Wednesday roundup: athenahealth acquisition closes, Tyto Care receives lung sound CE Mark, NHS’ elective care recovery plan for 6 million, NSW health secretary to Telstra Health

February 16, 2022 | by

Bain Capital and Hellman & Friedman completed their $17 billion acquisition of athenahealth on Tuesday. The purchase was from Veritas Capital and Evergreen Coast Capital, which remain minority shareholders along with an affiliate of GIC and a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. athenahealth claims over 140,000 ambulatory care providers in the US, which is not much growth considering they had 88,000 in 2017 and reportedly grew to 160,000. Release 

Telehealth diagnostic monitor Tyto Care received CE Mark approval for the Tyto Lung Sounds Analyzer. It is a standalone Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) that alerts to the potential presence of an abnormal breath sound in respiratory recordings that may be wheezing in adults and children. The analysis is based on their database of clinical exam recordings. Release

Whither the 6 million waiting? The NHS intends to reduce the backlog of elective care caused by the pandemic through the Delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlog of elective care. Highlights are the rollout of a new online platform called My Planned Care, as well as plans for 100 community diagnostic centres, new surgical hubs, and increased capacity to offer tests, checks, and treatments–over three years. Healthcare IT News

And in Australia, the revolving door spins. Elizabeth Koff, secretary of NSW Health, will be moving to Telstra Health as managing director effective 1 July. She succeeds Mary Foley, who will continue to be a special adviser and a non-executive director of the board. Ms. Koff has spent three decades in the state health department which manages 228 hospitals and around 127,000 staff. New South Wales was subject to severe lockdowns in 2020 and 2021, which continue to a lesser degree.  Healthcare IT News ANZ

What’s next for telehealth? Is it time for a correction?

October 14, 2021 | by

crystal-ballThe boom may be over, between shrinking visit volume and a pileup of providers. Is a correction in the cards? The flood of funding that started in 2020 and has not abated was kicked off by the pandemic and a massive shift to telehealth visits in March/April 2020 from a barely-above-plant-life number in January/February.

Post-pandemic, the shift corrected.

  • The peak of 69% of visits tracked by Epic in April had tailed off to 21% as early as May 2020 [TTA 2 Sept 20].
  • National commercial claims data via FAIR Health was lower. They tracked its peak also in April 2020 at 13%, falling continuously monthly: May to 8.69%, 6.85% in June, 6% in August, and 5.61% in October [TTA 9 Jan].
  • By mid-year 2021, the claims numbers continued to lose altitude: June 4.5%, July 4.2% (FAIR Health monthly report).

Despite the numbers, telehealth companies raised $4.2 billion of a total $15 billion in digital health funding in the first half of 2021, according to Mercom Capital Group, a global communications and research firm. So…what’s the problem with les bon temps rouler?

CB Insights notes the increased specialization of new entrants and, as this Editor has noted previously, the blending and crossing of business lines.

  • Companies like Heal, Dispatch Health, and Amazon Care will send a clinician to your house for a checkup–no running to your urgent care.
  • Kidney disease? Monogram Health. Musculoskeletal pain? Hinge Health. Child with an earache or fever? Tyto Care. Check symptoms first? Babylon Health.
  • Telemental health has gone from cocktail party repellent to the belle of the ball, concentrating on cognitive remote therapies. For the past year, it moved to more than half of all telehealth claims, with currently over 60% of procedure codes–and it’s consolidating. AbleTo was bought by Optum, Ginger bought by Headspace, SilverCloud by Amwell.

So for the Major League–Teladoc, Amwell, Doctor on Demand, Grand Rounds, and MDLive–what does this mean? If this interview with Teladoc’s CIO is an example, they plan to segue to a ‘hybrid’ model of virtual quick response plus integrating providers into a continuing care model with patients, creating a relationship with history and familiarity. A model that’s very much dependent on IT, analytics, and connecting with willing providers. But in this free-floating sea of verbiage, it didn’t come into misty focus till the very end, when he mentions Primary360 [TTA 7 Oct] and a virtual primary care team. (And let’s not forget Babylon360 along similar lines.) He finally sketches a view of all the connections to conditions coming together on a very far horizon. 

