News roundup: CVS abandons (?) Cano Health buy; Signify adds home RPM; BioIntelliSense RPM acquires AlertWatch; GE Healthcare, AMC Health partner; Viome raises $67M, other fundings

October 21, 2022 | by | 1 Comment

CVS Health apparently backs away from a strategic primary care buy. Earlier this week, both Barron’s and DealReporter (via FactSet) reported that CVS Health is no longer pursuing an acquisition of Cano Health, a primary care provider group in Florida, Texas, Nevada, California, Illinois, New Mexico, and Puerto Rico that concentrates on senior health, Medicare Advantage patients, and value-based care. Cano has 4,000 employees and 280,000 members. Reasons why were not disclosed by either CVS or Cano. Cano shares listed on the NYSE fell on the news from Monday’s open of $8.22 to $4.50 today (20 Oct). An alternative buyer may be Humana, which has a right of first refusal on a sale dating back to 2019, but Humana has been quiet on the acquisition front of late.

Walking away seems contrary to CVS’ stated strategy of pursuing deals in primary care, provider enablement, and home health, but CVS can afford to be choosy. There’s speculation that CVS has a different provider/VBC enablement target in mind.  Jailendra Singh of Truist Securities identified ACO management services organization Privia Health as a potential buy that would fit well with CVS’ pending buy of Signify Health, which includes competitor Caravan Health (more on this here). But who knows if this ‘walk away’ is final? Healthcare Finance, FierceHealthcare

CVS’ pending deal, Signify Health, announced the addition of spirometry testing to evaluate patients for COPD. This will be added to their existing suite of in-home diagnostic testing and tracking, In-Home Health Evaluation, targeted to Medicaid and Medicare Advantage members. Mobihealthnews

If there’s a Cinderella this inflationary, recessionary year, it’s remote patient monitoring (RPM). BioIntelliSense has been in RPM since 2020 with on-body/stick-on sensors such as the BioButton and the BioSense 30-day monitor. Their latest addition through acquisition is the AlertWatch clinical intelligence and triage system. AlertWatch will join BioIntelliSense’s product group within Medtronic’s HealthCast portfolio in US hospital patient monitoring as part of their existing partnership. In the past ten years, AlertWatch achieved four FDA 510(k) clearances for its specialized product offerings for the operating room, intensive care unit, and labor and delivery unit.  BioIntelliSense release

Veteran RPM company AMC Health will be partnering with GE Healthcare (GEHC) for post-discharge in-home care monitoring. This will extend GEHC’s hospital-based monitoring into post-acute patient needs and anticipate future care needs, potentially reducing unnecessary readmissions. It’s also planned that eventually both hospital and home data will be integrated into GE’s Edison Health database. GEHC also announced additional details about its spinoff, due to happen in early 2023. [Also TTA 12 Nov 21 and 20 July] Mobihealthnews

Healthcare/health tech raises haven’t entirely disappeared. Viome, which uses AI to test the oral and gut microbiome to prevent, diagnose, and treat chronic diseases and cancer, just raised a $67 million Series C led by Bold Capital Group with participation from Khosla Ventures, West River Group, Glico, Ocgrow Ventures, and Physician Partners, for a total raise since 2017 of over $169 million (Crunchbase). Viome recently launched the CancerDetect test for oral and throat cancers under the FDA Breakthrough Device Designation. Last year, they expanded their partnership with GlaxoSmithKline to research and potentially develop interventions for some cancers and autoimmune diseases. Viome release  

Mobihealthnews rounds up several other financings from genomic tester Variantyx’s $20 million in debt financing to mental health app Mindful Care’s modest $7 million Series B and dataset research collaboration platform Rhino Health‘s $6.7 million seed round extension for an $11 million total.

ATA conference roundup: a new board chair, a digital app review pilot, and company announcements

May 5, 2022 | by

The American Telemedicine Association (ATA) 2022 conference and expo is a wrap, after starting on Sunday through to Tuesday. While your Editor could not attend due to other commitments that precluded a trip to Boston, one industry insider who visited the expo–his first in-person event in two years–reported that after a slow start on Sunday, the floor busied up on Monday. Business was being done, finally and not virtually. What were the busy booths and what was ‘hot’? Companies in the areas of telemental health and remote patient monitoring (RPM). (Did you attend? What was your impression? Leave comments below.)

