TTA’s Unofficial Summer kickoff: breaking up UnitedHealth to save it, post-GLP-1 weight gain, soft robots, NZ telehealth controversy, Midi Health widening women’s health, AssistIQ, Ambience, more!

May 30, 2025 | by

30 May 2025

Brrrr….it’s unofficially summer as we leave May behind. Our big article this week is your Editor’s think-piece on breaking up UnitedHealth Group in order to save it–and healthcare. We also look at post-GLP-1 weight gain–and what it means for providers, in-person and telehealth, ‘soft’ robotics out of Scotland, NZ’s telehealth war with GPs, and what’s doing at companies like Midi Health, AssistIQ, Ambience, Auxira, and Yosi Health. And plenty of weekend reading and viewing!

Weekend reading/viewing (for me too): Rural telehealth blackouts and value-based care’s ‘utopia’ (Set aside the time)

Short takes: Midi Health’s longevity care for women covered by (some) insurance, NZ government 24/7 telehealth scored by GPs, Auxira tele-cardiology follow-up launches (Two disappointments that look like advances)

News roundup: GLP-1 weight regain real, soft robots walk off 3D printer, Ambience’s AI coding beats doctors by 27%, Get a Second Opinion debuts, $11.5M for AssistIQ (Reality bites GLP-1s and a soft robot wee bairn)

Job Posting: Yosi Health seeks Demand Generation Manager and Manager, Data Analytics & Reporting

Should free-falling UnitedHealth Group be broken up? Or break itself up to survive, before it becomes another GE? (updated) (Not a rant, more a ‘get going’ to avoid disaster!)

From last week: The major news the week before US Memorial Day was the Hinge Health IPO, the first for digital health in two years–but the downside was that it was at a lower valuation. Denouements abounded with most 23andMe genetic assets bought by Regeneron, without a drink of Lemonaid. WeightWatchers’ time may have passed, new heads for Calibrate and Oak Street, and two more ‘arranged marriages’, Smarter Technologies and Fuze Health. An update on the VA EHRM in the budget. Masimo’s recovering, as is Ted of Strata-gee. 

News roundup 22 May: an inflight ‘save’ and AliveCor’s KardiaMobile, rolling out the VA/Oracle EHR in ‘waves’, Fuze Health formed from LetsGetChecked/Truepill, hacking and ransomware 92% of PHI data breaches (A renaming of a 2024 ‘arranged marriage’–can it be saved?)

News roundup: Hinge Health public @$32/share, lower valuation. Is WeightWatchers game over? Calibrate replaces CEO, new prez for Oak Street, NMC gets ‘Smarter’ rolling up 3 portfolio companies, another splash of investor ‘cold water’ (The first health tech IPO in 2 years and ‘smushing’ when they can’t)

Update: Masimo’s website status and an analysis of the Sound United sale (Getting up and running post-attack, but what happened?)

23andMe sold to Regeneron for $256M in court-supervised bankruptcy, sans Lemonaid. And is it worth it? (We come up with a number, it’s likely)

* * *
Advertise on Telehealth and Telecare Aware
Support not only a publication but also a well-informed international community.

Contact Editor Donna for more information.

Help Spread the News

Please tell your colleagues about this free news service and, if you have relevant information to share with the rest of the world, please let me know!

Donna Cusano, Editor In Chief
donna.cusano@telecareaware.com

Telehealth & Telecare Aware – covering news on latest developments in telecare, telehealth and eHealth, worldwide.

News roundup: GLP-1 weight regain real, soft robots walk off 3D printer, Ambience’s AI coding beats doctors by 27%, Get a Second Opinion debuts, $11.5M for AssistIQ

May 29, 2025 | by

Another review/meta-analysis confirms that GLP-1 weight off doesn’t stay off. A University of Oxford systemic review and meta-analysis of 130 full texts, distilled to 11 studies with 6,370 participants, determined the quantity of weight gain after discontinuing GLP-1 RA (receptor agonists) drugs. The gain was approximately 0.8kg (1.8 lbs.) per week for the new, more effective and common GLP-1 drugs semaglutide and tirzepatide, which means that weight loss was regained in approximately 1.5 years (76 weeks+). The meta-study notes that the regain is greater than observed following behavioral weight management programs. The study was done by researchers at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford and the National Institute of Health Research Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, Oxford. Presented at the 32nd European Congress on Obesity (ECO) 2025 in Malaga, Spain.  Poster PDF here.

