance tumor analysis through next-generation sequencin. The partnership will allow customers to order QIAseq panels that can be processed through SOPHiA DDM, a cloud-based platform that analyzes data from various sources to enable entirely new research perspectives. The partnership will initially support somatic variant detection (an alteration in DNA that occurs after birth) using QIAseq Targeted DNA Pro panels for homologous recombination repair, a special type of biomarker test to find tumors that have certain mutations that may make them sensitive to PARP inhibitors in oncology.
• Chugai Pharmaceutical Co. and Biofourmis, a provider of technology-enabled care delivery, announced that they have entered into a new partnership agreement for the continued development and real-world use of digital solutions to objectively measure pain in patients with endometriosis. Endometriosis affects approximately 10%1 of all women of reproductive age and 70% of women with chronic pelvic pain, resulting in a reduced quality of life.2 The two companies have been collaborating on developing a new objective assessment of pain in patients with endometriosis using a biosensor and an AI-based algorithm utilizing Biofourmis’ Biovitals platform since July 2020.
• NextGen Healthcare, a provider of cloud-based healthcare technology solutions, announced that Compass Health Network, a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic and Federally Qualified Health Center, has chosen NextGen Behavioral Health Suite in pursuit of its mission to provide whole-person care. The nonprofit healthcare organization offers a full continuum of services, including primary care, behavioral health and oral health to more than 100,000 patients across 84 locations in Missouri. Compass Health Network adopted the NextGen Behavioral Health Suite to complete its integrated platform and provide a complete view of patient health for its staff of more than 3,000. The organization expanded its partnership with NextGen Healthcare because it is the only electronic health record vendor to offer behavioral health, primary care, oral health, and human services in one integrated software solution.
• Birmingham AIDS Outreach, an advocacy organization for people living with HIV/AIDS, and binx health, a healthcare technology and diagnostics company focused on making routine testing convenient, launched the Sassy Little Box program to enable access to HIV and sexually transmitted infection testing and care at the community level. The Sassy Little Box program aims to serve at-risk communities throughout the greater Birmingham area and leverages years of partnership between BAO and the LGBTQ+ community, providing a coordinated community response to address disproportionately high HIV and STI incidence rates in Jefferson County, Alabama.
• EatLove, a digital health company specializing in personalized nutrition, and Cooper Aerobics, a health and wellness company, announced a partnership to optimize daily nutrition to support fitness and health. Cooper Aerobics will offer Cooper Fitness Center members a truly individualized nutrition prescription powered by EatLove’s LENA Nutrition Intelligence technology that combines proven nutrition science with individual client data. Members will have an always-on personalized feed of nutritionally adherent meals and snacks, offering inspiration and solutions for every eating situation.
• In partnership with the Parkview Mirro Center for Research and Innovation, a not-for-profit, community-based health system, TruLite Health, a health equity platform, is deploying Truity, a health equity platform that is a clinically integrated workflow tool to provide multi-level interventions and addresses the unique needs of patients at the point of care. The organizations will validate the platform’s impact on frequent health equity challenges for caregivers.
• Veta Health and Interactive Digital Solutions announced their strategic partnership to expand IDS's virtual care offerings through an exclusive reseller agreement. The adoption of telehealth and virtual care has surged since the Covid-19 pandemic and the demand for solutions that extend beyond virtual visits is high. The partnership enables hospitals and health systems to contract with a single organization to provide a comprehensive virtual care solution in ambulatory and acute care settings. Interactive Digital Solutions provides video communication, AV integration, and managed services to organizations looking to improve communication and technology strategies. IDS has added Veta Health to its roster of industry-leading solution providers including, Vidyo, Zoom, and Logitech. With Veta Health, IDS's 100+ healthcare customers will benefit from the Prosper Platform, while still maintaining streamlined contracting and support services from IDS.
• Family Practice Center, PC, an independent primary care physician group, announced that it has formed a new partnership with agilon health, a partner empowering physicians to transform health care in our communities. Starting in 2024, the partnership will transition FPC to a full-risk, value-based care model for Central Pennsylvania Medicare patients that will yield better outcomes for both patients and physicians.
• Koneksa, an evidence-based digital biomarkers company, announced an extended partnership with SSI Strategy, a life sciences consulting firm, that will provide both organizations with expanded client service offerings to accelerate and scale the adoption of evidence-based digital biomarkers in clinical trials. As part of the partnership, SSI will expand Koneksa’s medical strategy division, especially in translational and clinical drug development. This collaboration will offer existing clients of both organizations a streamlined relationship offering the industry’s best scientific, technical, and delivery expertise across all phases of the clinical trial and product lifecycle. Koneksa clients gain access to a team of PhDs and MDs at SSI with expertise in drug development. SSI clients gain access to Koneksa's industry-leading expertise in developing and employing evidence-based digital biomarkers.
• RxLightning, a specialty medication access platform, announced a partnership with Yale New Haven Health Center for Health Care Innovation and Outpatient Pharmacy Services at YNHHS. YNHHS Outpatient Pharmacy Services is a specialty pharmacy serving patients with chronic diseases, such as cancer or rheumatoid arthritis within Yale New Haven Health. Specialty pharmacies dispense complex medications, such as biologics, not available at retail pharmacies and are typically very expensive – some specialty medications can cost over $100,000 per year. A specialty pharmacy helps patients navigate their condition by providing counseling and education, encouraging adherence to medication schedules and overcoming financial barriers. Due to the complexity of managing a chronic disease it can take 10-14 days to enroll a patient on specialty medication. RxLightning’s novel technology automates many of the manual steps within the specialty pharmacy workflow enabling patients to receive their medications in 1-2 days thereby improving the patients' experience and eliminating wait time to begin treatment.
• SimpliFed, a telehealth service dedicated to democratizing access to inclusive infant feeding support, announced that it launched a distribution partnership with Nature’s One, the makers of Baby’s Only Formulas. Through the partnership, SimpliFed will provide families in need with access to organic infant formula. This partnership marks the first time in history that a lactation support company stands by its vision of ensuring every parent feels confident in how they feed their baby – no matter how they feed their baby during those first few weeks and months of life. Research indicates that three out of four SimpliFed patients supplement their feeding journey at some point with a mix of expressed breast milk, donor milk, and/or infant formula.
• BDR Solutions, a service-disabled veteran-owned small business in data quality for the U.S. public sector, and Smile Digital Health, a health data and integration platform, announced their new partnership. This collaboration will allow for improvements in health and wellness by streamlining and modernizing the deployment of interoperable data fabrics to agencies and public sector customers in the United States. BDR and Smile's partnership streamlines inefficiencies traditionally caused by the integration of incompatible healthcare data management systems such as EHRs with non-standardized processes and data flows. The BDR and Smile solution is aligned with federal requirements for standards based FHIR technology and introduces next-generation healthcare record compatibility with a competitive aftermarket ecosystem into a market notorious for incompatible data silos. 
• Singleron Biotechnologies, a provider of in single cell multi-omics analysis, and Macrogen Europe, a sequencing provider of genome analysis services, announced their partnership. This alliance will leverage strength from both companies to provide researchers with comprehensive single cell multi-omic solutions. Singleron Biotechnologies are an innovative single cell sequencing solution provider with a focus on molecular diagnostics and are dedicated to applying ground-breaking single cell analysis techniques in clinical diagnosis, drug development, and health management. Macrogen Europe have partnerships with leading providers with the latest and innovative technology to help scientist accelerate their genomics discoveries. Their vision embodies the idea of customizing sequencing services for any life science community that requires NGS and Sanger technology. Together this integrated partnership combines Singleron's expertise in single cell sequencing and Macrogen Europe's genomic services to help promote human health and enhance the development of precision medicine.

