News roundup: AliveCor launches FDA-cleared Kardia 12L ECG, eVisit buys UPMC’s inpatient teleconsult, UPMC and MedStar invest; NeueHealth gains $150M loan–with caveats–and NYSE non-compliance notice

June 26, 2024 | by

AliveCor shrinks 12-lead ECG to a single cable with AI-assisted detection for 35 cardiac determinations. The just-cleared by FDA system for clinicians combines the Kardia 12L ECG System (left), a single cable with five electrodes that acquires 8 high-quality diagnostic bandwidth leads, with the KAI 12L AI-assisted diagnostic technology. KAI uses a deep neural network-machine learning AI model to interpret ECG data acquired and validated on more than 1.75 million ECGs from leading US medical centers. It can make 35 cardiac determinations–14 arrhythmias and 21 morphologies–that include acute myocardial infarction (MI) and the most common types of cardiac ischemia. The Kardia 12L is battery-powered, weighs about 1/3 of a pound, and fits into a typical lab coat pocket.

12-lead ECG is considered the standard of ECG readings. A pocket system of this type puts this in reach of clinics, rural health, urgent care offices, and employer clinics. It requires minimal self-guided training and doesn’t require patients to fully disrobe. Release, Mass Device

Telehealth provider eVisit acquiring UPMC’s inpatient teleconsult technology–along with investments from UPMC and MedStar Health. This ‘hat trick’ adds hospital inpatient telehealth capability to eVisit’s health system-focused telehealth triage, provider-to-provider consults, and scheduled telehealth visits. The teleconsults serve inpatient care across five services: stroke, neurology, critical care, psychology, and toxicology. Both UPMC and current client MedStar Health (from the 2023 Bluestream Health acquisition, TTA 27 Apr 2023) are also investing in eVisit, adding an undisclosed amount to eVisit’s 2021 $45 million Series B. (Another way of saying ‘unlettered raise’?) Release, FierceHealthcare

And would this month be complete without items from the Dean of Dodging Disaster, Creating its Own New Reality, the one and only NeueHealth? The first is that Hercules Capital is giving them a second term loan facility (Loan and Security Agreement) of up to $150 million over three years that is, to be polite, hedged with qualifications. 

  • Tranche #1 is available on closing: $30 million
  • Tranche #2, $25 million, will be available only for a limited time– 10 November through 31 December 2024. It is also dependent on Molina making its final payment to NeueHealth for the Medicare Advantage plans they bought–a payment dependent in turn on those plans achieving plan performance ratings ( the “2025 Stars Condition”).
  • Tranche #3 of $45 million will be available from 5 February 2025 to 15 September 2025. But it is contingent after paying off what is owed in connection with the ACO REACH Model for performance years 2023 and earlier, payment in full of the CMS Settlement (as defined in the Loan and Security Agreement) and the Company having at least $22.5 million of unrestricted cash and cash equivalents.
  • Tranche #4: up to $50.0 million and available until 21 June 2027
  • The loan matures on 1 June 2028

Release 24 June, SEC Form 8-K, FierceHealthcare

The second is that the loan could not have come at a more needed time, as NeueHealth received a non-compliance notice from the NYSE on 16 June. It fell below an average market capitalization of $50 million for 30 consecutive trading days, with their last reported stockholders’ equity also below $50 million. It has 45 days to submit a business plan to remedy it within 18 months. NeueHealth’s preferred stock had a value of $920.4 million as of 31 March 2024 but is excluded from the NYSE calculations of common stockholder equity. NeueHealth closed today at $5.23.

This is in addition to a $30 million loan from current 60% majority shareholder NEA [TTA 16 Apr].

Along with tying Gordian knots masterfully and playing multiple ends against the middle, one wonders what management does all day at their new offices in Doral, Florida? Avoiding Chapter 11? Golfing? Surfing?

Blue Cedar releases new security for health apps, built into the app

May 3, 2017 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Blue-Cedar-Logo-Asset-1@3x-100.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]For healthcare organizations, device and app developers, one stumbling block for apps has been securing data. The endpoint for security has been to secure and manage the device, which constrains widespread BYOD use and convenient downloading. What if, instead, the apps and the data on them were secured without needing to further secure the device? This is what Blue Cedar, a mobile security developer, has done with what they call a mobile device management (MDM) alternative, with security ‘baked into the app”.

One of their first for the new platform is MedStar Health, the largest healthcare provider in the Maryland and Washington, DC region. Blue Cedar’s MDM enabled them to secure their mobile app for clinicians that contained protected patient information (PHI) yet run securely on personal mobile devices.

Blue Cedar’s Chief Product Officer, Chris Ford, spoke with this Editor and explained that their new platform (V3.14) works through injecting a security code in the mobile app, which enforces policy on encryption and use. Their Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) can now incorporate support for secure apps on unmanaged devices, security and connectivity for VoIP-based apps, and enforcement of granular controls for HTTP-based apps. This and other features of the new platform will permit healthcare app developers to distribute apps through sites like the Apple Store or Google Play and “trust functionality” that allows control of data sharing between apps on the same device.

Blue Cedar spun off last year from IoT security company Mocana, founded in 2002, and now has over 150 customers in multiple verticals. They believe their MDM alternative is ideal for healthcare organizations and health app/wearable developers, recently adding representation in the UK and Europe. Release (PDF)

Ransom! (ware) strikes more hospitals and Apple (update)–Healthcare.gov’s plus trouble

March 26, 2016 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Hackermania.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]Get out the Ransom! California hospitals appear to be Top of the Pops for ransomware attacks, which lock down and encrypt information after someone opens a malicious link in email, making it inaccessible. After the well-publicized attack on Hollywood Presbyterian in February, this week two hospitals in the Inland Empire, Chino Valley Medical Center in Chino and Desert Valley Hospital in Victorville, both owned by Prime Healthcare Management, received demands. While hacked, neither hospital paid the ransom and no patient data was compromised according to hospital spokesmen. Additional hospitals earlier this month: Methodist Hospital in Henderson, Kentucky and Ottawa Hospital in Ontario, Canada. In Ottawa, four computers were hacked but isolated and wiped. It is not known if ‘Locky’, the moniker for a new ransomware, was the Canadian culprit. FBI on the case in the US. HealthcareITNews, National Post

Update: Locky is the suspected culprit in the Prime, Hollywood Presbyterian and Kentucky ransomware attacks. On Monday, Maryland-based MedStar Health reported malware had caused a shutdown of some systems at its hospitals in Baltimore. Separately, Cisco Talos Research is claiming that a number of the attacks are exploiting a vulnerability in a network server called JBoss using a ransomware dubbed SamSam. Perhaps both are creating mischief? Ars Technica, Cisco Talos blog, BBC News, ThreatPost

More and worse attacks north of the 49th Parallel. Norfolk General Hospital in Simcoe, Ontario had a ransomware attack this week that spread to computers of staff, patients and families via the external website through the outdated content management system. According to MalwareBytes, “The particular strain of ransomware dropped here is TeslaCrypt which demands $500 to recover your personal files it has encrypted. That payment doubles after a week.”  So if you are running old Joomla! or even old WordPress, update now! Neil Versel in MedCityNews

If you’re thinking Mac Prevents Attacks, the first ransomware targeting Apple OS X hit earlier this month. Mac users who  downloaded version 2.90 of Transmission, a data transfer program using BitTorrent, were infected. KeRanger appears after three days to demand one bitcoin (about $400) to a specific address to retrieve their files. HealthcareITNews

Finally, there is the Hackermania gift that keeps on giving: Healthcare.gov. (more…)