One can say it’s a cloudy crystal ball, indeed. FierceHealthcare, HealthcareITNews (Teladoc CIO interview)

Deal and news roundup: Humana closes $5.7B Kindred at Home buy, Unite Us SDOH buys Carrot Health for data, Carrot Fertility raises $75M, Maven Clinic at $1B value, Privia partners with Babyscripts for moms, Tyto Care and Prisma Health

August 20, 2021 | by

Home care continues to rock with the third move in two weeks. Payer giant Humana closed its acquisition of home care giant Kindred at Home, completing the acquisition of the approximately 60% Humana did not already own for $5.7 billion. Kindred provides home health, hospice, and personal care services to over 550,000 patients annually, making it the largest US home health company. Humana will integrate Kindred into their Home Solutions business, sunsetting the Kindred name for CenterWell Home Health starting in 2022. CenterWell is payer-agnostic, which is a fancy way of saying that they sell to other payers. An interesting nugget in the release is that Home Solutions has an interim president, Greg Sheff. FierceHealthcare

While planned since earlier this year, the shakeup in the sleepy home health segment in usually dozy August has been substantial, and at premium prices. Honor’s acquired Home Instead [TTA 14 Aug] with a valuation of $2.1 billion and the Sharecare conglomerate bought CareLinx for $65 million [TTA 19 Aug].  

In another hot area, social determinants of health (SDOH), NYC-based care coordination platform Unite Us acquired Carrot Health for an undisclosed sum. Carrot Health is a consumer data and health data set that powers over 500 proprietary predictive models. Carrot’s team will be absorbed into the Unite Us current structure. Both products will be sold together and separately as Unite Us positions the company as the only national company to integrate health and social care. Back in March, Unite Us closed a $150 million Series C. This follows on the Wellsky acquisition of SDOH provider Healthify earlier this month to bolster its community care platform [TTA 4 Aug]. Release, FierceHealthcare, Mobihealthnews

Women’s and family health gaining popularity and funding. Another Carrot, Carrot Fertility, raised a $75 million Series C funding, led by the deep-pocketed Tiger Global Management. Their current funding totals $115 million. Carrot Fertility, based in San Francisco, provides fertility benefits for generous companies like Peloton, Box, Slack, and Eventbrite in more than 55 countries. FierceHealthcare

And while we are on women’s health, Maven Clinic, a women and family health-oriented digital health provider, reached unicorn ($1 billion) valuation status with a $110 million Series D fund raise led by a female partner at Lux Capital with backing from Oprah Winfrey. Maven pitches itself to employers and health plans as a virtual clinic for women’s and family health, offering care and support for fertility, pregnancy, and parenting. This Editor looks forward to the day where specialized women’s and family health services are part of routine care, and news about a provider wouldn’t need this type of spin to get noticed. (It’s like US car companies in the 1950s bringing in women designers to make cars that appealed especially to women. Buick and Jordan figured that out in the 1920s.)  FierceHealthcare, TechCrunch, plus a loquacious blog post from founder Kate Ryder

And speaking of babies, Privia Health, one of the larger management services organizations (MSOs) for physician practices, is partnering with virtual maternity care Babyscripts for pregnancy and post-partum care. The Babyscripts services will be integrated into Privia’s Women’s Health provider group. DC-based Babyscripts is small with only about $20 million in funding through Series B (Crunchbase) but addresses the big problems of maternal and post-pregnancy mother and baby care, including maternal deaths. Privia providers will be able to access Babyscripts’ remote patient monitoring for mental health, hypertension, preeclampsia. and gestational diabetes, as well as apps for educational content.  Mobihealthnews

Diagnostic monitor Tyto Care is partnering with Prisma Health, the largest healthcare system in South Carolina, for remote diagnostics and treatment during video consults. Their physician network will be equipped to provide their patients and Prisma employees with convenient, secure, and clinic-quality diagnostics using the Tyto Care kit during telehealth visits. Release, Mobihealthnews

News and deals roundup: Strive Health’s $140M for kidney care, coalition lobbies for more home telehealth, codes removed from PFS, Hinge Health buys Enso, HelloSelf £5M raise, Tyto Care adds

March 18, 2021 | by

Strive Health, which is integrating digital health and analytics into the much-needed area of chronic kidney disease management, secured a $140 million Series B round of funding led by CapitalG, Alphabet’s independent growth fund. Another new investor, Redpoint, joins current investors NEA, Town Hall Ventures, Ascension Ventures, and Echo Ventures. Strive’s total funding at this point is over $223 million. Strive’s model is the improvement of renal disease through managing specialized patient care delivery with payers and providers, with data analytics integrated into a patient care model focused on the home, e.g. telehealth and home dialysis. Financially, they take risk on chronic kidney disease (CKD) and end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients. Current contracts are with Humana, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, Independence Blue Cross, SSM Health, and Conviva Care Centers.   Release, FierceHealthcare

