Vendors

SimpleC’s Watson-based platform supports people with cognitive impairments

October 16, 2018 by Kathy Dion Leave a Comment

ATLANTA – SimpleC, a digital platform for seniors and people with cognitive impairments or chronic conditions, is hoping pilots with several senior living facilities will expand its customer base and improve patient outcomes.

Henry Ford Village, a senior living facility in Dearborn, Michigan with more than 900 residents, will conduct a pilot program using SimpleC’s Companion solution with 20 independent living residents who have chronic diseases. McLaren Health Management Group of Davison, Michigan will also conduct a pilot using Companion starting this month with about 20 patients.

“Our technology fills a gap in care and gives seniors the ability to live more comfortably at home,” said Kevin Lasser, CEO of JEMS Technology, which markets SimpleC.

The SimpleC Companion, built on IBM Watson application program interfaces, is a touchscreen app that promotes memory, engagement and better communication, said Dan Pompilio, president and CEO of SimpleC. It can be activated on its own several times a day as a reminder for medications, activities and meal times.

The SimpleC suite of technology also includes: Companion Family Connect, a tool that families and friends of a senior or person with cognitive impairment can use to upload photos and videos and to record voice messages that their loved ones can play on their Companion app; and Companion Clinical Connect, a solution with advanced analytic capabilities that clinicians use to monitor groups of patients.

SimpleC currently deploys its therapies in 10 states to more than 50 senior care facilities, and is working with visiting nurse and home health service agencies, affordable care organizations and health insurance companies.

Several of the senior care facilities have reported a 60% decline in dementia-related behavioral symptoms from patients who are using Companion and some have decreased the use of sedative drugs by 95%, said Lasser.

“Because Companion can be used on smart devices it’s scalable,” said Lasser. “We’re having so much fun with this because we are helping people, so we’re going to keep going.”

Health2047 spinout raises $2M for prediabetes digital platform

October 11, 2018 by Kathy Dion Leave a Comment

MENLO PARK, Calif. – First Mile Care, a spinout of the Health2047 incubator, has raised $2 million in seed funding to continue developing a digital platform for prediabetes management.

The platform enables community-based peer-to-peer connection for chronic conditions and will give people living with prediabetes—higher-than-normal blood sugar level but not yet Type 2 diabetes—the ongoing support they need to make lifestyle decisions that can reverse prediabetes and reduce the risk that their condition will develop into Type 2 diabetes.

“Health2047 is committed to developing system-level solutions to healthcare’s biggest challenges,” said Lawrence Cohen, CEO of Health2047, in a statement. “With 84 million Americans living with prediabetes, our spin out of First Mile Care is a critical step toward transforming chronic care and saving the U.S. healthcare industry trillions of dollars.”

The First Mile Care platform is based on the proven National Diabetes Prevention Program developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a coaching program shown to reduce the incidence of Type 2 diabetes.

“Fighting chronic disease requires starting with a scalable approach,” said Karl Ronn, founder and CEO of First Mile Care, in a statement.

First Mile Care is the second company in a year to spin out of Health2047, a Silicon Valley business formation and commercialization enterprise launched by the American Medical Association in 2016. Health2047’s first spin out, Akiri, is building a network that enables health information to move seamlessly and securely throughout the U.S. health care system.

“First Mile Care is addressing the shortcomings of a system designed for acute care delivery,” said Dr. James Madara, CEO of the American Medical Association, in a statement. “The AMA is excited by this scalable, on-demand approach to engaging the community, peers, physicians and technologists to transform chronic care in the United States.”

Google, Amazon invest in Aiva Health voice OS

October 10, 2018 by Kathy Dion Leave a Comment

LOS ANGELES – Aiva Health has landed an investment from Google and Amazon for the company’s voice operating system for health care.

The capital from the Google Assistant Investment Program will be used to accelerate the development and deployment of the voice OS.

“Voice is the new mobile for delivering better health care,” said Sumeet Bhatia, founder and CEO of Aiva Health, in a statement. “We’re thrilled to be working with the Google Assistant Investments team to help expand our offerings and improve care for people who need it the most.”

