Breaking: NHS Digital appoints Simon Bolton interim CEO

April 29, 2021 | by

Breaking News: NHS Digital announced today the appointment of Simon Bolton, currently chief information officer of Test and Trace, as interim chief executive officer effective on 4 June. He will be replacing Sarah Wilkinson, who was CEO since August 2017 and resigned on 26 March [TTA 26 Mar]. The NHS Digital release confirms her departure as of June and that the two will be working ahead of time to effect the transition.

NHS Digital provides and supervises information, data, and IT systems for the UK’s Department of Health and Social Care.

Mr. Bolton was the former CIO of Jaguar Land Rover and joined Test and Trace last August. His LinkedIn profile also includes CIO and senior IT positions at Rolls-Royce and AkzoNobel. He holds a board position at Tech Partnership Degrees and is an independent governor of the University of Derby.

The NHS Digital Board will be conducting an open competition to recruit for the role on a permanent basis later this year. 

2021 UK-RAS Network Robotics Summer Showcase 5 May-30 July and UK Festival of Robotics 19-25 June

April 29, 2021 | by

Other signs that we’re emerging from the COVID Cocoon…

The UK-RAS Network (the EPSRC UK Robotics & Autonomous Systems Network) has two virtual programs/events that run from May through July. Since they are virtual, our UK and international Readers with interests in medical, care, and service robots can take advantage of these multiple sessions spread across three months. Even better, they’re free.

The Robotics Summer Showcase kicks off on Wednesday 5th May with an online opening ceremony and preview of Showcase events. Event time is 3-4pm BST (10-11am EDT). Registration for the opening is via Eventbrite here. The Events Page link here and above has a full list of the 15 events with more information and updates. There are also videos from the 2020 challenges.

Highlights are:

  • Robotics + Care Mashup (10th – 14th May) – five-day online “mashup” event bringing together care professionals, academics and technology providers to prototype new solutions to support the care sector, hosted by the UK’s first National Robotarium, a collaboration between Heriot Watt University and the University of Edinburgh.
  • Establishing a UK Surgical Robotics Roadmap (14th May 2pm – 3.30pm BST) – workshop bringing together multi-disciplinary international experts from the domain of surgical robotics – spanning laparoscopic surgical robots, continuum surgical robots, intra-corporeal robots and microrobots – to shape science policy and funding.
  • 4th UK-RAS Conference for PhD and Early-Career Researchers: Robotics at Home (2nd June 10am – 4pm BST) – virtual event specifically designed for PhD students and early-career researchers to foster research progress and offer opportunities for networking.
  • Humans in the Loop and Human-Robot Teaming for Remote Inspection (15th June 11am – 12pm BST) – take part and ask questions in this interactive showcase from the Human-Robot Interaction theme of the ORCA Hub, using Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Interaction to help people manage, control, and cooperate with remote robots from the safety of a control room.
  • The Ethical Black Box in Human-Robot Dialogue (13th July 2pm – 3.30pm BST) – virtual demonstration of the Ethical Black Box platform – developed by researchers at the University of Oxford and Bristol Robotics Lab – which collects data for use in the event of an accident.

The Showcase closes in July with virtual award ceremonies for the prestigious international Surgical Robot Challenge and Medical Robotics for Contagious Diseases Challenge, the much-anticipated launch of the UK-RAS Network 2021 White Papers, and concludes with the Robotics Summer Showcase Closing Ceremony (30th July, 4–5pm BST; keynote speakers to be announced).

UK Festival of Robotics, 19-25 June (formerly Robotics Week)

The full week festival is still under development. More information will be on the main page here. Follow on Twitter at @UKRobotics.

