digital health

VC digital health funding nears $5B, according to report

July 17, 2018 by Kathy Dion Leave a Comment

AUSTIN, Texas – Global venture capital funding for digital health companies reached a record $4.9 billion in the first half of 2018, according to a recent report by Mercom Capital Group, a global communications and research firm.

The report found that VC funding for digital health companies was 22% higher year-over-year with 383 deals. During the same time period last year, funding reached $4 billion with 359 deals.

The unprecedented growth is not expected to slow down, according to Raj Prabhu, CEO and co-founder of Mercom Capital Group.

“We expect the record to continue and break 2017’s record of $7.2 billion in total VC funding,” he said.

Digital health companies have now received $30.6 billion with 3,833 deals since 2010, according to data tracked by Mercom.

The report found that the top funded areas in the first half of 2018 were: data analytics ($911 million); telemedicine ($701 million); clinical decision support ($582 million); mHealth apps ($535 million); wearables ($308 million); mobile wireless ($272 million); and wellness ($201 million).

The top VC deals in the first half 2018 were: $291 million raised by American Well; $240 million raised by Heartflow; $200 million raised by Helix; $200 million raised by SomaLogic; $146 million raised by PointClickCare; $110 million raised by Collective Health; $105 million raised by Livongo Health; $100 million raised by DXY; and $80 million raised by Tempus.

Prabhu said developments like the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ proposal for Medicare to pay for telehealth and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of artificial intelligence-based apps show the space is maturing and getting the attention it deserves from regulators, with others following suit.

“Tech giants like Amazon, Google, Apple and others are also making serious inroads into the digital health space, making the sector more mainstream and validating the sector and investments,” he said.

Brook, Independent Health partner for chronic disease management

July 13, 2018 by Kathy Dion Leave a Comment

SEATTLE – Brook, a chronic disease digital health platform provider, and New York health plan Independent Health are partnering to provide enhanced resources to help its members self-manage their care. In addition to collaboration on technology and delivery of new services, Independent Health is participating in a recent round of financing to help Brook complete a seed round of $4 million. “Today, technology can help personalize treatment using a process that can be customized and flexible,” said Oren Nissim, co-founder and CEO of Brook, in a statement. “Our partnership with Independent Health is groundbreaking for individuals seeking to manage their chronic diabetes condition, and it is equally exciting for medical and health care professionals.” Dr. Michael Cropp, president of Independent Health, will also join Brook’s board of directors. Brook is developing a personal health assistant technology that provides simple, impactful, data-driven support with medical and health services professional coaching to help individuals manage diabetes and other chronic conditions. Using mobile sensors, Brook tracks and interprets data like activity and sleep, and runs a routine analysis engine that captures diabetes and behavior data. Brook than combines and connects the use of a chatbot with a human expert team, providing patients with continuous support for their successful diabetes management.

Future of digital health must stress responsibility, report finds

June 26, 2018 by Kathy Dion Leave a Comment

NEW YORK – For people to get the full benefits of digital health, providers and health plans must prioritize trust and responsibility, according to a recent report by Accenture.

“The real power of these technologies is the way they fit into the lives of humans, as well as social organizations and society in general,” said Dr. Kaveh Safavi, senior managing director and head of global health practice at Accenture, during a recent Digital Health Today podcast.

Health care leaders have great potential to apply emerging technologies to create deeper, more meaningful relationships with people, but there are choices to be made on that journey, Accenture wrote in the Digital Health Tech Vision 2018 report.

“How will we apply technology, govern it and ensure it does no harm? Now more than ever, these choices must be made with great caution and care,” the report says.

Five trends underscore the importance of building a foundation of trust as technology has a greater impact on our lives, according to the report:

Citizen AI, the advance of artificial intelligence to benefit providers, plans and patients;
Extended Reality, a combination of virtual and augmented realities to provide a bridge that connects people, places and information;
Data Veracity, a philosophy that recognizes artificial intelligence is only as good as the data used to train it;
Frictionless Business, the exploration of microservices and blockchain technologies to help health care organizations make technology-based partnerships work; and
Internet of Thinking, the overhaul of the technical infrastructures of health care systems.

“Consumers have expectations that health care will be on their own terms because that’s how they experience the rest of the world,” said Safavi. “The health care system we will have in the future can only be possible by combining the digital technologies available now with traditional care models.”