Speaking of home telehealth, the Moving Health Home coalition, formed by lobbyist Sirona Strategies, has onboard a founding group of companies that are generally competitive with each other: Amazon Care, Amwell, hospital systems Ascension Health and Intermountain Health, risk-based senior care group Landmark Health, Signify Health, and big Series D winner Dispatch Health [TTA 4 March]. Their stated intent is to influence policy to expand reimbursed home health care and advance the usage of home-based health based on evidence of effectiveness and cost savings. STAT,  MHH release

Meanwhile, back in DC, CMS says “oops!” on four telehealth codes inadvertently included in the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) [TTA 3 Dec 20]. The 3 March Federal Register notice removes four codes listed in the temporary Category 3, which will remain in place through the end of the year as the pandemic public health emergency (PHE) has gone into 2021. Becker’s Hospital Review:

1. 96121: Neurobehavioral status exam by physician or other qualified health professional
2. 99221: Initial hospital care
3. 99222: Initial hospital care
4. 99223: Initial hospital care

Hinge Health acquires Enso. Enso developed a high-frequency pulsed, non-invasive, drug-free musculoskeletal (MSK) pain therapy which has been branded and added to Hinge Health’s MSK offerings. Product website. In January, Hinge Health raised $300 million in a Series D [TTA 14 Jan] as a rumored prelude to an IPO and made some management changes in preparation for same [TTA 27 Feb]. Terms and management alignments were not disclosed. Release

UK’s HelloSelf has raised a £5.5 million Series A funding round from OMERS Ventures. HelloSelf provides digital therapy and access to “the UK’s best clinical psychologists”. HelloSelf enters a crowded field of behavioral therapy providers, with SilverCloud Health dominant in the UK with the NHS. HelloSelf is concentrating on the B2B segment with employers. This Editor notes the much lower raises UK companies enjoy even in this hot area. Mobihealthnews

Tyto Care added Spectrum Health, a western Michigan health system, for live 24/7 video consults using Tyto Care’s exam kit. Release

Funding update, 4 March: big Series Ds for new unicorn Dispatch Health and Tyto Care; USDA’s $42M for rural telehealth; UK’s Perfect Ward hospital inspection app secures £4m

March 4, 2021 | by

Once upon a time for health tech companies, Series D funding and unicorn status were rare, especially when the tech relates to the under-the-radar, formerly unsexy area of home health. 

  • DispatchHealth, an in-home mobile care provider based in Denver, just closed a $200 million Series D led by Tiger Global with additional participation from Alta Partners, Echo Health Ventures, Humana, Oak HC/FT, and Questa Capital. This comes less than a year after a $135.8 million Series C led by Optum Ventures, The new total of $417 million in funding brings its valuation to a unicorn level of $1.7 bn. DispatchHealth is in the desirable, high potential cost-saving areas of care that replaces ER visits or hospital stays. The platform integrates in-home care services booked through a call, their app, or online by patients, care providers, payers, EMS, senior living, and health systems. The objectives of care are to substitute for ER visits, hospital stays, and to coordinate ancillary services. Currently serving 19 markets across 12 states with care to more than 170,000 patients in 2020, the new funding will be used for expansion to 100 national markets. DispatchHealth recently announced partnering with Humana for advanced hospital-level care for their Medicare Advantage members in several cities. Release, FierceHealthcare
  • More on the health tech side is Tyto Care’s remote diagnostic exam platform. Today they are announcing an additional raise of $50 million, doubling the earlier Series D and now totaling $100 million. Leading the extension is Insight Partners, with participation by Tiger Global (see DispatchHealth), Qumra Capital, Qualcomm Ventures LLC, Olive Tree Ventures, and Shenzhen Capital Group Company. Tyto’s funding is now $155 million and claims a doubling of its valuation. Release.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is surprisingly now an investor in rural telehealth, in part courtesy of the CARES Act from March 2020. (Yes, there were considerable funds left over from that $2.2 trillion pandemic relief bill and now some of them are being used.) USDA is funding projects with a total of $42.3 million, including $24 million from the CARES Act, to improve infrastructure for telemedicine and distance learning infrastructure. Approved to go are 86 projects through the Distance Learning and Telemedicine grant program, to help rural education and healthcare organizations remotely reach students, patients, and outside expertise. USDA’s study found that due to population health, lack of insurance, and lower access to health facilities, there are higher rates of COVID-19 related deaths in rural areas. Healthcare IT News

