Comings and goings, short takes and upcoming events: MedStartr Wed night, Mad*Pow acquired, Teladoc’s new COO, JAMA ponders telepharmacy, NHS London anxiety apps partner (updated)

July 31, 2019 | by

MedStartr Hyper Accelerator Pitch Night is tomorrow (Wednesday) night, 6pm, 31 July at Rent 24 in midtown Manhattan. Presenters are from the fourth MedStartr Hyper Accelerator Class including several MedStartr Venture Fund II portfolio companies. Attend through the Meetup link–still only $20 for presentations, snacks, drinks but may be higher tomorrow or at the door. If you missed it, follow MedStartr on Meetup.

And 31 July is also the deadline to apply for the summer session of Health Wildcatters’ Texas Healthcare Challenge on 9-10 August. More information here.

Our friends over at The King’s Fund have several upcoming events of interest:

And our friends at UKTelehealthcare remind us that there are several events coming up where they are organizing or supporting. Click the link on the right sidebar advert for more information on:

  • 1st-2nd October 2019 – HETT (Health Excellence Through Technology, formerly The UK Health Show), ExCel, London
  • 10th-11th October 2019 – Suppliers’ Forum and Providers’ Forum, Barnet & Southgate College
  • 22nd October 2019 – Cambridgeshire TECS MarketPlace,The Burgess Hall, Westwood Rd, St. Ives PE27 6WU

The Mad*Pow design consultancy is being acquired by Tech Mahindra of New Delhi. Mad*Pow’s original focus was on design for health, financial wellbeing, and social impact, and in early days held several interesting NY-area meetings. Tech Mahindra is the digital tech offshoot of the Mahindra multi-national industrial and IT giant. Yet in the Mad*Pow email to industry contacts, “Exciting News! Mad*Pow and Tech Mahindra Enter Formal Partnership” it was positioned as a majority stake and that they would continue to operate under their own name in Boston–neither of which were mentioned in the Tech Mahindra release. Hmmmm……

Verily she rolls along to Harvard. Luba Greenwood is departing the Alphabet/Google subsidiary to lecture at Harvard and work on several boards. She joined them as head of strategic business development and corporate ventures in February of 2018. She will be lecturing at The Paulson School of Engineering in a joint course with the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Mobihealthnews points out other recent key departures at Verily and a puzzling ‘why it matters’ about educating the next generation of digital health employees on a variety of viewpoints where digital health can lower versus increase costs.

Teladoc has a new COO, David Sides, who is joining from a CEO position at Streamline Health, a revenue cycle management company. The previous COO/CFO left after investors alleged insider trading and an inappropriate employee affair. Cited in Modern Healthcare is Mr. Sides’ experience in international markets, where Teladoc has been expanding through acquisitions. Teladoc announced today increased revenue for 2nd Q but earnings are still in the loss column. Yahoo Finance His position at Streamline is being taken by their chairman, Wyche T. (“Tee”) Green, III who will serve as Interim President and CEO. Release. Streamline is on NASDAQ and trading today at $1.35. 

Speaking of puzzling, JAMA indulges in an editorial around DTC telehealth and the conflict they perceive between convenience it entails and lower-quality patient care. Of course, their definition of telemedicine is primarily around telepharmacy. And like DTC medications, they are concerned about how these companies are appealing and growing. “However, it is clear that the companies want to expand to more complex acute care and disease management; for example, Lemonaid Health has expanded to include laboratory testing. Some companies envision a transformation of their platforms into 1-stop shops for comprehensive care.”

This Editor wonders if JAMA would consider two NHS-approved mental wellbeing services, Good Thinking and My Possible Self, partnering to create a tool to tackle depression, stress and anxiety in London, especially the latter in London.  My Possible Self is part of the DigitalHealth.London Accelerator program. Mobihealthnews

Events, Dear Friends, Events: UK Telehealthcare, Mad*Pow HXD, dHealth Summit

January 23, 2019 | by

UK Telehealthcare is hosting two events at Hammersmith Town Hall, King St. London W6 9JU on 7-8 February. The 7th is a Suppliers’ Forum, the 8th is for Providers. For more information, contact Gerry Allmark, UKTHC’s Managing Director, at gerry@uktelehealthcare.com. UKTHC is also partnering with Naidex on 26th-27th March at NEC, Birmingham. Naidex is Europe’s largest event for the disability and independent living sector with over 250 CPD-accredited seminars and the latest in assistive technology, accessible business advice and more. Registration and more information here.

Two events have moved from NYC to the Boston/Cambridge area, reinforcing that much of entrepreneurial health tech is moving away from the primary cities of New York and San Francisco to secondary–and more affordable (well, slightly!) areas. The first is Mad*Pow’s Health Experience Design (HXD) Conference on 2-3 April at the Royal Sonesta Boston in Cambridge. The conference will be centered on the design and delivery of transformative health services, behavior change interventions, and digital solutions. Information and registration here.

The second is the dHealth Summit on 11 June at State Room Boston.  The University of Rochester in collaboration with West Health organizes this two-day annual conference, now in its fifth year, to foster disruptive technological and process innovations to improve the lives of the nation’s aging population. The pre-conference kickoff on 10 June is themed around caregiving and is at AGENCY CIC Headquarters in Cambridge. Speakers represent a cross-section of care delivery companies, insurers, innovators, and non-profits. What this Editor enjoyed about past conferences was their interactive setup and a fairly select group of attendees. More information and registration is here.

And don’t forget our earlier listings here for Matt Hancock at the RSM 28 Jan, the NOLA Health Innovators Challenge (applications extended to 27 Jan), plus event at the RSM and The King’s Fund (see TTA 9 Jan). In Dallas the Health Wildcatters have their Challenge on 8-9 Feb and there’s more in our 10 Jan roundup.