Aiva also received an investment from the Alexa Fund at Amazon, which supports early-stage voice technology companies with funding, resources and mentorship.

“We are consistently impressed by the caliber of new companies building voice-based technologies and experiences on Alexa, and these companies, in particular, showcase the growing pace of innovation among early-stage companies experimenting with voice,” said Paul Bernard, director of worldwide corporate development of the Alexa Fund at Amazon, in a statement.

Aiva uses Google Home, Amazon Echo and other smart speakers to engage and empower patients and seniors, as well as to connect them more closely to their caregivers. The voice OS is built on a suite of enterprise applications that includes a mobile app for caregivers to manage help requests; a dashboard for performance reporting; and a backend for controlling the voice assistants’ settings and their interaction with other Internet of Things smart devices like televisions, lights and thermostats.

The Google Assistant Investment Program was established this year to boost digital startups pushing the boundaries of voice technology, said Ilya Gelfenbeyn, lead of the Google Assistant Investment Program, in a statement.

“Google Assistant is already giving millions of people easier access to information, more entertainment options and better control over their environment,” Gelfenbeyn said. “It’s exciting to see Aiva pushing the technology even further, using voice to improve vital human interactions like caregiving.”

Aiva’s other investors include Act One Ventures, Mucker Capital, Techstars and the Cedars-Sinai Accelerator Powered by Techstars.

Jawbone restructures as health monitoring service

October 9, 2018 by Kathy Dion Leave a Comment

SAN FRANCISCO – The defunct technology company Jawbone is being resurrected as Jawbone Health, a medical subscription service that will incorporate wearable devices, artificial intelligence and human doctors to detect and prevent chronic and lifestyle diseases.

Jawbone Health was formed with the financial backing of Dubai-based holding company Meraas, which bought out the assets of Jawbone’s health domain.

“Two-thirds of all deaths today are lifestyle-disease related—that’s just bad living,” said Hosain Rahman, founder of Jawbone, in a recent episode of the Recode Decode podcast. “If you catch that stuff early and you change your behavior you can push out half of those deaths and save 70% of the costs.”

The new subscription service will be powered by Salesforce’s Health Cloud platform and will feature a wearable device that collects a user’s health data.

The data will be analyzed through AI and human doctors within the Jawbone Health system to catch issues that could lead to dangerous health conditions.

“The idea is to catch health issues going on with you early, when they can be treated, and you can improve longevity,” Rahman said.

While Jawbone Health has introduced a device to showcase what the new service can do, it will eventually partner with other device companies and integrate data from the Apple Watch and iPhone.

“The idea is to let other people build on our sensor technology because we’ve proven that it’s clinical grade,” said Rahman.

Jawbone Health is currently rolling out the service to 100 users at a time. Rahman envisions it will be purchased by individuals, recommended by insurance companies and offered by their employers.

“Lots of people are doing devices, AI and pieces of health monitoring, but no one is doing it all in one stack,” Rahman said. “We’re rolling it out slowly but we’re taking our time to get it right.”

Veta Health announces multiple digital health partnerships

October 5, 2018 by Kathy Dion Leave a Comment

NEW YORK – Veta Health, a provider of a digital health management platform, has announced partnerships with several industry innovation catalysts to advance its platform capabilities at both the population health and individual patient level, and to increase the clinical efficacy of its platform across the industry.

The company has been selected to participate in the Healthbox Studio program this month in Chicago as part of the 2018 Studio Cohort. The event will enable Veta Health to collaborate and build relationships with participating companies, the Healthbox team and their network of healthcare leaders from across the industry.

As a recipient of the grand prize at last month’s Novartis HealthX World Series Challenge, Veta Health has the opportunity to collaborate with Novartis on further develop, Veta Health also kicked off a collaboration with Startup Creasphere powered by Plug and Play last month. Plug and Play is a health tech accelerator in Munich. Veta Health’s collaboration with Startup Creasphere will enable the company to collaborate with stakeholders across the health care industry to develop and deploy best-in-class clinical care pathways across diverse patient populations to improve health outcomes.

