As we re-examine the healthcare system in the wake of the pandemic, we are continually identifying opportunities to rebuild parts of the system to new and improved specifications. One critical facet is digital health, where we continue to struggle with what should really be table stakes: the ability to integrate data from disparate organizations and systems into a unified view of the whole person and take action.

During the height of the pandemic, telehealth made it possible to deliver care that was personal yet socially responsible. As a direct benefit, the use of digital health tools on both the clinical and consumer side picked up a tremendous and timely head of steam. But what will become of these innovations once we make our eventual return to normal?

Today, many healthcare consumers can talk to a therapist or a counselor through text, monitor glucose … Read the rest

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Industry experts state that orphan drugs will be a major trend to watch in the years ahead, accounting for almost 40% of the Food and Drug Administration approvals this year. This market has become more competitive in the past few years, increasing the potential for reduced costs and broader patient accessibility. Currently, these products are often expensive because they target specific conditions and cost on average $147,000 or more per year, making commercialization optimization particularly critical for success. 

At the same time precision medicine—a disease treatment and prevention approach that takes into account individual variability in genes, environment, and lifestyle for each person—is emerging as a trend for population health management. This approach utilizes advances in new technologies and data to unlock information and better target health care efforts within populations.

This is important because personalized medicine has the capacity to detect the onset of … Read the rest

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The executive team at AbleTo, a technology-enabled provider of behavioral healthcare shares six mental health and teletherapy predictions and trends to watch in 2021.

Trip Hofer, CEO at AbleTo

1. Measurement and Outcomes

“The healthcare industry has made progress toward increasing access to mental health care and defining what quality care looks like. Now in 2021, the industry needs to focus on how we measure that quality. With mental health becoming an incredibly hot market and so much funding pouring in for new entrants, many leaders are concerned with the lack of rigorous, evidence-based standards for measuring patient outcomes. I share that concern, and want to stress the importance of sound methodologies for demonstrating outcomes.”

2. Market Trends

“The consolidation we saw in mental health during 2020 will continue into next year but I think we’ll see new trends appear too. There’s such a proliferation of investment dollars in

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Healthcare data security has been a growing concern for CIOs for the last year or so, as hackers are increasingly targeting health information. Now, with a global pandemic forcing a shift to telemedicine and remote work, and new rules from the ONC and CMS introducing more regulatory burden, healthcare CIOs have more to manage than ever. Fortunately, it is possible to roll out new capabilities while simultaneously improving cybersecurity by following these three rules:

Rule 1: Think Like an Attacker

The coronavirus pandemic has forced healthcare providers everywhere to roll out new capabilities, processes, and workflows, such as telemedicine systems and new patient check-in procedures. These measures are being taken in addition to the necessary work being done to comply with the new mandates from ONC and CMS regarding patient data accessibility. Though these changes need to be … Read the rest

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Teladoc Health and Livongo Merge

The combination of Teladoc Health and Livongo creates a
global leader in consumer-centered virtual care. The combined company is
positioned to execute quantified opportunities to drive revenue synergies of
$100 million by the end of the second year following the close, reaching $500
million on a run-rate basis by 2025.

Price: $18.5B in value based on each share of Livongo
will be exchanged for 0.5920x shares of Teladoc Health plus cash consideration
of $11.33 for each Livongo share.

Siemens Healthineers Acquires Varian Medical

On August 2nd, Siemens Healthineers acquired
Varian Medical for $16.4B, with the deal expected to close in 2021. Varian is a
global specialist in the field of cancer care, providing solutions especially
in radiation oncology and related software, including technologies such as
artificial intelligence, machine learning and data analysis. In fiscal year 2019,
the company generated $3.2 billion in revenues with an … Read the rest

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As we close out the year, we asked several healthcare executives to share their predictions and trends for 2021.