Another study from Sacred Heart University (Connecticut) noted last week as a sidebar to our WeightWatchers and Calibrate article also found that the weight regain was proportional to the original weight loss. The regain varied by type of GLP-1 drug, but the study labels it ‘significant’. Obesity Reviews (Wiley) 4 April 2025 

GLP-1 weight loss is not puppies and rainbows as it’s being marketed right now. First, 30% of users quit in four weeks and 42% by 12 weeks due to side effects like nausea, constipation, vomiting, and worse.  BCBS study, GLP-1 Digest 4 Apr  The flip side is that over half make it past the three-month bar. But it is not ‘one and done’, and right now expectations are not being managed well, especially by the teleprescribers advertising on TV and radio. For the clinically obese, to maintain their hard-won goal weight and health benefits, it will require management as a chronic disease,  continuing weight/lifestyle management, and perhaps another round of the drugs in future. For the non-obese, it requires continuing weight/lifestyle management and a recognition of the rebound. It’s a good news/bad news scenario for teleprescribers and pharmas: users will require ongoing management and may cycle through another round in a year or two- to lose weight again, but they could also be disappointed and not want to spend the money. Hat tip to the GLP-1 Digest 25 May on Substack.

A “soft robot” that strolls off its 3D printer. We’ve missed our robots. Scientists at the University of Edinburgh developed a new, inexpensive printer that created a palm-sized, 100% soft plastic, walking robot. When connected to a compressed air supply, the robot walks off the 3D Flex Printer (video download here). It’s not much to look at (at left in the picture) but soft plastic robots have great potential for use in areas such as nuclear decommissioning, the biomedical sector and in space. Designs for the printer are public and the printer uses inexpensive off-the-shelf parts that cost less than £400 and don’t require a PhD to put together. University of Edinburgh release

Ambience Healthcare’s ambient AI model now outperforms board-certified physicians in ICD-10 coding accuracy. Ambience’s platform, trained using OpenAI’s Reinforcement Fine-Tuning (RFT) technology, has a 27% relative improvement over physician benchmarks, which means a significant reduction in ICD-10 coding errors. The Ambience system combines scribing patient encounters with identifying the ICD-10 codes to generate a fully informed note that then allows the clinician to review and confirm accurate documentation and coding in real time. Ambience covers codes in over 100 specialties and is in use at 40 health organizations for documentation.  Release

Get A Second Opinion enters the DTC information market on medications. The subscription model at a modest $35/year solves the problem of consumer confusion over medications, interactions, alternatives, and cost. Its two tools are:

  • Discovery Tool: Analyzes a single medication and/or condition against a unique profile, generating a comprehensive report with rankings, supporting data, and average monthly cost—often identifying more effective alternatives with fewer side effects at a lower cost. The annual plan covers up to 10 reports.
  • Planner: Evaluates up to 10 medications treating up to 10 conditions simultaneously, identifying optimal treatment combinations while minimizing side effects and adverse interactions. The annual plan covers up to two reports.

The profile is built using their AI Diagnostician engine, which analyzes age, sex, BMI, medications, pre-existing conditions, and price. It  cross-references each unique profile with FDA data, medical studies, warning labels, and clinical outcomes. Get A Second Opinion also offers a 100% accuracy guarantee. Having all the information in one place is more than reassuring and worth it, especially when prescribed new drugs. Your Editor can say this from first-hand experience–and her brother is a physician! Release

AssistIQ’s surgical supply chain management system raised a Series A of $11.5 million. Funders were Battery Ventures, with participation from existing investor Tamarind Hill. AssistIQ tracks actual supply and implant usage in operating rooms and procedural areas using the AIQ Capture platform that tracks supplies and implants as they are used, eliminating RFID and barcodes, and integrating them into EHR and billing records with 98% accuracy versus half in manual systems. The Montreal-based company had an initial seed raise of C$2.5 million from StandUp Ventures. Its US flagships are design partner Northwell Health (Allscripts transitioning to Epic), Owensboro Health Regional Hospital in Kentucky (Epic), and others in coming months. It is also a partner with CHUM— Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal , the anchor hospital for the University of Montreal. Mobihealthnews, Battery Ventures release, BusinessWire release