Hat tip to Nicky of EvokedSet Ltd. for the heads up

David sues Goliath: AliveCor claims patent infringement by Apple–ITC filing requests bar on Apple Watch US importation

April 29, 2021 | by | 1 Comment

Slingshot battle! AliveCor, developer of the Kardia Mobile electrocardiogram (ECG) and connected heart rhythm devices, filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission (ITC) alleging Apple’s infringement of three AliveCor ECG technology patents for the Apple Watch 4, 5, and 6. The filing seeks to bar the importation of Apple Watches into the US and their sale.

According to AliveCor’s carefully worded release, their filing in the ITC “is one step, among others, AliveCor is taking to obtain relief for Apple’s intentional copying of AliveCor’s patented technology—including the ability to take an ECG reading on the Apple Watch, and to perform heartrate analysis—as well as Apple’s efforts to eliminate AliveCor as competition in the heartrate analysis market for the Apple Watch.”

This follows on the first shoe–AliveCor’s December lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the Western District of Texas, alleging that the Apple Watch 4, 5, and 6 infringed on the same patents. The timing was interesting, as FDA cleared the latest update of the Apple Watch’s ECG monitoring at about the same time [TTA 10 Dec 2020]. In November, AliveCor cleared a Series E of $65 million.

The irony is that in 2017, the KardiaBand was the first FDA-cleared medical device accessory for Apple Watch. It was an ECG-reader that clipped onto the watch. AliveCor pulled it from the market after Apple introduced its own ECG feature in the Apple Watch 4.

AliveCor has their entire business riding on this. The mass-market Kardia Mobile, their six-lead medical-grade KardiaMobile 6L, and their KardiaCare platform with monitoring and evaluations are their business, unlike Apple for which ECG is only a feature.  Mobihealthnews, FierceHealthcare, MDDIOnline

Amwell debuts new telehealth platform, Converge; previews Carepoint for hospital care into the home

April 29, 2021 | by

Amwell, which of late has been low-profile except for a puzzling interview by Ido Schoenburg, MD about Amazon and others as competitors, announced its new telehealth platform, Converge, at its annual Client Forum. According to the platform web page and the release, their key features are designed to make them extremely attractive and differentiated to clinician users. 

  • A single meeting place for providers and patients across mobile, tablet, and desktop
  • High-quality connections with adaptive video for low-bandwidth situations
  • Integration with existing workflows, EHRs, patient portals, and consumer experiences
  • Open platform and app marketplace. The open architecture and APIs are designed to host apps and services such as Google Cloud, Tyto Care, virtual second opinions from the Cleveland Clinic, and the Biobeat wearable wrist and chest monitors.

What may be even more interesting for Amwell’s future is a TV-based initiative that can bring hospital care into the home. At the same conference, Amwell previewed Home TV Carepoint. Developed in partnership with Solaborate, the software uses advanced AI. Information on Carepoint was limited to a few lines buried in the body of the release, indicating a ‘stealth mode’, but the potential is that it could open up a new market with health systems and home care if leveraged and marketed right. FierceHealthcare

Funding roundup: new unicorn Capsule’s $300M, $100M for Caresyntax, Sesame Care’s $24M, UCM Digital Care’s $5M; MD Ally brings telehealth to 911

April 29, 2021 | by

This week’s (so far) Big Raise is virtual pharmacy Capsule. Their new funding of $300 million, added to a previous $270 million in five rounds through a 2019 Series C (Crunchbase), now, according to CEO Eric Kinariwala, puts his company into $1 bn unicorn territory. Founded in New York City in 2015, Capsule now covers the NY metro plus a dozen markets in same-day delivery plus the option for pharmacist chat/text via mobile phone. Their goal is to reach 100 million people nationally by the end of this year. The fresh funding will be used for expansion and to upgrade technology. Durable Capital Partners led the funding round and was joined by new investors Baillie Gifford, T Rowe Price, and Whale Rock.