A UK company that’s in an unusual area of health tech is Perfect Ward, which is designed to put on a laptop and mobile app the complicated process of health inspections of hospitals, care homes, and other health and social care organizations in the UK and internationally. Their £4 million round comes from Octopus Investments (Octopus Group). Current clients include King’s College, Barts Health, The Royal Free and London Ambulance Service. Release (Business Cloud)

After the COVID Deluge: a Topol-esque view of what (tele)medicine will look like

April 10, 2020 | by

A typically cheery view by Eric Topol, MD of what medical practice will look like after COVID is over. With the full court press to go remote in hospitals and practices worldwide, telehealth and telemedicine has gone fast forward in a matter of under two months. But what will it look like after it’s over? Most of what the good doctor is prognosticating will be familiar to our Readers who’ve followed him for years–certainly he was right on mobile health overall and especially AliveCor/Kardia Mobile— but not so on point with mobile body scanners (anyone remember VScan?)

When the high tide recedes, what will the beach look like?

  • “Telemedicine will play the role of the first consultation, akin to the house-call of yore.” (Terminology note–interesting that Dr. T still uses ‘telemedicine’ versus ‘telehealth’–Ed.)
  • Chatbots will serve as screeners–once they are proven to be effective (a ways to go here, as the Babylon debate rages on)
  • Smartphones will be the hub, connecting with all sorts of monitoring devices (the ‘connected health’ Tyto Care and Vivify Health model–which makes the Editor’s former company, the late Viterion Digital Health, even more of a pioneer that died crossing the Donner Pass of 2016)
  • Smartwatches are also part of this hub (this Editor remains a skeptic) 
  • Now is the time to harness technology by both health systems and individual practices, but multiple barriers remain. (This Editor can speak to the difficulties for both primary care and specialty practices in not only practice but also reimbursement–and acceptance by patients.) Device expense is also a problem for the non-affluent.

As to the rest, it is pretty much what we’ve heard from Dr. T before.  The Economist

Your Editor will add:

  • Easy to use, secure platforms that don’t put users through multiple security steps remain a concern for users. This Editor’s concern is that easy to use = insecure. Skype and Zoom are inherently insecure–Skype’s user unfriendliness and insecurity outside enterprise platforms and Zoom’s major security problems on its platform and user flaws are well-known (ZDNet).
  • Reimbursement, again! CMS has done a creditable job in broadening reimbursement for telehealth a/v and telephonic services, but coding remains a nightmare for practices struggling to remain open and with some lights on. After COVID, will CMS and HHS get religion, or put it right back in its rural bottle? Covered in the CARES Act passed at the close of March, $200 million sounds like a lot from the FCC to bankroll telecom equipment for providers, but these funds will go quickly. At least they are not delayed in endless rule making, as the Connected Care Pilot Program has been for two years. Mobihealthnews 

Tyto Care telehealth diagnostics raises $50 million in venture round

April 8, 2020 | by

Tyto Care today (7 April) announced a venture round investment of $50 million by Insight Partners, Olive Tree Ventures, and Qualcomm Ventures LLC plus previous investors. The new investment will pay for commercialization throughout the US, Europe, and Asia as well as to introduce new advanced product capabilities including AI and machine learning-based home diagnostics solutions and other patented technologies. 

Tyto’s timing could not be better for the raise. In the US, led by CMS with private payers following in near lockstep, the past month has seen the rapid unrestricting of payment for telehealth services like virtual visits of the audio-visual type and short asynchronous and synchronous image and audio/telephonic short visits. Tyto’s remote medical exams of the lungs, heart, throat, ears, abdomen, and body temperature fits into the current and likely future need. Both live exams and asynchronous forwarding of data are part of a platform that integrates with EHRs and third party exam tools.

Tyto Care works with hundreds of hospitals and over 100 health organizations including health systems, payers and strategic partners, primarily in North America, Europe, and Israel. In 2019, they had over 200,000 examinations.

