Connected care keeps expanding: Stryker acquiring Vocera Communications for $3B, Baxter’s close of Hillrom sale for $12.5B

January 12, 2022 | by

Medical device companies that have grown into or acquired tech and analytics are now buying into communications systems to connect it all. Massive medical/surgical/orthopedic device company Stryker is acquiring clinical communications/coordination workflow systems Vocera Communications for a snappy $2.97 billion. The deal is for $79.25 per share and is expected to close in this quarter. Vocera is expected to expand Stryker’s Advanced Digital Healthcare and connect devices and digital communications both for clinical caregivers and with families. Vocera is considered to be an innovator in communications systems that connect clinical and operational systems, and is presently in 2,300 medical facilities internationally. No management transitions were disclosed. Release.

Hillrom, another device company mainly in cardiac and hospital monitoring which last year had broadened its remote patient monitoring and connected care portfolio, was in turn acquired by medtech giant Baxter International last month. Hillrom had acquired Bardy Diagnostics and EarlySense about a year ago [TTA 4 Feb 21], and in 2019 Voalte Communications, directly competitive with Vocera. In 2015, Hillrom bought Welch Allyn which boosted it into digital health from primarily hospital furniture. The purchase price closed at $10.5 billion and including Hillrom’s outstanding debt obligations, the acquisition in total was $12.5 billion. From Baxter’s release, the “legacy” Hillrom and Welch Allyn brands will be introduced into international markets and integrated into Baxter’s technologies. The lack of mention of Hillrom, the ‘legacy’ references, and no mention of Hillrom management transitions in the release, is a sure sign that the brand will be sunsetted very quickly, along with its management team. Medtech Dive. Also a snappy tip o’ the cap to HISTalk.

#HIMSS17 roundup: machine learning, Proteus, Soon-Shiong/NantWorks’ cancer vax, Uniphy Health, more

February 28, 2017 | by

HIMSS17 is over for another year, but there is plenty of related reading left for anyone who is not still recovering from sensory overload. There wasn’t big news made, other than Speaker John Boehner trying to have it both ways about what the House needs to do about replacing the failing ACA a/k/a Obamacare. Here’s our serving:

  • If you are interested in the diffusion of workflow technologies into healthcare, including machine learning and AI, there’s a long-form three-part series in Healthcare IT News that this Editor noted has suddenly become a little difficult to find–but we did. The articles also helpfully list vendors that list certain areas of expertise in their exhibitor keywords.
  • Mobihealthnews produced a two-page wrap up that links to various MHN articles where applicable. Of interest:
    • a wound measurement app that Intermountain Healthcare developed with Johns Hopkins spinoff Tissue Analytics
    • Children’s Health of Dallas Texas is using the Proteus Health ingestible med sensor with a group of teenaged organ post-transplant patients to improve med compliance
    • the Medisafe med management app has a new feature that alerts users to drug, food and alcohol interactions with their regimen, which is to this writer’s knowledge the first-ever med app to do this
    • Info security spending is rising, according to the Thales Data Threat Report. This year, 81 percent of U.S. healthcare organizations and 76 percent of global healthcare organizations will increase information security spending.
  • Healthcare and sports mogul Patrick Soon-Shiong presented on NantHealth‘s progress on a cancer vaccine that became a significant part of the former VP Joe Biden’s initiative, Cancer Breakthroughs 2020. Dr Soon-Shiong stated that the FDA has given approval to advance the vaccine into later clinical trials, and also unveiled Nant AI, an augmented intelligence platform to high-speed process genome activity of cancer tumors and the Nant Cloud, a cloud server which can generate bioinformatic data at 26 seconds per patient. This is in addition to the NantHealth GPS Cancer diagnostic tool used to isolate new mutations in a given tumor. HealthcareITNews MedCityNews takes a dimmer view, noting two recent cancer vaccine failures. Dimmer still is Stat’s takedown of Dr Soon-Shiong, which reportedly was the talk of HIMSS.
  • Leading up to HIMSS, Newark’s own Uniphy Health announced UH4, the latest generation of its enterprise-wide communications and clinical collaboration platform for hospitals and clinics to facilitate the ‘real-time health system’. Release

Not enough? DestinationHIMSS, produced by Healthcare IT News/HIMSS Media, has its usual potpourri of official reporting here.