ATA had two major announcements of its own during the conference:

  • Kristi Henderson, DNP, NP-C, FAAN, FAEN, has been named as Chair of the ATA Board for a two-year term. Henderson is the CEO of Optum Everycare, where she leads a team building digital and virtual health solutions to improve quality outcomes and experiences for patients and providers. She has served on the board since December 2020. As Chair, she is succeeding Joseph Kvedar, MD and Professor at Harvard Medical School among other positions. Dr. Kvedar will become Immediate Past Chair and Senior Advisor to the ATA. Announcement
  • ATA, the American College of Physicians (ACP), and ORCHA, the Organization for the Review of Care and Health Applications,  announced a framework for the assessment of professional and consumer digital health technologies, including mobile apps and web-based tools. ACP and ORCHA, which has experience assessing compiling libraries of apps, will be piloting a test of the framework against a database of digital health tools. The goal of the pilot is to “determine how the library can be useful to physicians in recommending high-value digital health tools to their patients, and what other barriers to wider adoption of digital health tools may exist.” Announcement

Quite a few company announcements were made during ATA–a selection:

  • Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health highlighted the publication of a major scientific study (full text) documenting telehealth outcomes in JAMA Network Open. This Johns Hopkins-based research was partially supported by the ATA. The study followed a national cohort of 40.7 million commercially insured persons from July to December 2021 and included 21 chronic and non-chronic conditions. Fourteen-day follow-ups for persons with an initial telehealth visit were compared to persons receiving in-person care. On average, patients participating in an initial telehealth consult for a new health condition did not require more unplanned hospitalizations or follow-up ED visits within 14 days of their initial consult compared with patients making an initial in-person visit. The exception was respiratory conditions. Release
  • BioIntelliSense, which last year scored $45 million in funding for its on-body sensors, announced two major collaborations for remote patient monitoring (RPM) with UC Davis Health and Houston Methodist.
  • CDW Healthcare and Caregility announced a strategic partnership to expand their virtual care capabilities, including Caregility’s new Inpatient Virtual Engagement solution (IVE), also launched during ATA. 
  • Connect America, which snapped up Lifeline last year, launched Connect America Home, a single health and safety platform connecting (PERS) and remote patient monitoring (RPM) with supporting services, including AI-enabled virtual health assistance and Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) support, along with analytics. Release.
  • AliveCor announced the launch of KardiaComplete, a comprehensive heart health enterprise solution designed to drive improved health outcomes and reduce the cost of cardiac care. The service will be available through self-insured employers, health insurance plans, and health systems to those diagnosed with hypertension and arrhythmias, like atrial fibrillation.
  • Withings launched Withings RPM, the company’s most advanced remote patient monitoring solution designed to enhance the patient experience. It is a single platform that enables clinicians to order and send Withings RPM devices, manage data from multiple patients with automated alerts and reminders, communicate via SMS, phone, and in-app video calls, billing, sleep tracking, and more. 

TTA was a media partner of ATA 2022.

News and funding roundup: BioIntelliSense ‘stickers’ $45M, Exo ultrasound scans $220M, Enovation gets Scotland OK, WellSky snaps up Healthify, Cerner’s good quarter despite VA

August 4, 2021 | by

Sticker shock? BioIntelliSense, which has been flying under the radar for over a year [TTA 17 July 2020] since inking a deal with Philips to integrate their BioSticker sensors into their post-acute remote patient monitoring (RPM) systems, scored a $45 million Series B funding for a total of $82 million since 2018. Lead investor is Chimera (UAE) with participation from 7wire Technology Partners, Mary Tolan of Chicago Pacific Founders, James Murren, formerly of MGM Resorts International, as well as Pendrell Corporation, Royal Philips, and Fresenius Medical Care North America.

BioIntelliSense has two wearables: the BioSense on-body sensor for 30 days of continuous vital sign monitoring, and the new BioButton for up to 60 days of RPM. The BioButton is touted for Covid-19 monitoring. “Temperature checks have proven to be unreliable and even amplified testing (PCR) has proven to be ineffective in identifying the virus in the early days of infection.” The button will be connected to the BioMobile screening survey app which will feed the user the latest CDC health screener and then scan for ‘subtle physiological changes’ in temperature, respiratory rate and heart rate at rest. The app generates a non-PHI report indicating ‘cleared’ or ‘not-cleared’. The BioSticker is 510(k) FDA-cleared; the BioButton is not, but is being marketed as an enterprise solution for employee health clearance. Mobihealthnews

Hand-held ultrasound gets ultra-funding. The Exo hand-held ultrasound snagged a hefty $220 million in Series C funding for a total of over $320 million since last year. Their point-of-care tool includes nano-materials, sensor technology, and advanced signal processing and computation in a platform called Exo Works. Exo is in a crowded field pioneered by GE Healthcare’s Vscan [TTA 27 March] back in 2010, but including Butterfly IQ, Mobisante, and Philips Lumify. Mobihealthnews

