Thursday news roundup: Walmart hiring 50K workers including health, Anthem name-changing, GE Healthcare-AliveCor partner, IPO for Komodo Health amid slowdown? NHS Digital roundup: £200M allocated for research, COVID-19/cancer cross-research using the new Trusted Research Environment (TRE) (TRE is high value for research) But given the real Headline News, insurer Anthem made a Myopic Move in announcing a name change now.įriday short takes: ElliQ companion robot launches, Tunstall pilots chronic condition support in Ireland, Walmart Better(s)Up, TytoCare surveys virtual primary care, Microsoft closes $19B buy of Nuance(A Friday potpourri) ElliQ launches its desktop companion robot for seniors, GE Healthcare and AliveCor partner for cardiac monitoring, and Komodo Health and Included Health may IPO. We edge closer to Spring and our Headline News is a little here and there.
3: Sunny and Elizabeth were in it together, all the way (Balwani’s rerun of Holmes’ trial)ĭOJ lawsuit to block UnitedHealth-Change Healthcare’s acquisition now set for 1 August trial (UHG and Change not giving up) Short takes for Thursday: TimeDoc’s timely $48M, Glooko buys France’s DIABNEXT, Jio Health’s $20M, Pear’s Tokyo sleep-wake, Antidote’s $22M, and Centene’s new, young CEO signals big changes (More consolidation, funding, and a changing of the guard after 25 years) And after 25 years of one man at the top, it’s a young tech-savvy woman in charge at Centene–and their cubies are hanging on.
Certainly Sunny Balwani isn’t getting much sleep lately with the kickoff of Theranos Trial #2. Action in Asia-Pac with Vietnam’s Jio Health and Pear for sleepless Japanese. Speaking of France, Glooko’s European tour picked up DIABNEXT.
Winter turned into Spring, it’s raining, and it’s time for pleasant thoughts of a cheerful movie about the Umbrellas of Cherbourg. UnitedHealth Group makes two jumbo buys for Optum: LHC Group home health for $5B, Refresh Mental Health (Optum not letting grass grow with the Change DOJ lawsuit)
(Another needle puncturing the bubble)įriday roundup: LetsGetChecked buys Veritas Genetics, Everly Health adds CMO, Babylon sends chatbot to Higi, ConcertAI’s $150M Series C, AmplifyMD’s $23M, and two ‘Brights’ raise $155M (Reviving market?) What do physicians really think about telehealth, now that they’ve used it? Lower use, substantial frustrations remain. Weekend wrapup & reading: Amazon Health on talent hunt, Practice Fusion fined $200K for violating $145M prosecution agreement, and must-read studies and articles on older adults tech (Read in between spring cleaning) The former Practice Fusion’s miseries with DOJ continue. Optum’s physician telehealth study shows there’s a way to go, along with Laurie Orlov’s aging tech studies and articles.
The first full week of Spring turned out to be a busy one, from big buys by UHG/Optum in home and mental health, a significant one by LetsGetChecked, and more health tech fundings. Have a job to fill? Seeking a position? See jobs listed with our new job search partner Joo ble in the right sidebar! Wisconsin’s $5M for child psychiatry, community telehealth FQHC patients prefer audio-only telehealth–Rand (Back to the roots of telehealth for less health served populations) Thursday roundup: UHG/Optum, Change extend merger deadline to 31 Dec, buys Kelsey-Seybold $2B Tivity Health sale General Dynamics enters derm AI diagnostics MobileHelp PERS sold to Advocate Aurora (A recovery in the works?)ĭigital health funding’s Q1 hangover from 2021’s bender–and Q2 is a question mark, even for Rock Health (Some companies have aching heads still)
Weekend roundup: telehealth claims ticked up again in January, Walmart opens Florida health ‘superstores’, Blue Shield California partners with Walgreens’ Health Corners And, to no one’s surprise, digital health got off to a slow start in Q1. Some local telehealth grants and the surprising vitality of audio telehealth for the underserved. On the retail front, Walmart finally opens up Florida superstores powered by Epic, and Walgreens ‘corners’ with Blue Shield in California. UnitedHealth and Optum won’t give up on Change, including a hefty break fee, nor big buys. April is proving to be an active month for something other than rain and blooming cherry trees, including company sales of Tivity and MobileHelp.