News roundup: AstraZeneca’s Evinova to market clinical trial health tech; BehaVR-Fern merge; UpHealth sells Cloudbreak telehealth translation; MedwebX launches; Tunstall-UEdinburgh research partnership; NextGen loses 84 after going private

November 21, 2023 | by

AstraZeneca makes a bet on selling health tech for drug development. Evinova, a separate health tech business within AstraZeneca, will market and develop proprietary technology and sell it to other pharma, biotech, and clinical research organizations (CROs) to optimize clinical trials. According to their release, these technologies have already been used in successful clinical trials in over 40 countries. CROs Parexel and Fortrea have already formally agreed to offer the three-part Evinova ‘drug development suite’ to their customers. Other partnerships include Accenture and Amazon Web Services.

On the buy and funding side:

RealizedCare formed from BehaVR and Fern Health. This interesting combination of virtual reality behavioral health (BehaVR) and chronic pain manager Fern Health promises digital therapeutics for value-based chronic pain care management. RealizedCare’s market is health plans, employers and value-based providers, working with them to identify, assess, and engage their members, employees, and patients with chronic pain. Their advanced care management platform is powered by DTx technology to scale pain management. Fern Health is backed by Aachen, Germany pharmaceutical company Grünenthal which will be a strategic investor in RealizedCare.  The combined company will be US-based in Nashville. Financials and workforce transitions are not disclosed, but two CEOs are listed on their website–Brad Lawson, CEO, Fern Health, and Aaron Gani, founder and CEO. Release, Mobihealthnews

UpHealth sells off telehealth translation services holding Cloudbreak Health to private equity firm GTCR, as part of a complex reorganization. Cloudbreak provides video remote interpreting (VRI) through its Martti (My Accessible Real-Time Trusted Interpreter) tool to aid in simultaneous translation in over 250 languages. Purchase price is $180 million and subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals, with closing anticipated by Q1 2024. Cloudbreak is currently headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. UpHealth has been selling off and putting into Chapter 11 various holdings such as UpHealth Holdings [TTA 29 Sep], Behavioral Health Services (BHS), and Thrasys, Inc., but not the publicly traded UpHealth Inc., which closed today on the NYSE at $0.79 having just resumed trading (Yahoo Finance, UpHealth release). Reportedly UpHealth will be refocusing on addiction treatment services provided in South Florida. More on their complex financials in their Q3 report.  Release

Short takes:

Digital medical imaging and storage company Medweb announced MedwebX, a HIPAA-compliant solution designed for sharing imaging, studies, data, and reports across networks. Release

Oracle’s moves into Music City Nashville [TTA 2 Nov] continue with the announcement of the Oracle Health Summit on 13 February 2024. According to the Nashville Business Journal, it’s a brief one emailed out to save the date and confirm their information when further details are available. The invitation reads in part, “At this daylong event, you’ll network with peers, hear from experts on the latest trends, and learn how leading organizations are using data-driven technology to deliver human-centered experiences.” Wonder if Bill Frist will be invited.

Tunstall Healthcare and the University of Edinburgh signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on telecare research. Edinburgh’s Advanced Care Research Centre will provide the academic ecosystem for the partnership, including medicine, engineering, informatics, data, and social sciences. Research will center on the development and deployment of digital tools and techniques for telecare, including multi-partner collaborations.  AT Today

And just in time for Thanksgiving…post-going private NextGen Healthcare will be releasing 84 employees at its St. Louis, Missouri location, according to their WARN notice filed with the state. The layoffs are “as a result of staffing optimization efforts” in connection with the company’s purchase by private equity firm Thoma Bravo. Layoffs of management, supervisors, account receivables staff, representatives, and analysts who work onsite, hybrid, and remote will be staggered with some released 16 January with others 1 February and 1 March. Some employees will be remaining in St. Louis, though NextGen is headquartered in Atlanta. Becker’s, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, St. Louis Business Journal

Telehealth alternatives to in-person consultation found lacking in effectiveness: Alt-Con Study (UK)

February 20, 2018 | by

It needs work and can’t be top down. That’s the conclusion of the Alt-Con Project and its researchers from several UK universities: Warwick, Bristol, Oxford (Nuffield) and Edinburgh. After examining the use of technological alternatives to GP consultations in eight general practices, they found that there were significant barriers to implementation, including insufficient training of non-clinical staff on these approaches’ benefits. The study includes recommendations to guide a more effective implementation.

