Weekend investment/divestment roundup: 3M to spin off Health Care, Cleerly’s $223M Heartbeat, Elation’s $50M Series D, Health Note’s $17M Series A, Galen bought by RLDatix

July 30, 2022 | by

3M to spin off its Health Care operation by the end of 2023. According to their release, the Health Care spinoff will be focused on patient care as a diversified healthcare technology leader in wound care, oral care, healthcare IT, and biopharma filtration. The larger part of the present 3M, called a New 3M in the release, will concentrate on global material science and technology innovation, with manufacturing, global capabilities, and “iconic brands”. Currently (FY 2021) what will be New 3M will be far larger, with $26.8 billion in sales. Health Care currently has about $8.61 billion in sales. New 3M will retain a 19.9% stake in Health Care. Somehow, 3M has engineered it to be tax-free for US federal income tax purposes. How this will affect current shareholdings is not disclosed–yet.

Despite the wet blanket of a developing recession, there are smaller health tech companies scoring decent funding rounds and buying each other.

Cleerly Health, which has developed an AI-based cardiac diagnostic tool for coronary artery disease, has scored an exceptionally healthy and oversubscribed $223 million (from $192 million) Series C. Lead investors are Fidelity Management and Research Company and T. Rowe Price, returning investors Vensana Capital, LRVHealth, New Leaf Ventures, Cigna Ventures, and DigiTx Partners, plus seven others. Cleerly uses machine learning to evaluate coronary computed tomography (CT) angiograms, allowing physicians to more easily identify, characterize and qualify atherosclerosis (plaque) buildup in the walls of the heart arteries to more accurately predict the risk of heart attack. Release, Mobihealthnews

Primary care-focused EHR Elation Health doubles current funding with a $50 million Series D. Total funding is now $108 million. In the still-crowded EHR field, Elation focuses on independent primary care practices and claims a base of 20,000 practices. In 2021, the company was invited to work with the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) on technology to ease the administrative burden on physicians. The funding round was led by Generation Investment Management and Ascension Ventures, joined by Threshold Ventures, Ascend Partners, and individual investors including Fay Rotenberg and Jonathan Bush. Elation release, Mobihealthnews

Health Note closed a $17 million Series A. SignalFire led the round with participation from UnityPoint Health, Northwell Holdings (Northwell Health), and Cedars Sinai Health Ventures. Health Note is a pre-clinical visit automated intake platform that prepares clinical notes for providers ahead of patient visits. Current seed funding was about $6 million. The funding will go towards market expansion, expanded EHR integration, and further R&D. Release, Mobihealthnews, SoCalTech, MedCityNews 

And to close with a specialized acquisition in the IT and data governance areas, Galen Healthcare Solutions has been acquired by RLDatix. Terms and management transitions were not disclosed. RLDatix specializes in governance, risk, compliance (GRC) and workforce management technology for healthcare organizations. Galen adds health IT expertise in data migration and archival solutions. Release This is on top of RLDatix’s acquisition of UK-based Quality Compliance Systems (QCS) in May.

News roundup: stroke rehab uses Hollywood technology, 3M sues IBM Watson Health on analytics software misuse, AI-based skin cancer detection apps fail, Dictum’s successful telemed use post-pediatric surgery, malware attacks Boston practice network

February 14, 2020 | by

Motion capture technology being used in stroke and TBI rehab. Best known for turning actors into cartoon superheroes, motion capture tech is now being used at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston for returning mobility to stroke and TBI patients. Attached to the patient are sensors–reflective markers–on key parts of the body. Using an array of infrared cameras, the patient is tracked on gait and other affected motion areas. Doctors and therapists can then better target therapy, plus assistive technologies from orthotics to full exoskeletons. Includes video. STAT

When Giants Sue. 3M is suing IBM Watson Health on their use of licensed 3M software in ‘unauthorized ways’ and charging direct copyright infringement and contract breaches. 3M’s Grouper Plus System analyzes claims and other coded data to help calculate reimbursement. 3M contends that IBM was licensed only for internal use dating back to a Truven agreement in 2007, years before their acquisition by IBM. The suit also adds that IBM then integrated the software into Watson platforms without a license transfer and expansion to cover the use, as well as dodged an audit of the use. The suit is in NY Federal Court. Becker’s Health IT Report