M&A

• MercyOne, a statewide Iowa health system, completed its acquisition of Genesis Health System, provider of health care services for a 17-county region of Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois
• Subsidiaries of Novant Health, a a four-state integrated network of physician clinics, outpatient centers and hospitals, signed a definitive agreement to acquire Lake Norman Regional Medical Center and Davis Regional Medical Center to subsidiaries of Community Health Systems, a provider of general hospital healthcare services
• agilon health, a partner empowering physicians to transform health care in its communities, acquired mphrX, a provider of value-based care technology and interoperability solutions
• Presbyterian Healthcare Services and health system UnityPoint Health signed a letter of intent to explore the formation of a new healthcare organization
• BioTouch, a provider of outsourced medical supplies, kitting, and logistics services to the healthcare industry, acquired Titan Solutions, a provider of logistics, kitting, and life sciences supply chain management solutions
• QuestionPro, a provider of survey and research, data and insights services, acquired Pundit Consultantz, a healthcare innovation and go-to-market commercialization consultancy
• Colorcon, a provider of pharmaceutical film coatings and specialty excipients, completed its acquisition of Airnov Healthcare Packaging, which provides healthcare industries with controlled atmosphere packaging to protect their products from moisture and oxygen
• Cureatr, a value-based medication management services company, acquired medication therapy management business SinfoníaRx from Tabula Rasa HealthCare
• Bardavon, which partners with employers to support their employees’ musculoskeletal health acquired injury prevention company Preventure
• Fluxergy, a medical diagnostic company focused on multiplex, multimodal point-of-care testing, acquired certain employees and assets and licensed electrochemical biosensing technology from InnaMed, a platform for decentralized blood testing through electrochemical biosensor technology
• Doctolib, an ehealth company, acquired Siilo, a messaging app for healthcare professionals
• Indivior PLC, a a global pharmaceutical company completed the acquisition of Opiant Pharmaceuticals, a specialty pharmaceutical company
• ClinChoice Medical Development, a clinical CRO, acquired CROMSOURCE S.r.l., a full-service contract research organization
• Xtant Medical Holdings, a medical technology company focused on surgical solutions for the treatment of spinal disorders, acquires Coflex, an interlaminar stabilization device, from Surgalign Holdings, a global medical technology company
• Framework Solutions, a provider of clinical to commercial solutions to the life sciences industry, acquired ONIX Life Sciences, a consultancy specializing in regulatory operations services to support life sciences clients

Funding Roundup 

• Kindbody, a fertility care and benefits provider, raised $100 million
• Egal, a company on a mission to give periods equal treatment in the restroom, launched with $1 million
• Nectar, an allergy care platform, raised $16.5 million
• CARGO Therapeutics, a biotechnology company advancing a next generation of CAR T-cell therapies for cancer, raised $200 million
• Vitraya Technologies, a platform that enables automated claims decision making for insurers and real-time payouts to providers, raised $4.1 million
• CodaMetrix, an AI technology platform transforming healthcare revenue cycle management, raised $55 million
• Doctorly, developer of an operating system for medical practices, raised $10 million
• SafKan Health, an earwax removal startup, raised $8 million
• Beam Healthcare, a clinical telemedicine company, raised an undisclosed amount of funding
• Puzzle Medical, developer of a percutaneous heart pump, raised $25 million 
• Envisionit Deep AI, which builds medical solutions that harness the power of AI to transform how healthcare professionals diagnose and treat patients, raised $1.65 million
• WeInfuse, a software and technology platform for infusion therapy and medication delivery, raised an undisclosed amount of funding

(Image source: nga.org)