Capsule is in a hot niche sector of fast prescription delivery that has players large (CVS, Walgreens’ AllianceRx), Amazon (PillPack, Amazon Pharmacy), and smaller or local services like Blink Health, FetchMyRx, Medly, and your local pharmacy. Uber is also partnering with some for delivery. Earlier this year, Capsule partnered with Ginger to fill and deliver medications prescribed by their board-certified psychiatrists in metro New York City, Chicago, Minneapolis, Boston, and Austin. FierceHealthcare, Mobihealthnews, Bloomberg (may be paywalled)

Mobihealthnews also rounded up three additional digital health fundings from the seed to Series C range:

  • Surgery data/AI plus virtual consult platform Caresyntax, closed a $100 million Series C funding round led by PFM Health Sciences LP. Release.
  • NYC-area direct-pay healthcare marketplace Sesame Care added a $24 million Series B, for a total of $47.6 million to date (Crunchbase). Sesame offers in-person and telehealth care to patients, allowing them to compare prices and providers before booking and paying the provider directly. 
  • UCM Digital Health, a provider of emergency telemedicine and virtual health, announced today it closed a $5.5 million Series A funding round. Armory Square Ventures led the round with additional participation from Contour Ventures and River Park Ventures. Based in Troy, NY, UCM has a “digital front door” platform with a 24/7 telehealth treat, triage and navigation service marketed to employers, insurers, and providers. Release
  • Last but certainly not least, MD Ally added a modest $3.5 million in a seed round led by General Catalyst with participation from Seae Ventures. MD Ally triages 911 emergency services calls, rerouting non-emergency calls to telehealth services and expanding their scope of services. It integrates into existing dispatch systems with a unique range of codes that confirm for the dispatcher that the call can be safely routed to a telehealth provider. TechCrunch, release

Upcoming UK digital health events: The King’s Fund 24-27 May, UKTelehealthcare Marketplaces & Forum

April 29, 2021 | by

Digital innovations in health and care: looking ahead (virtual): Monday 24-Thursday 27 May, The King’s Fund

The conference will cover the digital innovations accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the digital transformation of the NHS, assessing their potential impact and benefits. Presentations include leaders of national bodies, international experts, industry representatives, patients, and policy experts. While the live virtual conference takes place 24-27 May, the networking and exhibition opens Monday 17 May. You may access it on demand until Sunday 13 June, when it closes. Home page with full information and registration here.

Using digital solutions to transform the delivery of care is a free one-hour virtual event in conjunction with GSK on how using inhalers remotely has challenged clinicians, patients and colleagues, and discuss what this means about the nature of delivering health and care services. Tuesday 25 May 1pm-2pm BST. Information and registration.

The King’s Fund event calendar is here.

UKTelehealthcare’s next events are coming up in June. Watch this page or click on their sidebar advert for further information on their upcoming Marketplace and Forum events.

1st Digital MarketPlace (11.00-13.00) Tuesday 8th June 2021
UKTelehealthcare Forum (11.00-13.00) Tuesday 15th June 2021
2nd Digital MarketPlace (11.00-13.00) Tuesday 29th June 2021

 

News roundup: Buddi’s £500M LSE float, Accolade to buy PlushCare for $450M, Teladoc adds chief innovation officer, Tyto Care’s Italy expansion

April 28, 2021 | by

Buddi going public later this year. Something we missed and found (quite by accident) was that the Buddi personal alert wearable will be floated on the London Stock Exchange later this year. According to the report in SkyNews, CEO and founder Sara Murray has appointed Zeus Capital to manage it. The value is rumored to be up to £500 million and will be a great reward for Ms. Murray and her other early investors. The bands, which connect to smartphones or a wireless-connected clip, then to pre-set connections or their 24/7 support, retail for up to £248. Buddi is reported to be used by more than 80 percent of local authorities in the UK, UK police forces for domestic violence cases and witness protection, lone worker situations, plus government customers internationally. Buddi also designs and assembles their Buddi units in the UK. Also City A.M. 

