News/deals roundup: Amazon’s health accelerator, digital health library opens, Ziegler’s ‘Hospital at Home’ paper, SEHTA announces MedTech event; $670M in funding for Talkspace, Pear, DrChrono, NuvoAir

June 25, 2021 | by

First, the news….

Another Amazon angle on healthcare. This time, it’s the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Accelerator for healthcare startups. It’s designed as a virtual four-week technical, business, and mentorship for 10 select companies. Naturally, it’s targeted to cloud-based operations for companies with ‘demonstrated commercial traction’ in remote patient monitoring, voice technology, analytics, patient engagement, and virtual care technologies and systems. Applications opened on 21 June and proposals are due 23 July. It’s limited to US-based healthcare startups or international startups with existing US operations. This round is in collaboration with KidsX, the world’s largest pediatrics digital health accelerator formed by a consortium of over 50 children’s hospitals from North America, Europe, and Australia. AWS blog announcement, FierceHealthcare

A crowdsourced library exclusively for digital health resources and research now open. The Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) and Center for Health + Technology (CHeT) at the University of Rochester have created a crowdsourced library for the digital health community. It’s hosted by the Digital Medicine Society (DiMe); the link to the library is here. “Resources” are defined as specific pieces of specific regulations, guidances, policy, or literature that are relevant and useful “as-is”. 

Another free resource is investment bank Ziegler’s white paper on ‘Hospital at Home’. The paper addresses the leading Hospital at Home models, providers, and the reimbursement dynamics for this growing tech-enabled option serving acute patients requiring higher medical care. A worthwhile read (24 pages)-see if your tech can fit into these models.

In the UK, SEHTA (South East Health Technology Alliance) announced their 2021 International MedTech conference on 8 October in a hybrid live and virtual event format. The live portion will be at the Hilton London Tower Bridge Hotel. They’ve also added a new director, Sven Bunn, Life Sciences Programme Director at Barts NHS Health Trust & Queen Mary University of London. SEHTA news page

A lightning roundup of $670 million in deals that aren’t taking the summer off….

Talkspace finally executing its SPAC with Hudson Executive Investment Corp., with a deal expected to give the company $250 million in capital. It was originally announced in mid-January [TTA 14 Jan]. Talkspace is a consumer mental health app that helps a user assess their concerns, then matches them with a therapist. Shares are listed at $8.90 on Nasdaq with approximately 152 million shares outstanding for a valuation of $1.4 billion. Mobihealthnews

Pear Therapeutics is planning a hefty SPAC towards the end of this year with Thimble Point Acquisition Corp., backed by Pritzker family interests. It’s estimated that it will round up about $400 million giving it a valuation of $1.6 billion. The new Pear Holdings will trade on Nasdaq as “PEAR”. Pear develops end-to-end platforms for prescription digital therapeutics (PDTs) for serious diseases as stand-alone software treatments or jointly with pharmaceuticals. Pear release, FierceBiotech

Mobile-friendly EHR DrChrono now has a friendly $12 million in growth funding from ORIX Growth Capital. DrChrono also handles practice billing and management. This is on top of their January funding of $20 million, also by ORIX. Mobihealthnews (exclusive)

Stockholm-based digital respiratory care management system NuvoAir also raised $12 million (€10 million) to expand its chronic disease management and clinical trial platforms. It combines an app with data from a spirometer and sensors that attaches to asthma and COPD inhalers plus NuvoAir Cough, which assesses changes in nighttime coughing. The Series A was led by AlbionVC. Mobihealthnews, TechCrunch

International news roundup: Verily ‘eyes’ India, Oxford VR trials in Hong Kong, Israel-Finland collaborate, Blue Cedar-Blackberry partner, NuvoAir inhales $3M

May 2, 2019 | by

Verily rolls along in India with eye health research. Spending its fresh $1bn in funding [TTA 17 Jan], Verily and Alphabet sibling Google are researching machine learning in screening for diabetic retinopathy and diabetic macular edema. The retinal diagnostic program is at Aravind Eye Hospital, a network of eye hospitals headquartered in Tamil Nadu. Early research at Madurai has demonstrated that the algorithm performs on par with general ophthalmologists and retinal specialists assessing the images for disease. The estimated shortage of eye doctors in India is estimated at over 100,000. The stated objective of the research is to detect retinal disease earlier and expand access to screening. Further testing is verifying safety and effectiveness. Verily has received the CE Mark for the algorithm. Verily blog

Oxford VR in pilot to manage mental health in Hong Kong. Oxford VR, AXA Hong Kong and The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) have partnered for an “immersive therapy” trial using VR. This will focus on managing common mental health issues, such as social avoidance, anxiety and depressive symptoms. The scenarios will be in both English and Cantonese. Details will be announced in June. Mobihealthnews, Oxford VR press release

Israel and Finland are launching a joint collaboration announced last December, led by the Israel Innovation Authority (IIA) and the Helsinki Business Hub. The pilot program is starting with a Call for Proposals for joint projects. The two countries will co-develop, test, improve and pilot technologies, products and services in digital health, smart mobility and information and communication technologies. According to Mobihealthnews, the countries both have strong commonalities in public health systems with coordinated data sets, digital health, genomic projects, and advanced interoperability. Also The Jewish Voice

App security innovator Blue Cedar partners with Blackberry. Blue Cedar’s securing data from the app to the provider location will work with BlackBerry Dynamics-enabled mobile apps so that development teams will not be required to manually change source code or add libraries. Both Blue Cedar and Blackberry target international high-security fields such as healthcare, government, and financial. Blue Cedar blog

Swedish respiratory device/app NuvoAir inhales $3M in new funding. NuvoAir targets those managing asthma, COPD, and cystic fibrosis who need to monitor their breathing and lung health in conjunction with their overall health. Last year, the company developed the Air Next system, a portable device that connects via Bluetooth LE to users’ smartphones or tablets. Air Next has a CE Mark. NuvoAir plans to expand into Europe, North America, and Asia. The digital respiratory therapy area is booming, with an estimated 210 million asthma and COPD patients with smartphones worldwide a strong factor. One sign: Propeller Health’s premium acquisition by ResMed.  Mobihealthnews