Wednesday news roundup: Oracle-Cerner reportedly OK’d by EU, VitalTech RPM raises $14.1 M, Aging 2.0 interoperability challenge, what do rough times mean for investors and startups, employees cause 39% of healthcare IT breaches

May 25, 2022 | by

One regulatory hurdle down for Oracle’s $28 billion Cerner acquisition? The EU has reportedly given an unconditional EU antitrust clearance to Cerner, three sources informed Reuters. The formal announcement will be made 1 June. In the US, the long and winding road of Federal antitrust scrutiny and review began in February by the usual alphabet agencies–DOJ, FTC, and SEC–that show no sign of wrapping up [TTA 11 Feb]. Cerner continues to run into headwinds in its VA EHR implementation including spotty interoperability with the Military Health Service DOD version [TTA 18 May].

In a small confirmation that RPM is on the rise, Texas-based VitalTech raises $14.1 million in a Series B equity raise. The company offers an app-based remote patient monitoring platform for vital signs, med and nutritional reminders for use by home and hospital/acute care. Investors were not disclosed and the total offering has about $2.1 million remaining in unsold equity. Their undisclosed Series A funding dated back to 2019 and funded by Concord Health Partners and Stanley Ventures. SEC filing

The international Aging2.0 organization announced the Global Innovation Search (GIS), an opportunity for innovators around the world to showcase innovations that enable and promote a system-level approach to improving quality, continuity, and efficiency of care through interoperability. The eight finalists will participate in a Care Tech Pitch at OPTIMIZE, Aging 2.0’s annual conference on 21-22 September in Louisville, Kentucky. Applications close 12 June. The GIS is associated with the Louisville Healthcare CEO Council (LHCC) and will require the winner to relocate to Louisville. More information here.

What does this mess of a market mean for healthcare investors, startups, and companies looking for equity or VC investment? Industry figure Lisa Suennen, who has been to this rodeo before, has a POV in her Venture Valkyrie blog that HISTalk has summarized neatly, if not cheerfully. Major points: the downturn in funding will lag the market by 3-6 months, VCs will stuff the cash and wait for deals at lower valuations, few exits mean that portfolion companies will be burning through cash and dependent on existing investors, and there will be less-well-funded companies and funds which will go belly-up. This Editor’s disagreement is only that VCs lag downturns. In 2008, heading marketing in an early sensor-based monitoring company running out of funds, funding became scarce months ahead of the downturn.

39% of healthcare data breaches are caused by employees, according to Verizon’s latest cybersecurity Data Breach Investigations Report–more than any other industry at 18%. Incidents hit an all time high in healthcare, with 849 incidents and 571 breaches last year. 76% of breaches centered on basic web application attacks (attacks against a web-facing app–30%), system intrusions (malware, hacking–26%), and miscellaneous errors (mostly unintentional–21%).  Personal data was nearly 60% of the data compromised, while 46% was medical. Much more in the report. Healthcare Dive

Events, Dear Friends, Events part 2: Newcastle and Texas accelerate, Aging2.0 NYC gets happy, AutoBlock’s Meetup, Wearable Tech, HealthImpact East

January 10, 2019 | by

Short notice–Thursday 10 January in Newcastle, Aging2.0 is supporting the Innovation SuperNetwork on their Innovation in Ageing Accelerator Programme. This is a collaboration that includes the local National Innovation Centre for Ageing, Newcastle City Council and Northstar Ventures. They are offering £12,500 of investment and 6 months office space in the Biosphere building on Newcastle Helix. The Accelerator is holding a four-hour workshop tomorrow, 1-5 pm. If you can make it, register here.

Wednesday 30 Jan, NYC. Post-holiday, post-CES/JPM, and mid-winter blues have you down? Aging2.0 in NYC is hosting a Happy Hour (drinks are on you) down at Grey Bar in the trendy Flatiron District. It’s Wed 30 Jan 6-8pm at Grey Bar (26th between 6th and Broadway). RSVP here.