Accolade, a health benefits navigation provider, announced a definitive agreement to purchase one of the smaller telehealth players, PlushCare, for a plush price of $450 million, composed of $40 million in cash, $340 million in Accolade common stock, and up to (the usual) additional $70 million of value payable upon the achievement of defined revenue milestones following the closing, expected in June. Accolade, which itself went public on NASDAQ in July, raising $220 million, then in October floated additional shares to raise $221 million, has been on a telehealth acquisition tear of late. In March, they closed their acquisition of virtual second medical opinion provider 2nd.MD for $460 million. PlushCare will enable Accolade to directly offer primary and mental health care telehealth to its members. According to Steve Barnes, chief financial officer at Accolade, their addressable market will increase nearly five-fold to more than $200 billion. One wonders whether their existing relationships with Teladoc and Livongo will continue.  Release.  Also HealthcareDive and FierceHealthcare.

Teladoc adds a chief innovation officer. Claus Jensen, PhD comes from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where he served as chief digital officer and head of technology. His purview will include product innovation, information systems, health informatics, and data products. Previously, he was with Danske Bank, IBM, and chief technology officer of CVS Health-Aetna. Release, Becker’s Hospital Review

TytoCare advances further into Italy in a partnership with Multimed srl, a local medical device company. The partnership will develop the market there with local providers, hospitals, elder care facilities, independent physicians, and pharmacies, as well as at-home monitoring. Multimed is a multi-line distributor of surgical devices for robotic surgery, endoscopy, laparoscopy, orthopedics, sanitization/sterilization, and similar. Tyto earlier explored the Italian market in a partnership with the ASL of Vercelli hospital group, where physicians monitored and treated elderly and pediatric COVID-19 patients, performing pulmonary, cardiological, and dermatological telehealth visits. Release. 

News roundup: dogs sniffing out COVID, CVS rolling out OTC COVID tests, Hydrogen Health launches, Alcidion UK acquires ExtraMed

April 24, 2021 | by

Woof! A trained dog can sniff out COVID-19 with 96 percent accuracy. Based on a study by the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine, their trained dogs could recognize the unique odor signature of infection from saliva and urine samples. From the study: “Dogs successfully discriminated between infected and uninfected urine samples, regardless of the inactivation protocol, as well as heat-treated saliva samples.” The specially trained dogs were all Labrador retrievers ranging in age from 1.5 to 2.5 years, along with a six-year-old Malinois. The training took three weeks. However, the length and expense of the training, plus the dogs consistently treating as positive two samples where donors were negative in PCR testing but with one person recently recovered and the other exhibiting symptoms, may limit canine detection. FierceHealthcare, PLOS One.

But without a trained dog, you might be relieved to know that CVS is carrying in-store COVID rapid tests, rolling out in various states:  the Ellume COVID-19 Home Test, the Abbott BinaxNOW COVID-19 Antigen Self Test, and the Pixel by LabCorp PCR Test Home Collection Kit. All three tests have received FDA Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) which means they are not FDA cleared, but they don’t require a prescription and can be used by those with or without symptoms. CVS is placing them in-store initially in different and limited numbers of states, with the Abbott test set to be most widely available, plus online ordering. Healthcare Finance

Hydrogen Health launches a joint venture between Anthem, K Health, and Blackstone Growth. Its purpose is kind of the usual–improve care and care access at a lower cost. K Health combines a symptom checker with telemedicine–a $19 flat visit charge to see a clinician, including pediatricians. The release is a model of forward-thinking opacity as to what “innovative, digital-first healthcare solutions” might emerge, but they will target consumers, employers, and health plans. K Health’s CEO Allon Bloch will also serve as the CEO of Hydrogen Health. There is a put-and-call agreement between Anthem and Blackstone as part of the financials regarding the selling and buying of shares in the company. FierceHealthcare, Healthcare Dive