Algorithm-based dermatology apps fail to accurately detect risk for melanomas and similar skin cancer.  A just-published BMJ study determined that these smartphone apps, which use algorithms that catalogue and classify images of lesions into high or low risk for skin cancer and return an immediate risk assessment with subsequent recommendation to the user, are not effective. Six apps were examined, including two with a CE mark. None were FDA-approved and two were cited by the Federal Trade Commission for deceptive marketing. Only one, SkinVision, is still commercially available. Study results do not apply to apps that physicians use in direct telemedicine consults. IEEE Spectrum

Successful test and planned rollout of telemedicine tablet for post-surgery checks at Children’s Hospital of Richmond (Virginia–CHoR). The Dictum Health eVER-HOME tablet used for virtual visits had a 92 percent acceptance rate of telemedicine visits in place of in-person visits, zero return to hospital/ER events, earlier patient discharge post-surgery (12 to 24 hours), and avoidance of long-distance travel by patients for follow-up visits, a significant factor as CHoR is a destination hospital for specialized pediatric surgery. The rollout will include AI capabilities in Dictum’s Care Central platform to help determine rising risk and more. Dictum Health is a company best known for telemedicine units for remote workers (e.g. oil rigs) using their Virtual Exam Room (VER) technologies. Dictum release, mHealth Intelligence

CHoR is having a better week than a physician’s network affiliated with Boston Children’s Hospital. Pediatric Physician’s Organization at Children’s (PPOC) is the victim of a malware attack affecting computer systems at about 500 affiliated physicians and clinicians. The impacted systems have been quarantined and does not affect BCH. Becker’s Hospital Review, Health IT Security  Health IT Security also rounds up other recent data breaches, hacks, and phishing attacks.

Breaking news out of the mHealth Summit

December 12, 2014 | by

mHealth Summit this year had an abundance of digital health company news announcements, not only from the conference but also timed to coincide with the heightened interest around it. Your Editor looks over the most interesting of them, briefly. Thanks to Ashley Gold of Politico’s Morning eHealth (@ashleygold, daily reports archived here), Stephanie Baum of MedCityNews (@stephlbaum) and Anne Zieger of Healthcare Dive for their coverage and their company in the press room!

Partners HealthCare researches, Validic expands, AliveCor and Omron ally, Happtique sells out, Doctor on Demand is telemental, Orange goes dental, VA Innovation Rocks

  • Partners HealthCare/Center for Connected Health’s cHealth Compass will use panel and other research to help companies, device manufacturers, startups and investors determine what end users–consumer and provider–want out of personal health tech. Focus groups, interviews and usability testing will help to determine product design, evaluation, assess applications and feasibility as well as interim/final product testing. Partners is already organizing in Massachusetts a 2,000-patient database which rewards participants $50 on registration and $110 annually to be in a monthly survey panel. cHealth Compass website, BetaBoston (Boston Globe)
  • Health data connector/aggregator Validic demonstrates the attractiveness of Anything Big Data on with new clients including the Everyday Health consumer/professional website and the adidas Group’s sport and fitness apps. Recently they added WebMD, Pfizer, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), NexJ Health and MedHost to their client list. The company claims that their ‘ecosystem’–probably the most popular buzzword at this year’s conference–of healthcare companies and tech developers now reaches over 100 million people with devices such as Omron, Alere, Qardio, Telcare, Jawbone and Withings. Release
  • AliveCor accentuates the retail with Omron. AliveCor, which developed the first FDA-cleared ECG for smartphones and gained clearance for an atrial fibrillation algorithm in August, is collaborating with Japanese device manufacturer Omron on developing its retail presence. Omron’s devices are available in major drugstores such as Walgreens, RiteAid and Walmart so certainly AliveCor is due to benefit. AliveCor is also part of a revived QualcommLife (more on this in an upcoming article)  Release, Mobihealthnews (Your Editor had the pleasure of meeting at last AliveCor’s CMO and founder Dr. Dave Albert.)
  • Happtique sold to SocialWellth. Last year’s floor talk was about Happtique’s first class of certified apps and a security expert’s untimely discovery of major flaws (more…)