Fitbit launches connected health platform, expands Humana partnership

September 21, 2018 by Kathy Dion Leave a Comment

SAN FRANCISCO – Fitbit has launched the Fitbit Care connected health platform that combines health coaching and virtual care through wearable devices, self-tracking and personalized digital interventions.

The Fitbit Care health coaching solution is based on Fitbit’s experience in helping consumers make meaningful behavior changes and the clinically proven expertise of Twine Health, a coaching platform Fitbit acquired earlier this year. Coaches work with participants to create personalized care plans and connect with members through multiple channels that include in-app communications, phone and in-person meetings.

Following the launch, Fitbit has also announced that it is expanding its partnership with Humana to offer the potential to access Fitbit Care to the payer’s more than 5 million members.

“With health care costs and rates of chronic disease increasing, there is a clear need for innovative tools and services to help people make the lifestyle and behavior changes necessary to reverse this trend,” said Adam Pellegrini, general manager, Fitbit Health Solutions, in a statement. “Expanding our partnership with Humana allows us to accelerate our common goal of helping more people get and stay healthy, and I’m confident that together we can help drive better health outcomes.”

Humana serves members through a range of wellness programs and capabilities to help employers control rising costs related to worker health, such as increased health care consumption and lost productivity. Fitbit Care is the latest integration to those offerings.

“Working with Fitbit, we have been able to provide our members with wearable devices, data and insights they can use to achieve their best health and wellness,” said Jeff Reid, senior vice president of wellness solutions at Humana, in a statement. “By adding Fitbit Care’s new health coaching capabilities, we can offer even more personalized, meaningful support to our members who are focused on specific health goals, such as smoking cessation or weight loss, or the management or prevention of chronic conditions,” said Jeff Reid, Humana’s senior vice president of Wellness Solutions. “Fitbit’s intuitive technology and human coaches are powerful tools to engage and motivate members, creating more frequent, convenient touch-points that support our members beyond the walls of a doctor’s office.”

FDA grants Breakthrough Device status to AliveCor

September 20, 2018 by Kathy Dion Leave a Comment

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted Breakthrough Device designation to AliveCor’s artificial intelligence-powered KardiaK software platform.

The designation means that the FDA will consider the technology on an accelerated clearance track designed specifically for medical devices that demonstrate the potential to address unmet medical needs for life-threatening or irreversibly debilitating diseases or conditions.

“We are gratified that the artificial intelligence work we’re doing at AliveCor has been deemed so meaningful that it has achieved FDA Breakthrough Device status,” said Vic Gundotra, CEO of AliveCor, in a statement. “We view it as a key milestone in our corporate history and look forward to the further development of our non-invasive Hyperkalemia detection tools.”

The KardiaK Platform screens for hyperkalemia—elevated levels of blood potassium—without requiring blood from the patient. The technology uses a proprietary deep neural network trained to detect hyperkalemia using data from electrocardiograms.

AliveCor aims to use the platform to enable home-based hyperkalemia detection for patients with kidney disease to record an ECG and use KardiaK at home.

“Noninvasive and convenient, the bloodless KardiaK platform has the potential to revolutionize the standard for diagnosis of hyperkalemia,” Gundotra said.

Quartz Health Solutions succeeds with Kiio digital program

September 13, 2018 by Kathy Dion Leave a Comment

MADISON, Wis. – Quartz Health Solutions has found that plan members who were offered Kiio’s digital program to treat low-back pain experienced a 100% decrease in emergency department and urgent care visits.

Additionally, it found that Kiio participants, compared to a non-participant group, experienced: a 78% decrease in filled opioid prescriptions; 3.5 times fewer MRIs; 1.8 times fewer spinal injections; and a 55% reduction in low-back-pain-related medical spend.

“Back pain has consistently ranked in our top three for both claims prevalence and cost,” said Elaine Rosenblatt, director of quality and care management at Quartz Health Solutions, in a statement. “Kiio provided an innovative approach that helps our members live healthier lives, take fewer medications and avoid unnecessary medical services.”

Given the positive results, Quartz Health Solutions is moving forward with a full rollout of the Kiio program, Rosenblatt said.