In the UK, Alcidion Group, a hospital software provider in interoperability, workflows, and clinical decision support with the Miya product suite and Patientrack, is acquiring ExtraMed. ExtraMed’s software provides real-time visibility of patient flow for NHS trusts. According to the release, ExtraMed will be purchased from current owner Hospedia, a bedside communication and entertainment unit provider. ExtraMed currently has nine customers in the NHS, including involvement as a partner in a 10-year Digital Control Centre project at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust. Alcidion works with 40 hospitals across the UK and is headquartered in South Yarra, near Melbourne, Australia. Alcidion news page

‘Insurtech’ Oscar Health adds +Oscar tech platform to market health plan and member engagement services

April 24, 2021 | by

Oscar Health putting $1.4 bn in IPO cash to work. Oscar Health announced the formation of a stand-alone platform, +Oscar, to provide healthcare partners with a range of services to benefit providers, payers, and patients/members. The new unit will be headed by Meghan Joyce as COO and EVP. There is no website yet for +Oscar nor mention of a start of business date but an email contact for the unit.

+Oscar will offer a range of services to enable partners to:

  • Lower costs through an efficient, full-stack platform and health plan infrastructure–integrated, end-to-end health plan services. Oscar is claiming they can achieve the administrative efficiency of far larger health plans, targeting provider-sponsored and regional health plans.
  • Create member experiences that are marketable and can drive growth and retention; that catch the attention of brokers and members plus enables flexible plan designs that can save money for members. Oscar is also hiring out Care Teams.
  • Power effective medical cost management and deliver on value-based care by closing care gaps, improving quality scores, enhancing value capture, and more.
  • Empower providers to manage care at scale: bi-directional integrations with existing electronic medical records and workflow tools.  

Why it’s important. It’s an interesting and fast redeployment of assets developed to run Oscar’s plans and services, repackaged to sell to smaller health plans. Large insurers took years to realize that they could package and sell their systems to other health plans and employers; independent companies do the same (for instance, network management and provider credentialing). Oscar is also partnering with Cigna on co-branded California health plans. Selling the technology can create real revenue (ask UHG’s Optum), even more so than health plans. It also might help their profitability problem [TTA 9 Feb]. Release, FierceHealthcare, Becker’s.

Mayo Clinic creates AI-powered clinical decision/diagnostics support platform, two digital health portfolio companies

April 23, 2021 | by

“Changing the nature of healthcare from episodic to continuous”. Mayo Clinic announced the launch of the Remote Diagnostics and Management Platform (RDMP) that will connect data to artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms and create a ‘next generation’ of clinical support tools, diagnostics, and care protocols for faster diagnostics and more continuous care. According to Mayo Clinic Platform president John Halamka, MD, “clinicians will have access to best-in-class algorithms and care protocols and will be able to serve more patients effectively in remote care settings.” Patients will be able to access information to take better control of their health and make more informed decisions.

Mayo Clinic, with partners, is also organizing two portfolio companies to support RDMP:

  • Anumana, Inc. With nference, a synthesizer of biomedical data, Anumana will bring to market digital sensor diagnostics to decipher electrocardiograms (ECGs). The objective is to more effectively spot heart disease at the pre-symptomatic stage, enabling early treatment that saves patients and costs. Their first project will be to develop neural network algorithms based on billions of relevant pieces of heart health data contained in Mayo’s Clinical Data Analytics Platform, including millions of raw ECG signals. nference with Mayo in the past year has released COVID-19 molecular research based on Mayo data. Anumana completed a Series A of $25.7 million funded by the partner companies plus Matrix Capital Management, Matrix Partners, and NTTVC.  nference release.
  • Lucem Health Inc. With Commure, a General Catalyst portfolio technology company that accelerates healthcare software development, Lucem will develop the platform for connecting remote patient telemetry devices with AI-enabled algorithms. Lucem is kicking off with a jointly funded $6 million Series A. 