If, like your Editor, you believe that the tidal wave of telehealth has changed the office visit model for keeps, adding remote diagnostics can be a winner–if Tyto can navigate the tricky shoals of a largely consumer-based marketing strategy (Best Buy) and gain adoption by health systems and payers, as they have in Israel with Sheba Medical Center [TTA 28 Feb]. Release, FierceHealthcare

Digital health on the front lines of coronavirus checking, treatment and prevention (updated 2 Mar)

February 28, 2020 | by | 2 Comments

Coronavirus (COVID-19), which originated in Wuhan, China and has spread to at least 40 countries and 80,000 victims, with 2,700 fatalities, has been roiling both financial and healthcare markets. The stock price of payers in the US have been hit hard due to an anticipated uptick in illness, but interestingly, Teladoc has been up quite smartly in the past few days. Teladoc reported that one of eight virtual visits in January was due to flu, which isn’t atypical–but half had not used Teladoc before. Analysts do expect that there’s an opportunity for telehealth and telemedicine providers to attract new users due to what this Editor has dubbed ‘conscious contact’–that if you even feel remotely sick, you’re going to turn to a virtual visit.

COVID-19 is not remotely near a pandemic outside of China. The three hallmarks of a pandemic are cross-seasonal outbreaks (so far only in China), cross-geography (done), and most importantly, attacking the well. The fatalities have been among those with compromised immune systems, not among the young and healthy who do get it. It’s alarming, like SARS, because of the origination in animals, and the ease of person-to-person transmission via travel, as the outbreaks in Iran, South Korea, Italy, and on cruise ships visiting Asia have confirmed. In the US, the CDC is reporting that it is not currently spreading in the community, but is preparing for that scenario including containment, and has been since January.

But beyond the virtual visit, there are other areas where digital health is part of dealing with COVID-19:

  • Preventing the spread to the patient’s family members. Avaya has been working in China since January to provide enterprise customers with home agents to prevent the spread of the virus. For hospitals, they have donated equipment to enable remote consultation services and remote visiting video at the hospitals, including observation of isolation wards. They have provided a case study of their work with the Tongxiang Hospital at the Tongxiang Branch of Zhejiang Province People’s Hospital. (Photo at left courtesy of Avaya.) 
  • Another is remote patient monitoring. Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer, Israel, is using Tyto Care to monitor the 12 Israeli returnees from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, who continue to be in isolation. The patients will perform the tests on themselves, especially respiratory tests. Jerusalem Post 
    • Update 2 Mar: A representative from Sheba, the largest hospital system in the Middle East, was kind enough to contact me with additional information on their RPM program for COVID-19. For patients requiring isolation in that stage of treatment, Sheba has implemented a modular ‘field hospital’ setup, similar to what the Israeli (and US) military use, which can be set up in any open area. This isolation is to protect immunosuppressed patients from disease spread in the main hospitals. Telehealth being used in addition to Tyto are the Vici telemedicine robot and the Datos Health app for home treated patients. This Editor believes that both European and US public health systems are looking at the Sheba and Israeli approach.
  • Robots–actually a telehealth cart–are being tested for patient self-testing, much like Tyto Care’s use at Sheba. Robots could also deliver food (although they could also carry germs) and sweep streets.
  • Other monitoring can be done via symptom checkers (Babylon, K, and others). 98point6 released a coronavirus screening chatbot app as early as January, but what they’ve turned up so far is more cases of the flu. STAT
  • Data analytics can pinpoint outbreaks. The Epic, Athenahealth, and Meditech EHRs have released new guidance, testing orders and screening questions (e.g. around travel and contacts) that will help to identify outbreaks.

Update 28 Feb: This Editor would like to know more about UV disinfection being used versus coronavirus for large spaces such as in hospitals and aircraft. If you have information on technologies such as PurpleSun which have been tested against hospital pathogens also being used against coronavirus, please contact Editor Donna.

Healthcare technologies which weren’t around during the SARS and swine flu epidemics may make a big difference in the spread, treatment and mortality rate of COVID-19. Healthcare Dive, HealthTechMagazine

UPDATE 28 FEB

As a service to our Readers, we are providing the following health service update links:

The UK Department of Health and Social Care and Public Health England has provided the following links to coronavirus guidance (hat tip to DOHSC via LinkedIn):

👩‍⚕️ Health:
🚂 Transport:
👩‍🎓 Education:
👨‍💼 Employers:
🏡 Social care:

US Centers for Disease Control (CDC)

World Health Organization (WHO) main website on coronavirus:https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus

Health Canada’s main page: http://ow.ly/bLtF50yfJb7

Tyto Care partners with Avera eCARE for telehealth delivered to medically underserved populations

October 23, 2019 | by

Following on last week’s announcement of Tyto Care‘s partnership with Novant Health, Sioux Falls SD-based telemedicine provider Avera eCARE will be introducing Tyto Care’s professional version, TytoPro, into its telemedicine service using high-definition video for virtual consults. What TytoPro will add is remote diagnostic capability and collection via the TytoVisit platform, using the TytoApp and Clinician dashboard. Avera will use TytoPro’s hand-held device with exam camera, thermometer, otoscope, stethoscope (with volume, bell, and diaphragm filters), and tongue depressor adaptors.