More than 85% of participants said the program helped them to better manage their pain. They reported that they used the program more regularly because of its easy 24/7 access, interactive digital coaching and the accountability tools that kept them on track.

“Forward thinking health plans and employers are seeking new consumer-centric approaches for chronic health issues,” said David Grandin, founder and CEO of Kiio, in a statement. “Kiio helps people get back to enjoying their lives.”

Quartz Health Solutions is also working with its provider partners to integrate the program into primary care to achieve more extensive reach and benefits for its members.

“The program aligns with our strategic initiatives to achieve wellness, optimal member experience and opioid reduction, and is a new tool for our provider partners,” said Rosenblatt. “We’re extremely excited by the potential to have a broader impact.”

Redesigned Apple Watch features fall detection, ECG capabilities

September 12, 2018 by Kathy Dion Leave a Comment

CUPERTINO, Calif. – Apple has introduced an Apple Watch that has been redesigned and re-engineered to include health capabilities like an accelerometer and gyroscope that are able to detect hard falls, and an electrical heart rate sensor that can take an electrocardiogram using a new ECG app.

The ECG app has been granted a De Novo classification by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

“The completely redesigned Apple Watch Series 4 continues to be an indispensable communication and fitness companion, and now with the addition of groundbreaking features, like fall detection and the first-ever ECG app offered directly to consumers, it also becomes an intelligent guardian for your health,” said Jeff Williams, COO at Apple, in a statement.

Apple Watch Series 4 enables customers to take an ECG reading right from their wrist through the ECG app, which uses electrodes and an electrical heart rate sensor. The app can classify if the heart is beating in a normal pattern or whether there are signs of atrial fibrillation. All recordings, their associated classifications and any noted symptoms are stored in the Health app in a PDF that can be shared with physicians.

The fall detection feature uses an accelerometer and gyroscope, which measures up to 32 g-forces, along with custom algorithms, to identify when hard falls occur. By analyzing wrist trajectory and impact acceleration, Apple Watch sends the user an alert after a fall, which can be dismissed or used to initiate a call to emergency services. If Apple Watch senses immobility for 60 seconds after the notification, it will automatically call emergency services and send a message along with location to emergency contacts.

One Drop platform integrates with Apple Watch

September 12, 2018 by Kathy Dion Leave a Comment

NEW YORK – One Drop has expanded its Apple Watch diabetes management solution with a wireless blood glucose monitoring system that connects directly to Apple Watch, allowing users to accurately log, monitor and share their diabetes data and import other biometric telemetry straight into One Drop for diabetes management.

Previously, One Drop had launched a companion Apple Watch app to manually log blood glucose, food, medication and exercise moments, and view daily stats and goals. Now, One Drop gives users the option to seamlessly transfer blood glucose data from One Drop | Chrome directly to the Apple Watch companion app, making One Drop the first and only device to send blood glucose data directly to Apple Watch, said Jeff Dachis, CEO of One Drop, in a statement.

Apple Watch Bluetooth connectivity is the newest of thousands of One Drop integrations that allow users to pull their data from other apps and devices into One Drop | Mobile. The solution captures data from Apple HealthKit, Google Fit, Fitbit, Dexcom and Companion Medical’s InPen, among others. With the release of iOS 12, One Drop will further expand iOS integrations by launching Apple Health Records and Siri Shortcuts.

Users subscribed to One Drop | Experts can grant their coach permission to view vitals, labs and medications shared to Apple Health Records. Personalized Siri Shortcuts to log food moments and recall average blood glucose and percent in blood glucose range are also featured.

One Drop also recently announced One Drop | Automated Decision Support, which uses artificial intelligence to accurately provide forecasted blood glucose prediction values over time and provide behavioral recommendations based on those predictions. One Drop’s propriety AI generates accurate predictions for a single user based on over 1.3 billion aggregate longitudinal diabetes health data of all people utilizing the One Drop platform. The service will be offered to free mobile users later this month.

“For too long the diabetes industry has operated on point solutions and closed systems focused on the needs of healthcare providers in the clinic, rather than the needs of the people using the systems to manage their disease every day,” said Dachis. “We are excited to further empower One Drop users with this exciting addition to the One Drop experience.”