We noted back in 2019 Dr. Halamka’s move to Mayo to head up a machine learning/AI initiative which took a while (during a pandemic year) but is moving quickly. The Mayo release includes a YouTube video of Drs. Halamka and Friedman explaining Anumana’s objectives in early diagnosis reading ‘those invisible signals’ well ahead of an event, especially needed with heart disease as the first symptom may be devastating or deadly. Hat tip to HISTalk, which also amusingly notes Dr. Halamka’s sartorial changes.

 

A new event–and not all virtual! HLTH and CHIME to launch ViVE in March 2022.

April 21, 2021 | by

Does it seem like forever that there’s been a new digital health conference, fully in-person–and not labeled HIMSS? HLTH, a relatively new entrant to the big healthcare event calendar starting in 2018 in Las Vegas, and CHIME, The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives, will launch ViVE on 6-9 March 2022 at a location (TBD) in Miami Beach. They are positioning it as an annual event for digital health leaders innovating across the spectrum of health and care. 

The event will incorporate CHIME’s spring forum, a full plate of networking events and presentations, matchmaking, the ViVE Expo, and a gala. For more information on the event or to register interest as a sponsor or partner, see the ViVE page. Release. 

(This Editor admits that the thought of a new and in-person conference is exciting. It’s nice to contemplate normality!)

CHIME is a 5,000-member association of C-level and senior healthcare IT leaders across 56 countries. The organization parted from the annual HIMSS event this year in Las Vegas 9-13 August, which will be a hybrid in-person and virtual conference [TTA 4 Feb]. Registration and information on the event have been updated.

The HLTH 2021 next event is in Boston 17-20 October. Like HIMSS, it’s scheduled to be a combination in-person and virtual event. HLTH is more broadly inclusive of healthcare care models and consumer health issues. The in-person portion will be at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, located in the Seaport District. 

Good news! Eight software functions no longer classified as medical devices under FDA.

April 21, 2021 | by

Good news for medical device designers. FDA is amending classification regulations as a result of changes made by the 21st Century Cures Act to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act). These remove certain software functions from the definition of a device  “including software functions that are solely intended to transfer, store, convert formats, or display medical device data and results, including medical images or other clinical information.” The changes apply to software in the following devices and systems:

Calculator/Data Processing Module for Clinical Use
Continuous Glucose Monitor Secondary Display
Automated Indirect Immunofluorescence Microscope and Software-Assisted System
Medical Device Data Systems
Home Uterine Activity Monitor
Medical Image Storage Device
Medical Image Communications Device
Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS)

Read more in the Federal Register. Hat tip to HISTalk Monday Morning Update

News and deal roundup: Microsoft’s $20B deal for Nuance; Cigna Evernorth finalizes MDLive; GoodRx buys HealthiNation; Papa’s $60M Series C

April 21, 2021 | by

Our Big Deal is Microsoft’s acquisition of Nuance Communications, a cloud and AI-based speech recognition company which has been a leader in healthcare for a few decades. Most recognizable are their Dragon and PowerScribe trade names. Microsoft is paying $56.00 per share, a 23 percent premium to the closing price of Nuance on 9 April, an all-cash transaction valued at $19.7 bn. Closing is projected to be end of 2021 as subject to regulatory and final shareholder approvals.

Nuance and Microsoft have closely worked together for some time with Microsoft Cloud using Nuance speech recognition and Nuance clinical speech recognition offerings built on Microsoft Azure. Nuance claims that in the US, 55 percent of physicians, 75 percent of radiologists, and 77 percent of hospitals use their products. It’s a big but expected bet for Microsoft in healthcare against Apple that is expected to double Microsoft’s total addressable market (TAM) in the healthcare provider space to nearly $500 billion. It also adds enterprise AI expertise and customer engagement solutions in Interactive Voice Response (IVR), virtual assistants, and digital and biometric solutions for companies outside of healthcare. Microsoft release, Becker’s Health IT

Cigna closed its purchase of telehealth provider MDLive on 19 April. Purchase price and management transitions were not disclosed. MDLive will be part of Evernorth, Cigna’s health services portfolio. That portfolio includes Accredo, Express Scripts, Direct Health, fertility health, and more. Earlier coverage 27 February. Evernorth release, FierceHealthcare. 