Friday-Saturday 8-9 February, Dallas. The Health Wildcatters are sponsoring a two-day Texas Healthcare Challenge. Format is a “hackathon-like” prize competition focused on creating team-based solutions to problems in healthcare. Teams can apply as well as solo fliers who will join a team that presents at the end of the event. Application by 24 January. More information here.

If you are in the Cambridge/Boston MA area, the former Health Innovators, now AutoBlock, hosts a weekly Thursday Meetup at the Cambridge Innovation Center on blockchain in healthcare. Hat tip to Kalyan Kalwa MD 

And on the other side of the country, the 10th Wearable Tech + Digital Health + Neurotech Silicon Valley conference will be 21-22 February at Stanford University, co-sponsored by ApplySci and the Stanford Wearable Electronics Initiative. More information here. 

And looking ahead to warmer weather…HealthImpact East will be up on 21-22 May at the Google offices in NYC. 

Apply to pitch your older adult health solution at the SOMPO Digital Lab Pitch Event at Aging2.0

September 12, 2018 | by

SOMPO Digital Lab Pitch Event, 14 November, Aging2.0 Optimize Conference, San Francisco

SOMPO Digital Lab, in partnership with California senior care communities Front Porch and Carlton Senior Living, will host a pitch event for high potential startups at the Aging2.0 OPTIMIZE Conference on 14 November in San Francisco. Startups focused on Brain Health, Caregiving and Daily Living and Lifestyle are invited to present. The grand prize is $5,000 and a pilot opportunity in the U.S. or Japan. Your startup must have raised a minimum of $100,000 up to a maximum of $5 million.

SOMPO Digital Lab is the innovation group of Sompo Holdings, one of the largest insurance and senior care conglomerates in Japan. Please view this document to see the eligibility requirements for this event: http://bit.ly/SOMPOapplication

Deadline is 28 September.

We should also mention Aging2.0 OPTIMIZE 14-15 November. For more information and to register, click here. For a list of their other local and international events (oddly, none in NYC for the foreseeable future), click here.

Themes and trends at Aging2.0 OPTIMIZE 2017

November 10, 2017 | by

Aging2.0 OPTIMIZE, in San Francisco on Tuesday and Wednesday 14-15 November, annually attracts the top thinkers and doers in innovation and aging services. It brings together academia, designers, developers, investors, and senior care executives from all over the world to rethink the aging experience in both immediately practical and long-term visionary ways.

Looking at OPTIMIZE’s agenda, there are major themes that are on point for major industry trends.

Reinventing aging with an AI twist

What will aging be like during the next decades of the 21st Century? What must be done to support quality of life, active lives, and more independence? From nursing homes with more home-like environments (Green House Project) to Bill Thomas’ latest project–‘tiny houses’ that support independent living (Minkas)—there are many developments which will affect the perception and reality of aging.

Designers like Yves Béhar of fuseproject are rethinking home design as a continuum that supports all ages and abilities in what they want and need. Beyond physical design, these new homes are powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technology that support wellness, engagement, and safety. Advances that are already here include voice-activated devices such as Amazon Alexa, virtual reality (VR), and IoT-enabled remote care (telehealth and telecare).

For attendees at Aging2.0, there will be substantial discussion on AI’s impact and implications, highlighted at Tuesday afternoon’s general session ‘AI-ging Into the Future’ and in Wednesday’s AI/IoT-related breakouts. AI is powering breakthroughs in social robotics and predictive health, the latter using sensor-based ADL and vital signs information for wellness, fall prevention, and dementia care. Some companies part of this conversation are CarePredict, EarlySense, SafelyYou, and Intuition Robotics.

Thriving, not surviving

Thriving in later age, not simply ‘aging in place’ or compensating for the loss of ability, must engage the community, the individual, and providers. There’s new interest in addressing interrelated social factors such as isolation, life purpose, food, healthcare quality, safety, and transportation. Business models and connected living technologies can combine to redesign post-acute care for better recovery, to prevent unnecessary readmissions, and provide more proactive care for chronic diseases as well as support wellness.