Nokia sells digital health business back to Withings

May 7, 2018 by Kathy Dion

ESPOO, Finland – After acquiring Withings in 2016 to establish itself in digital health, Nokia has announced it will sell its Digital Health business back to Éric Carreel, co-founder and former chairman of Withings.

Following a review of its options for the digital health business earlier this year, Nokia decided to cut its losses and focus instead on becoming a business-to-business and licensing company, company officials said in a statement.

“Rather than only falling in love with our technology, we must be honest with ourselves,” said Kathrin Buvac, chief strategy officer for Nokia, in a company memo that was leaked. “In its entirety, our digital health business has struggled to scale and meet its growth expectations. Currently, we don’t see a path for it to become a meaningful part of a company as large as Nokia.”

The new agreement is expected to close later this year.

Nokia’s digital health business portfolio includes consumer and enterprise products, and it manufactures and sells an ecosystem of hybrid smart watches, scales and digital health devices to consumers and enterprise partners.

Digital health investing continues to roll, report finds

April 10, 2018 by Kathy Dion

SAN FRANCISCO – Digital health saw a record $1.62 billion in funding in the first part of 2018, according to a report from Rock Health.

The funding spanned 77 deals in everything from disease diagnosis to disease monitoring to consumer health information.

“The report was spot-on in terms of where we’re seeing for investments,” said Asif Shah Mohammed, associate principal at ECG Management Consultants, a strategic consulting firm whose clients include hospitals, health systems, medical groups and academic medical centers.

The 10 biggest deals accounted for 55% of the funding but only 13% of the deals, and the average size was $21 million, compared to $16.4 million in 2017, according to the report.

“The market overall is ripe for investing,” said Tom Carroll, COO of mobile health platform emocha. “The broader markets that drive innovation are at an all time high valuation and interest rates are low—all that wealth and capital are looking to be deployed somewhere.”

The first quarter of 2018 was a wild ride for digital health M&A, wrote Megan Zweig and Denise Tran of Rock Health in the report, with 37 digital health companies acquired in the quarter.

“This puts the sector on track to beat last year’s 119 acquisitions and 2016’s 146 acquisitions,” they wrote.

Mohammed said the M&A activity is not surprising, as many different players are looking at the health care space from different angles. He said much of the movement is around enhancing the patient experience and building patient engagement—two big themes he expects to see more of in the future.

“There’s not a lot of insight into what happens to patients when they are out there in the wild after discharge,” Mohammed said. “We’re going to see more from platforms that can help facilitate the provider-patient communication and provide the data to enhance that.”

BCBS of Massachusetts deploys digital health solutions portfolio

April 9, 2018 by Kathy Dion

BOSTON – Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts has introduced the Emerging Solutions platform to curate digital health solutions and provide advice to employer customers on which solutions could best help improve their employees’ health.

“Through the Emerging Solutions platform, we serve as a trusted advisor to our employer customers, working closely with them to identify the health solutions that can best address the specific needs of their employees,” said Kathy Klingler, BCBS chief marketing officer, in a statement. “We are focused on advancements that matter to our employer customers.”

Emerging Solutions is available to self-insured accounts with 1,000 or more employees beginning July 1.

BCBS currently offers solutions for diabetes prevention and management, as well as fertility, pregnancy and parenting from: Livongo, a digital health platform for people with chronic conditions; Omada, a digital provider of the Diabetes Prevention Program; and Ovia Health, which uses technology and predictive coaching to support women from preconception and pregnancy through return-to-work and parenthood.

The insurer plans to grow the portfolio of solutions over time.

“Our decades of experience, commitment to innovation, and strong partnerships with digital health companies allow us to curate solutions that can best improve employees’ health and lower overall health care costs,” said Klingler.

Consumers embracing digital health, survey finds

March 22, 2018 by Kathy Dion

NEW YORK – Consumer demand for digital health is driving a new model of care that is bringing together patients, doctors and technology, according to a recent Accenture survey.

The survey found that consumer use of mobile and tablet health apps has tripled over the past four years, from 16% in 2014 to 48% today. More than 40% of respondents also said they have accessed their electronic health records through a patient portal over the past year.