Practices have been slow to adopt tech alternatives to F2F consults using telephone, email, e-consultation systems, and online video, despite NHS encouragement and programs such as the GP Access Fund. The paradox is that time devoted to non-F2F consults cuts into GPs time seeing live patients in the office.

  • They were adopted without a clear rationale or clearly thinking through cost-benefit for patients and practice staff.
  • Professor Sue Ziebland from Nuffield found that “…practices introduced alternative consultation methods for very different reasons and to solve problems that the practice had identified. These included a failure to be modern, to work more efficiently, to better serve commuters or dispersed populations, and to ensure appointments were available to those who needed them most.”
  • Other reasons: “the acknowledgment that the previous system was broken and unethical in providing a first-come, first-served system that left patients without appointments that they needed, and “the recognition that reception staff and phone lines were overwhelmed.”
  • Noted by other researchers were that ‘one-size-fits-all’, policy and financial incentive driven approaches were “not the best way forward”.

The study looked at GP practices of different sizes (1,938 to 18,353) covering over 85,000 patients, located in different geographic areas of England (6) and Scotland (2) including urban and rural areas, and with a mixture of patients’ socioeconomic status. 45 staff members and 39 patients were interviewed over eight months.

The University of Bristol Centre for Academic Primary Care has published a web page based on the Alt-Con research, offering guidance for GP practices. 

NHS England’s rejoinder: ‘This is a tiny study based on data that is almost two years old. Online consultations offer a convenient alternative to face-to-face appointments and patients are already seeing the benefits.’ Nuffield Department of Primary Care release, British Journal of General Practice, Daily Mail  Hat tip to former TTA Ireland editor Toni Bunting

Online Masters and Modular Learning in eHealth – last chance to enrol

September 18, 2015 | by

Build your skills and study while you work!

The University of Edinburgh has a few places left on their Masters programme in Global eHealth. This is studied part time, via interactive online learning, supported by a network of international experts in the field (disclosure, of which this editor is one), and is designed for working professionals with some experience in healthcare, IT or eHealth, who are looking to grow and consolidate their knowledge and skills.  Courses are available as individual 10-week modules, or accumulated for a certificate (6 courses over 1 year), diploma (12 courses over 2 years) or MSc (the latter plus a supervised research project).

Readers may be particularly interested in the courses on ‘mHealth’, ‘Telemedicine & Telehealth, ‘The Business of eHealth’ (summer term), ‘User-Centred Design in eHealth’ and ‘Consumer Health Informatics’.

Applications for the new academic year close on Monday 21st September, so don’t delay applying!

For more information, please visit their website  or contact the programme team on Global.eHealth@ed.ac.uk or the programme director claudia.pagliari@ed.ac.uk

University of Edinburgh MSc in Global eHealth

August 7, 2014 | by

Deadline extended to 8 September for the Autumn term

We are happy to update our readers on this innovative UoE programme with a message from the director, Dr Claudia Pagliari. Please read ’til the end to learn about sponsoring a student from a low-income country. (Ed. Donna)

This fully supported online learning programme provides a unique opportunity to study health informatics with reference to global health challenges. Combining core courses with a rich portfolio of innovative modules delivered by international experts, the programme provides a foundation in the core principles and practice of health informatics whilst considering how innovations and policies are shaping the technology landscape, strengthening health systems and changing professional and patient behaviour.

The programme is interdisciplinary and is suitable for eHealth designers and implementers, healthcare practitioners, global development professionals, government policymakers, healthcare managers and CIOs, and academic researchers with interests in the role of ICT in health. The supported online learning format provides an opportunity to obtain a rich learning experience, interacting with your tutors and peers, whilst remaining in work. (more…)