In a test of Avera eCARE plus Tyto Care in an assisted living community, the pairing of the two systems reduced emergency department transfers by 20 percent, with 93% of residents treated in place.

Avera eCARE, a part of Avera Health, provides telemedicine services to medically underserved populations via local healthcare systems, rural hospitals, outpatient clinics, skilled nursing facilities, assisted living communities, schools, and correctional facilities. It has over 400 providers in its comprehensive virtual health network across the US. A ‘white paper’ on the Avera/Tyto Care partnership is here. Release 

News, moves and M&A roundup: Appello acquires RedAssure, Shaw departs NHS Digital, NHS App goes biometric, GP at Hand in Manchester, Verita Singapore’s three startup buys, Novant Health and Tyto Care partner

October 17, 2019 | by

Appello telecare acquires RedAssure Independent Living from Worthing Homes. A 20-year provider of telecare services to about 700 homes in the Worthing area in West Sussex, the acquisition by Appello closed on 1 October. Previously, Appello provided monitoring services for RedAssure since 2010. Terms were not disclosed. Release.

Another NHS Digital departure is Rob Shaw, deputy CEO. He will be leaving to pursue a consulting career advising foreign governments on national health and care infrastructure. He is credited with moving the NHS Spine in-house and establishing NHS Digital’s cybersecurity function. The Digital Health article times it for around Christmas. Mr. Shaw’s departure follows other high-profile executives this year such as former chief digital officer Juliet Bauer who controversially moved to Kry/LIVI after penning a glowing article about them [TTA 24 Jan], Will Smart, Matthew Swindells, and Richard Corbridge.

One initiative that NHS Digital has lately implemented is passwordless, biometric facial or fingerprint-based log in for the NHS App, based on the FIDO (Fast-Identity Online) UAF (Universal Authentication Framework) protocol (whew!). NHS Digital’s most recent related announcement is the release of two pieces of code under open-source that will allow developers to include biometric verification for log in into their products.

Babylon Health’s GP at Hand plans Manchester expansion. The formal notification will likely be this month to commissioners of plans to open a Manchester clinic as a center for GP at Hand’s primarily virtual consults. This follows on their recent expansion into Birmingham via Hammersmith and Fulham CCG which will be notified. How it will work is that patients registering in Manchester would be added initially to a single patient list for GP at Hand located at Hammersmith and Fulham CCG. Babylon is now totalling 60,000 patients through GP at Hand.  GP Online

Singapore’s Verita Healthcare Group has acquired three digital health startups. The two from Singapore are nBuddy and CelliHealth, in addition to Germany’s Hanako. Verita has operations in Singapore, the US, Asia-Pacific and Europe, with 35 alliance partnerships with medical clinics and hospitals across Australia, Southeast Asia and Europe. Mobihealthnews APAC

Novant Health, a 640-location health system in North Carolina, is introducing Tyto Care’s TytoHome integrated telehealth diagnostic and consult device as part of its network service. Webpage, release

Best Buy enlarges health tech footprint with Tyto Care expansion, connected fitness products (updated)

June 25, 2019 | by

Best Buy is dramatically increasing its wellness profile with two announcements around digital health. The first is today’s announcement of a further rollout of retailing Tyto Care’s TytoHome device and platform in select Best Buy stores in California, Ohio, North Dakota, and South Dakota. This adds to the previously announced Minnesota locations [TTA 17 Apr] for a total of 30, as well as nationwide via BestBuy.com. In Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Tyto Care connects to Sanford Health doctors 24/7. In California and Ohio, as well as for online sales, Tyto Care partners with LiveHealth Online, part of American Well, except for users in Louisiana and Mississippi who will be covered by Ochsner Health System. Each visit is a maximum of $59, which may be less depending on the patient’s insurance plan or the type of visit. Tyto Care is also offering the plan through LiveHealth Online to select employers. Release.