GoodRx closed its purchase of health education video producer HealthiNation. Sale price was not disclosed. HealthiNation’s video library will reinforce GoodRx’s consumer information on prescription prices for better consumer decisions. Release, Mobihealthnews  

Senior services and socialization ecosystem Papa now has a brand new Series C of $60 million, via Tiger Global Management. Papa connects seniors with Papa Pals, a ‘family on demand’ that appear to be heavily college students. Papa Pals visit with them and provide in-person and virtual companionship, assist with house tasks, technology training, and transportation to doctors’ appointments. Scheduling is done via a smartphone app. The company added Papa Health last year, connecting in ‘Papa Docs’ (an unnerving term for those who recall ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier of Haiti) for primary care, chronic care management, and urgent care. Papa works extensively with Medicare Advantage plans such as Humana, Reliance, Florida Blue, and Aetna. Founded in Miami in 2017 with now total funding of over $91 million and available in 50 states, earlier round funders include Comcast Ventures and Canaan Partners. Release, Crunchbase, FierceHealthcare

‘Most Reputable’ healthcare technology companies ranked

April 21, 2021 | by

RepTrak has a mission–quantifying reputation, brand, and ESG (environmental, social, and corporate governance) performance for their clients. Their product is software and algorithms that monitor real-time perception data for companies to increase reputation intelligence. A way to market themselves is to issue a Top 100 list (PDF link) of top-scoring companies primarily in mass-market and luxury brands, plus automotive, retail, financial, media and entertainment, and technology companies. Becker’s Health IT picked out health tech-related companies as follows:

Bosch (#4)
Microsoft (#10)
Philips (#13)
Google (#15)
3M (#20)
Apple (#46)
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (#49)
IBM (#54)
Salesforce (#89)
Amazon (#92)

These companies in the Top 100 averaged 74.9 in Global Reputation Scores, a composite of products and services, innovation, workplace, governance, citizenship, leadership, and performance. 

This Editor was surprised that Becker’s missed Samsung (#17), in medical imaging monitors, dedicated smartphones, monitors, and in many of the tablets that are used in remote patient monitoring and telehealth; LG (#67) in the same lines of business; Dell (#72) in computing, cloud, and monitors; and Honeywell (#77). 

Pharma and related companies were in the lower-ranked group: Lilly (#82), Roche (#87), BristolMyers Squibb (#94), and BASF (chemicals for pharmaceuticals and vitamins).

Notably, healthcare service companies such as health plans were not included in the ranking. Are they RepTrak clients? (Do they dare?)

The top three companies? Lego, Rolex, and Ferrari. The last only before the repairs come needing replacement parts!

Short takes 9 April: Doro phones to elderly isolated; funding to Vesta Healthcare, Zedsen; Anthem partners with Canvas EMR, Health Metrics (AU) new owner

April 9, 2021 | by

Today’s News from all over roundup….

Doro in the UK is participating in the ‘Do Good’ initiative with the mobile network giffgaff. Doro is donating 500 Doro phones to isolated elderly people across the UK, as part of their efforts in other countries such as Germany, France, and the Nordics. The tie with giffgaff came about after their announcement of ‘goodybank’ to help those in UK communities facing hardship. Release

Vesta Healthcare raised $65 million in a venture round, bringing its financing since 2018 to $105 million (Crunchbase). Vesta connects a network of caregivers to at-home care and clinical care management. This round was led by Deerfield Management with participation from existing investors Oak HC/FT, Kaiser Permanente Ventures, Lux Capital, Generator Ventures, Nationwide, CareCentrix, and Epstein Partners plus K2 HealthVentures. Vesta is HQ’d in New York City and provides services in five states, which will be expanded with the new funding. Release. Hat tip to HISTalk