Enovation also approved by Scotland. With our news from Alcuris last week that they were selected by Scottish Digital Telecare as a security-assessed supplier, Enovation (formerly Verklizan), notified your Editors that they also were selected. Our quote from their management is from Andy Grayland, Chief Information Security Officer, Digital Office for Scottish Local Authorities. “The Scottish digital telecare security-assessed suppliers scheme reviewed a submission from Enovation for an Alarm Receiving Centre application. The assessment panel was very impressed with pre-existing security security culture and standards within Enovation. Both this assessment scheme, and Enovation’s positive response to it, will help ensure that vulnerable telecare users across Scotland are protected against the threat posed by cyber criminals when using these services.” 

WellSky to acquire SDOH provider Healthify. WellSky is a provider of software, analytics, and services for community care. Healthify builds and manages accountable networks for SDOH services, working with health plans, providers, and community partners in all fifty states. Previously, Healthify had raised $25.5 million in five rounds from 2013 (Crunchbase). Healthify is the fifth company WellSky has acquired since 2018, the last CarePort Health for $1.4 billion in 2020 (Crunchbase). Terms were not disclosed. Closing anticipated in Q3. The release does not indicate management transitions or HQ location.  

Despite their VA troubles and layoffs, Cerner had a very good quarter indeed: revenue up 10%, adjusted EPS $0.80 versus $0.63, exceeding analyst expectations for both. They laid off 500 employees in the quarter and eliminated 300 open positions, which will deliver $70 million in annualized savings. plus half their owned space is now unneeded so up for sale. Their Department of Defense EHR rollout is going well with 42 commands and 663 locations with 41,000 activated users. The Coast Guard’s deployment will be completed this year. As to VA, “results of the VA’s strategic review focused on governance, training, and readiness rather than Cerner-caused problems.” More in the lead article in HISTalk 8/2/21. Cerner’s announcement, transcript of earnings call on Seeking Alpha

Nanowear’s ‘smart clothing’ in NY/NJ hospital trials to monitor patients for early-stage COVID. Is it the Year of the Sensor?

July 24, 2020 | by

Nanowear, a NYC-based developer of cloth-based nanosensors and monitoring systems, has entered a clinical trial collaboration with two major NY/NJ-area hospital systems to test for vital signs which may be predictive of an advancing case of COVID-19. 

The goal of the investigative teams at Hackensack Meridian Health, the largest health system in north and central New Jersey with 17 hospitals plus 500 patient care sites, and Maimonides Medical Center of Brooklyn, affiliated with Northwell Health, is to determine and assess patients for early signs of the ‘cytokine storm’ in the heart and lungs which indicates inflammation within the circulatory system, often leading to severe complications and death in COVID patients. The clinical trial will monitor patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19. The release is not specific as to whether the garment will be issued to patients monitored solely in the hospital or inclusive of patients still at home.

Nanowear’s SimpleSENSE adjustable undergarment continuously captures key physiological signs related to the onset of COVID–real-time ECG, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, blood flow hemodynamics, respiration, lung volume and fluid, and temperature. The vital signs are then transmitted via a mobile app to a physician portal for monitoring and interpretation.  

The garment test is also significant as it is a contactless monitoring system–highly applicable to contagious diseases.

Last July, SimpleSENSE launched in a heart failure management clinical trial with Penn State Hershey Medical Center in Pennsylvania and Hackensack Meridian. The patented cloth-based nanotechnology sensors can capture up to 120 million data points per patient per day. The HF management trial was designed to validate and provide a pathway to clear its own diagnostic algorithm generated from the garment. The SimpleSENSE device and mobile platform have been submitted to FDA for Class II 510(k) clearance.  Also mHealth Intelligence.

This may be the Year of the Sensor. Human contact is out, remote monitoring is in. Earlier this week, we covered Philips integrating BioIntelliSense‘s BioSticker into its RPM systems. During 2018-2019, we profiled Doncaster UK-based MediBioSense, which uses the VitalPatch from VitalConnect. They recently announced that an enhanced VitalPatch suitable for seven-day use and body temperature sensing received CE Class IIa medical certification as well as FDA clearance. We last covered them when MBS adopted the Blue Cedar app security system in 2018, but based on their website press section, much has happened since in extending their sensor-based technologies. This Editor will try to catch up with Simon Beniston of MBS.