Tyto Home is a handheld examination device with attachments that can examine the heart, lungs, skin, ears, throat, and abdomen, plus body temperature. The captured information can be sent or examined live by a primary care provider.

Best Buy is also betting that people also will flock to their stores to sample connected fitness, most with virtual classes and coaching. Last week they highlighted five: Flywheel Sports, an indoor cycle with online classes; Hydrow, a rowing machine with virtual classes on real-life bodies of water; NordicTrack, with a line of treadmills, bikes, rowers and strength training machines with virtual classes; NormaTec, a digital compression recovery system; and Hyperice, which produces a range of recovery tools like massagers. The digital fitness market is massive–estimated by Piper Jaffray at around $5 billion today, over double from 2016’s $2.1 billion. Mobihealthnews, CNN Business

This adds to a Best Buy digital health profile that includes the Big Buy of GreatCall last year and Critical Signal Technologies monitoring last month to add senior remote monitoring devices to their portfolio. This is not without pitfalls. Earlier this month, Best Buy was sued for a defect found in its GreatCall Lively MobilePlus mobile PERS that in action failed to detect falls as described, after GreatCall discontinued the device in mid-May in what a letter from their CEO David Inns described as an “important safety recall,” offering buyers a Jitterbug flip phone or a full refund. But Best Buy is hedging its bets on tech with higher price-point connected fitness exercise machines and wearables which will attract higher end buyers into stores and online.

Best Buy buys Critical Signal Technologies, increasing telehealth footprint

June 13, 2019 | by | 3 Comments

Late last month, Best Buy with little fanfare bought Critical Signal Technologies (CST) of Novi, Michigan. CST is a device-agnostic telehealth monitoring and social work services platform through its Care Center, covering services such as PERS monitoring, medication management, and remote patient monitoring. Terms were not disclosed for this private company founded in 2006, but CST cares for 100,000 patients and has partnerships with 1,500 payers, including many Medicare Advantage plans. 

For those seeking the sunnier uplands of digital health, it’s surprising but gratifying to see Best Buy place another sizable bet in the home health area. The recent acquisition of GreatCall for $800 million is larger, but GreatCall is a turnkey, profitable company. The partnership with Tyto Care [TTA 17 April] to retail their system is relatively low risk, limited in scope, and follows their Midwest intro pattern (followed over 12 years ago with, believe it or not, QuietCare when owned by Living Independently).

Best Buy has gained kudos for moving into specialty areas in healthcare when its fellow retailers have been falling by the wayside. It covers both their bricks-and-mortar–where older adults still like to shop–and online, delivering a large slice of health tech directly to consumers. One asset, the tech-oriented Geek Squad, is a ready made unit for installing and walking older adults through using home tech. MedCityNews, MarketWatch

Tyto Care telehealth integrates with Epic EHR MyChart patient app

May 22, 2019 | by

Tyto Care announced today the addition of their remote diagnostic device and app to Epic’s app marketplace, AppOrchard. The addition enables health organizations to adopt the Tyto Care app and offer TytoHome service to their care providers and patients. The data is integrated into Epic’s MyChart patient portal, delivering patient exam data to Epic EHRs used by providers.

The remote visit can work two ways.

  • Launched from within MyChart, the patient can initiate a live or scheduled telehealth visit
  • From Epic’s HyperSpace desktop app, a care provider can remotely join a telehealth visit with the patient.

During the visit, the provider can control the TytoCare device to capture temperature readings, skin images, heart and lung auscultations, and recordings of the throat and ears for a remote diagnosis.

Sanford Health, a health system in the Midwest and West, is one current Tyto Care user which also uses Epic as their EHR. Meghan Goldammer, a senior vice president and chief clinical officer at Sanford Health, commented that “Epic has been our electronic patient record standard of care for years and now we have adopted Tyto Care. The integration will allow for a coordinated patient experience and give our providers the information they need to deliver great care.”