London-based Zedsen raised $12 million (£8.7 million) in a Series B which apparently is its first reported financing. Also joining them is Dr. Caroline Hargrove CBE, former CTO of Babylon Health, as Chief Technology Officer. Zedsen provides non-invasive skin biosensor-based monitoring of human body functions to create personalized insights about health, fitness, diet, and emotional wellbeing. The investors include: Joseph R. Grano, former Chairman and CEO of UBS Financial Services Inc; Nasser Kazeminy, Investor, Founder of NJK Holding and Chairman of the Ellis Island Honor Society (EIHS); Tony Rice, Former CEO of Cable and Wireless; Bonnie Mcalveen Hunter, Chairperson of the Red Cross; and Jim Harpel, Investor at Palm Beach Capital. Release, Mobihealthnews

Health payer Anthem is constructing an interesting partnership with a physician-targeted EMR, Canvas. Canvas will integrate Anthem member information into their EMR workflows as part of Canvas Payer SDK (software development kit). The company is leveraging this function as in primary care, usually health insurance claims data are a reliable source of patient data. They also gained a brand new Series A of $17 million funded by Inspired Capital and IA Ventures after seed and venture rounds. Becker’s Health IT, TechCrunch 

And Down Under, Tanarra Capital acquired a majority stake in Health Metrics, a software provider that supports Australia’s residential aged care, retirement living, community, and disability sectors.

Google’s Care Studio patient record search tool to pilot at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

April 9, 2021 | by

A cleaned-up Project Nightingale? Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) in Boston announced their participation in a pilot with Google of Care Studio, described in the BIDMC press release as “a technology designed to offer clinicians a longitudinal view of patient records and the ability to quickly search through those records through a single secure tool.” In other words, it’s like Google Search going across multiple systems: the BIDMC proprietary EHR (WebOMR), core medical record system, and several clinical systems designed for specific clinical specialties. All the clinician need do is type a term and the system will provide relevant information within their patient’s medical record from these systems, saving time and promoting accuracy. (See left)

The BIDMC pilot will use a limited group of 50 inpatient physicians and nurses, to assess the tool’s quality, efficacy, and safety of its use. Technical work starts this month.

At the end of the BIDMC release, it’s carefully explained that the tool is “designed to adhere to state and federal patient privacy regulations, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and industry-wide standards related to protected health information. BIDMC and Google Health have entered into a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) to ensure that both parties meet patient privacy obligations required under HIPAA. BIDMC patient data will be stored and maintained in a protected environment, isolated from other Google customers.” (Editor’s emphasis) The BAA was inked in 2018.

Without referring to it, it addresses the controversy surrounding Google’s Project Nightingale and Ascension Health, a major privacy kerfuffle pre-COVID that broke in early November 2019. From the TTA article, edited: “Google’s BAA allowed them apparently to access in the initial phase at least 10 million identified health records which were transmitted to Google without patient or physician consent or knowledge, including patient name, lab results, diagnoses, hospital records, patient names and dates of birth.” Ascension maintained that everything was secure and Google could not use data for marketing or other purposes not connected to the project, but handling was under wraps and Google employees had access to the data. Ascension’s core agreement was about migration of data to Google Cloud and providing G Suite tools to clinicians and employees. But apparently there was also a search tool component, which evolved into Care Studio.

Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Civil Rights, which governs privacy, announced at the time an investigation. The only later reference this Editor was able to locate was in HIPAA Journal of 5 March 2020 regarding the request of three Senators from both sides of the aisle demanding an explanation on the agreements and what information Google employees accessed. The timing was bad as then COVID hit and all else went out the window. In short, the investigations went nowhere, at least to the public.

It would surprise this Editor if any questions were raised about Care Studio, though BIDMC’s goal is understandable and admirable. Also Becker’s Hospital Review, FierceHealthcare