In this area, OPTIMIZE has many sessions on cities and localities reorganizing to support older adults in social determinants of health, transportation innovations, and wearables for passive communications between the older person and caregivers/providers. Some organizations and companies contributing to the conversation are grandPad, Village to Village Network, Lyft, and Milken Institute.

Technology and best practices positively affect the bottom line

How can senior housing and communities put innovation into action today? How can developers make it easier for them to adopt innovation? Innovations that ‘activate’ staff and caregivers create a multiplier for a positive effect on care. Successful rollouts create a positive impact on both the operations and financial health of senior living communities.

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September-Autumn Events: The King’s Fund, Aging2.0 London, Health 2.0 NYC, RSM, ATA

August 29, 2017 | by

Summer is evaporating before our eyes. Fill your calendars to shake off the blues! Here are some events that depending on where you are, should go on it:

At The King’s Fund, London:

Monday 4 September, 5:30-8:30pm: HealthChat with Claire Murdoch and Roy Lilley. Ms. Murdoch is Chief Executive of Central & North West London NHS Trust and NHSE’s new National Mental Health Director. Tickets are £39.95 through Eventbrite here. (Note: this is a private event organized by UK HealthGateway, the publisher of the nhsManagers.net newsletter.)

We thank Roy Lilley for the top-of-the-letter mention of our recent article on telemedicine and retail healthcare. Until today, this Editor was not aware that the NHS was the largest purchaser in the UK of fax machines. Will Sarah Wilkinson’s appointment as the head of NHS Digital change that?)

Friday 6 October, 12.00pm-7.00pm: Ideas that change health care–a festival of ideas to inspire and challenge the future of health care. Free, but tickets are limited. Sponsorships available. More information here. #kfIdeas17

Wednesday 29 – Thursday 30 November, 8.30am – 5.15pm both days: The King’s Fund Annual Conference 2017. Day 1 concentrates on population health, Day 2 on modernizing the health and care system. More information here. #kfAnnual2017

Aging2.0 London at Innovation Warehouse

Thursday 7 September, 6-9pm: Aging2.0 London 2-Pint-0 presents Chris Sawyer from Innovate UK on the Digital Health Technology Catalyst 2017 – Round 1 [TTA 14 Aug]. More information here.

Health 2.0 NYC/MedStartr, midtown NYC

Wednesday 27 September, 6-9pm: Mental Health Innovations 2017. The rising need for and increased scarcity of mental health care calls for new approaches in technology and innovation. The usual lively panel of speakers, company presenters, and engaged audience. More information on their Meetup page here. (more…)

Last minute events, through to the end of 2016

May 17, 2016 | by

We have events this week that you can still sign up for/attend, through to November!

On the evening of 18th May, as we have previously covered, there is a free two hour webinar on telementoring surgeons – watch how it’s done during operations by experts. Register here.

For the 19th May, come and hear world-class speakers, introduced by George Freeman, Minister for Life Sciences, talking about the Future of medicine; the doctor’s role in 2025 at the Royal Society of Medicine. More info is here – online booking is closed though as many people now do at the RSM, you can sign up at the door on the day.

On 20th May, again as we have previously covered, the SIHI event at the University of Portsmouth is entitled Safe and effective medicines: Informatics for best practice. More info here.

Evangelia Balanou has kindly pointed out that the Aging2.0 (sic) Global Startup Search is coming to London on 14th June. Details of the Search are here, if you want to pitch. Note there are also European events in Barcelona, Berlin & Brussels. To book for the London event go here (note special free ticket category for 65+).

Also in June, the RSM is running another in its very successful big data series, entitled big data, clouds, and the internet of healthy things on June 2nd. Details here.

Finally, looking further out, the RSM is also repeating an event last run three years ago, again to a sellout audience, entitled point of care testing: disruptive innovation. is the NHS ready for it yet? (Especially eagle eyed readers with a good memory will notice the addition of yet.) This aims to demonstrate the extraordinary effectiveness of testing at the point of care (rather than sending samples for lab analysis) which can transform the cost of delivering care at the same time as greatly improving patient outcomes. Do check the programme out here, and book!