Based in Netanya, Israel and New York City, Tyto Care’s ‘all-in-one’ device incorporates a camera, stethoscope, otoscope, tongue depressor, basal thermometer, and smartphone app for an extensive video exam which can be integrated with an EHR or other telehealth systems. It includes visit scheduling capability, a cloud-based data repository with analytics, and built-in user guidance with machine learning algorithms for accurate use. Tyto Care is now retailed at Best Buy in select markets [TTA 17 April]. Tyto Care release

Tyto Care inks deal with Best Buy for retail sales of remote diagnostic device

April 17, 2019 | by

Tyto Care’s long-planned retail debut of the TytoHome remote diagnostic device has arrived at Best Buy. The telehealth device which incorporates a camera, stethoscope, otoscope, tongue depressor, basal thermometer, and smartphone app can be bought online for $299.99. According to their release, TytoHome will be available at select Minnesota Best Buy stores and will roll out to North Dakota, South Dakota, California and Ohio.

TytoHome has been from the start (late 2016) pitched to parents as a 24/7 service for ill children in that middle-of-the-night sick call to the doctor, but more recently for adults as an adjunct to a virtual visit. The Israel-based company with US offices in NYC partnered with American Well early [TTA 2 Dec 2016]. For Best Buy customers outside of Minnesota, North and South Dakota, TytoHome will connect to doctors via LiveHealth Online, an American Well partner. In those three states, TytoHome will connect to Tyto Care health system partner Sanford Health and their medical providers. Each visit will be $59, possibly less if the service is covered by the person’s or family insurance plan.

Best Buy, of course, has made a large bet on retail health tech with its purchase of GreatCall, well-known for its Jitterbug phones targeted to older adults with its 5-Star PERS, but also prior to the acquisition with GreatCall’s purchases of Lively’s tech for consumer devices and HealthSense in LTC systems. Their current plans are outlined in a recent interview with CEO David Inns.

ATA 2017: Telehealth 2.0 annual President’s Awards

May 2, 2017 | by

This year’s ATA 2017 President’s Awards, each honoring a company or individual, are:

President’s Award for the Transformation of Health Delivery (supported by Cerner): New York-Presbyterian OnDemand

NYP OnDemand has five services in its app which delivers services from Weill Cornell, NYP, and ColumbiaDoctors: Second Opinion, Urgent Care, Virtual Visit (telemedicine), Express Care (if you’re already in the ER, a virtual visit may shorten wait time), and Inter-Hospital Consult (a collaboration tool within the NYP network). At a recent Health 2.0 NYC Hospital Innovation Programs meeting, Jonathan Gordon (director of NYP Ventures) and Graeme Ossey (innovation manager) discussed its development (see video here, starting at 18:06, about 15 minutes).

Innovation in Remote Healthcare (supported by InTouch Health): Tyto Care

Tyto Care’s portable diagnostic device includes an FDA Class II cleared digital stethoscope, a digital imaging otoscope for ear exams, a throat scope, a skin camera and thermometer swipe. The Tyto home device includes video guidance instructions as part of the smartphone or tablet platform and connects to an online platform to send the information, either in real time or store-and-forward, to a primary care physician the user selects. Currently, they are working with American Well [TTA 2 Dec] and announced in the past month partnerships with Miami Children’s Health System and Allied Physicians Group, a 35-location pediatrics and specialty group headquartered in Melville, NY.

Other awards were: (more…)

TytoCare remote diagnostics comparable to in-person exam results: study

February 8, 2017 | by
[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Mom_using_on_child_ear.jpg” thumb_width=”150″ /]A study of the Tyto Care remote diagnostic device, conducted by Schneider Children’s Medical Center and the Sackler School of Medicine, found that the quality of readings by Tyto Care was ‘on par’ with in-person medical exams using conventional otoscopes and stethoscopes. Ears, heart, lungs and throats of 137 children aged 2-18 seeking care from the emergency department of a tertiary care facility were examined first conventionally and then again by a second remote physician using exam data captured by the TytoCare all-in-one device and attachments. Using standard statistical methods, the results were compared and the study reported “good to excellent agreement for all exams conducted using TytoCare and conventional exam tools, with a p-value <.001.” The study also recorded a separate five-point measure of patient experience and results averaged 4.4 and 4.5 out of 5 (excellent). No adverse events were recorded.

What is lacking in the release are the diagnoses of the young patients, but presumably those results will be presented with the final study. Formal presentations will be at the Israel Society for Clinical Pediatrics (HIPAK) meeting on 8 February in Tel Aviv and at the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) conference 23-25 April in Orlando, Florida. This positive report on efficacy will also aid their rollout with American Well, announced at the end of 2016 [TTA 2 Dec]. Harry Wang at Parks Associates in their blog also named TytoCare one of the two standouts of CES 2017–and the other, Partron (Croise) is not yet on the market.