“Driven by experiences outside of healthcare, consumers increasingly expect to use digital technologies to control when, where and how they receive care services,” said Dr. Kaveh Safavi, global leader of Accenture’s health practice, in a statement. “By harnessing digital technologies in this way, health care will increasingly tap digital technologies to empower human judgment, free up clinician time and personalize care services to put control in the patients’ hands.”

The survey of 2,301 consumers in the United States also found that consumers are becoming more accepting of machines—ranging from artificial intelligence to virtual clinicians to home-based diagnostics. For example, one in five respondents said they have already used AI-powered health care services, and most said they are likely to use AI-enabled clinical services like home-based diagnostics, virtual health assistants and virtual nurses that monitor health conditions, medications and vital signs at home.

The survey found that the use of wearable devices by consumers has nearly quadrupled in the past four years, from 9% to 33% over the past three years. About three-fourths of health consumers view wearables as beneficial to understanding their health condition, engaging with their health and monitoring the health of a loved one.
“The more accustomed health care consumers become to using wearables and other smart technologies, the more open they are to sharing the personal health data these tools collect,” Dr. Safavi said.

The majority of health care consumers said they would use virtual care for a variety of activities, from e-medical visits to medical diagnosis and group therapy.

Aterica integrates medication management into food allergy support platform

January 29, 2018 by Kathy Dion

WATERLOO, Ontario – Digital health platform provider Aterica has licensed the mMed Patent Portfolio, a medication management system from New Directions Technology Consulting, for people with food allergies. “Including the mMed Patent Portfolio within the Aterica digital health platform combines the beauty, boldness and rigor of novel invention with the creativity and forethought of comprehensive intellectual property to drive innovation,” said Mike Fisher, vice president of marketing and business development at Aterica, in a statement. Aterica’s platform includes the Veta smart case and mobile app for epinephrine auto-injectors. “Veta is the first application of our digital health platform that connects individuals with their life-saving medications and the support of people who love them to provide reassurance in both daily lives and crisis events,” said Fisher.

American Well teams with Philips to take telehealth global

January 23, 2018 by Kathy Dion

Company also receives $59M investment

BOSTON & AMSTERDAM – Telehealth company American Well and Philips have teamed to provide virtual health care around the world.

Through the partnership, the two companies will embed American Well’s mobile telehealth services into multiple Philips digital health solutions, beginning with the uGrow parenting app.

“We are looking to bring high value integrated health services and programs to market,” said Jeff Kosowsky, senior vice president of corporate and business development at American Well. “The integration of Philips devices and programs with high value telehealth services helps deliver better and more valued outcomes.”

Already firmly established in the U.S., American Well is looking to expand and create a global marketplace for its clients and partners to share resources and better deliver care digitally, said Kosowsky.

uGrow connects wirelessly to an ecosystem of devices, including those with voice activation. A key feature of the system is uGrow’s ability to let parents share data with—and receive personalized advice from—health care professionals.

“We believe that robust digital health solutions help people make the right choices and do the right things to protect and improve their health,” said Jeroen Tas, chief innovation and strategy officer at Philips.

The partnership was announced on the same day that American Well received a $59 million investment from Allianz global investment firm. The company plans to use the funding to develop digital health solutions combining wearable sensors, remote monitoring and virtual visits in both developed and emerging markets.

“We’ll leverage the investment in our platform to serve a broader global market,” said Kosowsky. “The connected care space is a global opportunity with 50% or more of global ambulatory visits amenable to telehealth, and a number of our existing pharma and medical device partners are looking to extend their digital health services globally, as well.”

United Healthcare introduces new digital health offerings

January 18, 2018 by Kathy Dion

MINNETONKA, Minn. – UnitedHealthcare has introduced new digital health resources for people enrolled in their employer-sponsored health plans to help make it easier for people to navigate the healthcare system and more convenient for them to use their benefits. The offerings include digital onboarding, Apple Pay and video explanations of benefits. “Consumers are asking for and expecting customized, connected digital health resources that help make access to care easier and more convenient,” said Dr. Richard Migliori, chief medical officer of UnitedHealth Group, in a statement. “UnitedHealthcare invests more than $3 billion annually in data, technology and innovation to help design a health system that is more personalized, intuitive and efficient.”