Kimberly Powell, Vice President & General Manager, NVIDIA Healthcare

Federated Learning: The clinical community will increase their use of federated learning approaches to build robust AI models across various institutions, geographies, patient demographics, and medical scanners. The sensitivity and selectivity of these models are outperforming AI models built at a single institution, even when there is copious data to train with. As an added bonus, researchers can collaborate on AI model creation without sharing confidential patient information. Federated learning is also beneficial for building AI models for areas where data is scarce, such as for pediatrics and rare diseases.

AI-Driven Drug Discovery: The COVID-19 pandemic has put a spotlight on drug discovery, which encompasses microscopic viewing of molecules and proteins, sorting through millions of chemical structures, in-silico methods for … Read the rest

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What You Should Know:

– Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Merck, and Teva, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) has been selected by the Israel Innovation Authority to establish an innovation lab in the fields of digital health and computational biology.

– The innovation lab located in the Rehovot Science Park will
receive a government budget of $10M over the next five years and is slated to
start operations in 2021.

Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Merck, and Teva, as well as the Israel Biotech Fund and tech giant
Amazon Web Services (AWS)— to establish an innovation lab in the fields of digital health
and computational biology. The companies were selected from a competitive bid process
conducted by the Israel Innovation
Authority together with the National Digital Israel Initiative at the
National Digital Ministry.

The group will establish the Lab at the Rehovot Science Park
and invest in building a … Read the rest

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What You Should Know:

– Regence and MultiCare ink first-in-the-nation value-based
care partnership to deliver improved health outcomes at lower costs.

Health insurance provider Regence
and MultiCare Health System,
an independent accountable
care organization (ACO) have partnered to deploy a first-in-the-nation value-based model
that delivers better health outcomes to members at lower costs while
simplifying administration for health care providers. Regence serves
approximately 3.1 million members through Regence BlueShield of Idaho, Regence
BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon, Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Utah and
Regence BlueShield (select counties in Washington). The new approach between
Regence and MultiCare Connected Care—the Accountable Care Organization that is
a wholly owned subsidiary of MultiCare Health System—marks a milestone in the
evolution of value-based partnerships between insurance payers and providers.

Da Vinci Member Attribution List Standard for Value-Based
Arrangements

The partnership will leverage utilized a soon to be
published HL7® FHIR® (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) Standard… Read the rest

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Oscar Raises $140M, Confidentiality Files for IPO

Oscar, the first
health insurance company built on a full stack technology platform raises $140M
in funding led by Tiger Global Management, LLC, with participation from
Dragoneer, Baillie Gifford, Coatue, Founders Fund, Khosla, Lakestar and
Reinvent. On 12/21, the company confidentially filed for an initial public
offering (IPO). The size and price range for the proposed offering have not yet
been determined.

Babylon Health Raises $100M from VNV Global

Babylon Health raises
$100M in a convertible loan in a deal led by the Swedish listed fund VNV
Global. Babylon delivers full access to healthcare, including personalized
health assessments, treatment advice, and face-to-face appointments with a
doctor 24/7. With the Babylon app, patients can talk to a GP within minutes via
phone or video call, ask simple medical questions via their text service and
monitor their health with their comprehensive tracking system.

nference … Read the rest

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What You Should Know:

– The governor of Virginia announced that the state
will allocate $10 million from the federal CARES Act to
implement a statewide integrated technology platform, Unite Virginia designed
to connect vulnerable Virginians to crucial health and social services.

– Unite Virginia will utilize the Unite Us platform to create
a statewide coordinated care network to help government
agencies, health care providers, and community-based partners ensure
medical care and social services are appropriately delivered to
Virginians, identify gaps in the system to better target resources, supporting
ongoing COVID-19 response/recovery, reduce barriers to care, and advance
health equity.

Governor Ralph Northam announced that Virginia will allocate
$10M in federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act
funding to create Unite Virginia, a statewide technology platform designed to
connect vulnerable Virginians to health and social services. Powered by Unite Us, a technology company that builds coordinated care
networks of health and social service providers, the Commonwealth will
implement an integrated e-referral system that unites … Read the rest

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