AI news: GE HealthCare’s 510(k) for Precision DL (+ GE stake sale), Samsung adopts care.ai for in-facility patient monitoring, Mayo Clinic-Google Cloud generative AI, Wolters Kluwer buys Invistics for drug diversion detection

June 8, 2023 | by

GEHC receives FDA clearance for Precision DL (deep learning) image processing software. It improves image quality on GEHC’s PET/CT, Omni Legend, which enables faster scanning time and improved small lesion detection. Deep learning as part of AI is a subset of machine learning (ML), which uses a neural network with three or more layers that simulates the human brain in processing and ‘learning’ from large amounts of data and drawing judgments from it. (See our recent Perspectives for a more nuanced explanation.)  According to GEHC’s presentation brochure on Precision DL, it is trained with thousands of PET images made using multiple reconstruction methods. Mobihealthnews

GEHC was spun off from parent General Electric (GE) in January. GE retained about 19% of its stock at the time with the remaining being distributed to GE shareholders, but on Monday announced that it would sell 25 million shares, or about $2 billion in value, in a debt-for-equity exchange. The debt is held by affiliates of Morgan Stanley which would then receive the stock, which has done well. This would reduce GE’s stake in the spinoff considerably.  Reuters, Yahoo Finance

Samsung partnering with care.ai for facility ‘smart care’. Orlando-based care.ai’s Smart Care Facility Platform monitors for conditions and learns from patient behaviors. It can be used for infection prevention and control, patient and protocol monitoring, workforce optimization, and virtual care. The AI-powered platform will be integrated into Samsung displays for clinician use, including virtual care. The system will be utilized in hospitals, nursing homes, and care facilities. care.ai release, 

Mayo Clinic is also jumping on the AI bandwagon with Google Cloud. Google Cloud’s Enterprise Search in Generative AI App Builder (Gen App Builder) will be used to make it easier for clinicians and researchers to find the information they need and improve the efficiency of clinical workflows to ultimately improve patient outcomes. According to the release, Enterprise Search in Gen App Builder unifies data across dispersed documents, databases, and intranets, making it easier to search, analyze, and identify the most relevant results. Mayo is an early adopter of the system. Google Cloud release  

Wolters Kluwer Health has acquired Atlanta-based Invistics. Invistics’ Flowlytics tracks medication in hospitals and other patient care settings through ML-based systems. The most critical ‘hot button’ use is for detecting drug diversion, which is when a healthcare worker illegally obtains or uses prescription drugs intended for a patient. This is done by reconciling drug transactions from purchase to patient, with their system being used to rapidly and accurately identify patterns of behavior consistent with drug diversion. More routine usage is for automating controlled substance compliance. This will fit in with Wolter Kluwer’s existing products Simplifi+ and Sentri7 in their Clinical Surveillance, Compliance & Data Solutions unit. Information on transaction cost and management transitions were not disclosed. Release

Hat tip to HIStalk’s new AI News feature 7 June for both Mayo-Google Cloud and WK-Invistics.

Mid-week news roundup: Parsa admits Babylon SPAC was ‘big mistake’, FTC’s strategy on GoodRx action, Oracle signs Accenture for VA training, Constellation delays ’22 reports, Emirates Health launches Care.ai and Digital Twin

February 15, 2023 | by

Regrets? Babylon has a few. A short but surprising interview in Mobihealthnews by Ali Parsa will give Readers an idea of the bubbly mindset of 2020-21 and the crises that followed for some companies. Babylon had 400% growth, then felt it had to go public via a SPAC in October 2021. It cost them a lot, including losing US shareholders, yet being listed on the NYSE. Parsa admitted “But in hindsight, that was a very big mistake. There’s no question.” While their revenue has continued to climb, on target to hit over $1 billion this year as of January, the cracked SPAC (opening at $272, today at $11.50) has forced Babylon to reorganize, selling non-core businesses like the Meritage IPA, reorganizing as a foreign private issuer to a domestic, and planning a reverse share split. These were announced last fall to avoid an NYSE delisting when the shares fell below $1 [TTA 13 Oct 22].  It also is leading them to shed Medicaid business and target commercial payers, such as Centene’s Ambetter. There’s a hint at the end of the article of some tech changes to promote continuous vital signs monitoring. You have to give Mr. Parsa credit for not papering over his errors.

FTC’s moves against GoodRx a preview of coming courtroom attractions–and collections? The start of February marked the first time that the Federal Trade Commission used the never-used-before Health Breach Notification Rule (HBNR), enacted in 2009, to elicit a penalty. With GoodRx choosing to settle for $1.5 million rather than fight [TTA 3 Feb], the FTC has now demonstrated a willingness to use Federal action against other online health companies sharing user data with third parties and monetization of that data. An attorney quoted in the Healthcare Dive article analyzing the ramifications: “This is the FTC trying to signal all these apps and other startup companies that are collecting a lot of sensitive data that we have a mechanism for enforcing data privacy rules against you.” Seven charges against GoodRx were around deceptive representations and unfair practices, with the HNBR the eighth layer of cake icing. According to another attorney quoted, the FTC is expanding the definition of breach into data that is shared or distributed “without the consent or authorization of the person whose data it is.” It seems like HBNR are yet more initials to be dreaded by digital health businesses that aren’t covered entities and stay well outside HIPAA privacy laws. 

