Payer
Digital chronic disease management company Livongo has raised $105 million in new Series E funding, mostly from existing investors.
With discussions on consumer data privacy again reaching a head amongst the lay press and lawmakers, it isn’t too far a stretch to wonder whether the data collected continuously through health and fitness wearables is receiving appropriate scrutiny.
Digital health-focused news from payers during the first quarter of 2018 generally focused on employee wellness and app-focused member engagement strategies, with a handful of similar partnerships or deals announced around the edges.
Five healthcare organizations including insurers UnitedHealthcare and Humana, Optum, Quest Diagnostics, and MultiPlan are launching a blockchain pilot to help payers tackle mandated provider directories.
Correction: A previous version of this article misstated the year Livongo was founded.
Last week on-demand healthcare concierge for provider employers Accolade received $50 million in funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, Carrick Capital Partners, Madrona Venture Group, and McKesson Ventures, with participation from Cross Creek Advisors and Madera Technologies.
Just about everyone agrees in the basic vision for telemedicine: When a person gets sick, instead of jumping in the car to drive to a doctor’s office or urgent care center, they can pick up a phone or tablet instead, and get in touch right away with a doctor.
In a new blog for BJ-HC, Eleonora Harwich, Head of Digital and Technological Innovation at Reform, looks at the application of AI in healthcare and argues the hype must not ‘cloud judgement around relevance and design’.
Universities are going faster and further in realising Simon Stevens’ vision of the NHS being a ‘hotbed of innovation’, as BJ-HC found out on a visit to the School of Pharmacy at Keele University.
At HIMSS last week, Samsung announced a partnership with Travelers Insurance, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Bayer, and AppliedVR around using virtual reality for pain management.