Oracle Cerner getting help in digging through the Mound of Misery around their VA EHR implementation. FedScoop reported today (14 Feb) on Oracle’s signing of Accenture to improve clinician training on the Cerner Millenium system. Oracle EVP Ken Glueck confirmed that “We signed a contract with Accenture probably a month ago. So they are part and parcel of the training procedure for the continued rollouts when they resume in June of 2023.” They also confirmed that it was within the current ‘budget envelope’. Not surprisingly, Accenture is part of the Leidos Partnership for Defense Health that is implementing the Department of Defense’s considerably further along and relatively less troubled version of the Cerner EHR, MHS Genesis.

EHR watchers last year also noted the $700 million sale of EHR pioneer Allscripts (now Veradigm) five hospital and large physician practice EHRs to Constellation Software, integrated into their N. Harris Group [TTA 6 May 22] and now called Altera. Constellation has delayed reporting its Q4 and FY2022 results, usually released about this time, to a date to be determined, because of the Altera acquisition. Release Constellation, a Canadian company, trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange at an eye-watering share price of C $2,405 and a capitalization of C$49 billion.

Swinging over to the UAE, Emirates Health Services at Arab Health 2023 launched both the Care.ai and Digital Twin services for its facilities across the region. Care.ai is an Orlando-based company. For EHS, this will create an AI-enabled automation system that will update and analyze patient data and and assist doctors in diagnosing patients using computer vision. Digital Twin is an energy management system developed in partnership with Schneider Electric and Microsoft using Azure. At Al Qassimi Hospital, it cut consumption by up to 30% and reduced breakdowns and maintenance work by up to 20% .EHS release  Hat tip to HISTalk 

Mid-week news briefs: House members’ ‘grave concerns’ on two deaths tied to Oracle Cerner VA rollout; care.ai’s $27M funding; Clear Arch’s new mobile RPM platform; digital health investment in rough times

November 23, 2022 | by

A pre-Thanksgiving news roundup in this short week.

More miseries for Oracle Cerner’s VA rollout. This week, three House members sent a letter to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). After a 2 September visit to the Chalmers P. Wylie VA Ambulatory Care Center in Columbus, Ohio and interviewing the staff, they determined that the Cerner Millenium EHR as currently in use possibly led to the deaths of two veteran patients. The deaths were due to 1) hypoxia after an antibiotic ordered for mail delivery was never tracked nor received, leading to a decline in the patient’s condition; and 2) alcohol withdrawal symptoms after a patient’s missed appointment was lost in the EHR and not rescheduled, leading to his decline and death several months later. The three Representatives are asking Denis McDonough, the Department secretary, for answers on the processes and problems that led to this, and more. They are Mike Bost, R-Ill., Mike Carey, R-Ohio, and Troy Balderson, R-Ohio. Becker’s

care.ai, a system that uses sensor-based AI for care facilities, secured $27 million in venture funding from Crescent Cove Advisors. care.ai’s sensors and their Smart Care Facility Platform are currently used in 1,500 facilities in the US to automate, monitor, and streamline clinical and operational workflows in hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and assisted living facilities. care.ai plans to use the funding from Crescent Cove Advisors to build on their ongoing operations and deliver ambient intelligence to healthcare. Release, Mobihealthnews

Clear Arch Health is introducing a new RPM mobile app, Clear Arch Mobile, as an alternative to its current tablet-based system. It connects via Bluetooth to devices and is based on the LifeStream Clinical Monitoring Dashboard by enhancing security (with two-factor authentication) and simplifying the collection and transmission of patient data for clinician assessment and intervention, as needed. LifeStream was acquired by Clear Arch earlier this year with their buy of Life Care Solutions. Clear Arch is a division of MobileHelp. Both were acquired by Advocate Aurora Enterprises in April. Release (PDF)

How to cope with the transition from easy funding to showing investors that they are squeezing every dime? That was the topic of a roundtable of investors at HLTH last week. One major problem was that the 2020-21 influx of capital boosted valuations to unrealistic and unsustainable levels, leading to unrealistic expectations for growth and moving into businesses that weren’t core. The advice was bracing from investor luminaries such as Glen Tullman of 7Wire Ventures/Transcarent, Emily Melton of Threshold Ventures, Andrew Adams of Oak HC/FT; and Krishna Yeshwant of Google Ventures.

  • Don’t focus on valuation. Focus on how much capital your enterprise needs to the next phase of inflection, minimize dilution, and set yourself up for the next up round.
  • Refocus and reprioritize, making the most of cash resources on hand
  • Have a plan to get to profitability, not just growth
  • Even more depressing news: the downturn is expected to continue through 2023 into 2024 — make cash last into 2025

Growth areas in healthcare they identified will be familiar: mental health, senior care and primary care –one is not, the Medicaid space. Mobihealthnews