New to me Siren raises a $12m C round for it’s sensors-embedded-in-fabric monitoring technology. Ultimately, I think approaches like this have huge potential for monitoring chronic conditions in the elderly. Monitoring that is completely unobtrusive, and requires (almost) zero changes in behaviour. Such as sensors in clothing, or radar based vital sign monitoring.
Gotta love low-cost healthcare innovation: Higi raises series B funding of $30m to further it’s kiosk-based preventative care model. Aimed squarely at organizations taking risk for a population (eg. ACOs), the kiosks are free to use. If things look amiss, they can connect the consumer to a clinician. So far, Higi has been used by 62m people. Lowering the cost of preventative care to zero is good for consumers, and good for the provider taking financial risk for a population too. Looks like it’s working for Higi too….
More on accountable care, with COVID-19 set to disrupt the modest progress that has been made with Medicare ACO’s so far. ACOs are, not unreasonably, concerned about the financial impact of the pandemic.
Philips brings a new wearable biosensor to market, with some nimble footwork to address the COVID-19 monitoring opportunity. Compare and contrast with the earlier wearable biosensor here.
A rising tide lifts all boats, so predictably AI in healthcare gets a boost from the pandemic too.
Very early days, but Surrey University in the UK has an implantable sensor that is powered by the body’s movement.
A new clinical study finds that EarlySense is capable of detecting acute pulmonary embolism.
New to me Vtuls offers 3 months free service to UK care homes, a hotbed for COVID-19 infections for many reasons. Hopefully that offer is as genuine as it sounds and comes with no strings attached – like a 3 years paid subscription tacked onto the free.
Evidence that the direct primary care (DPC) model can drive diabetes care costs lower with good preventative medicine. I think direct primary care will evolve to be a major component of employer-provider healthcare. DPC puts the primary care focus on what primary care should be. Preventative medicine and the management of chronic conditions. And there’s no reason why any of that should go through health insurance. Routine servicing on my car doesn’t go through my insurance. Routine servicing on my body shouldn’t either. For that, the insurer is just adding a layer of admin and taking a margin that consumers really don’t need to give up. So I can see more employers carving out primary care (“direct to employer care”) to work with practices like Iora Health. Some states, such as North Carolina, are clearing the legal path for that.
Will the cost savings be passed onto consumers, or will CVS pocket them: CVS to deliver prescriptions with autonomous vehicles.
A length academic-ish article on why innovation isn’t reducing healthcare costs. The conclusion is we need to innovate for cost-reduction, not innovate for novelty. True, but it’s more than that. Before we get to that step, we need to incentivize cost-reduction.
McKinsey is speculating – and I choose that word carefully – that the telehealth market could grow to $250bn a year, post pandemic. Wisely, McKinsey places a question mark at the end of the article’s title. For good reason in my view. The article has lots of good strategic advice on how practitioners can plan for a telehealth world. And it does also touch on the elephant in the room. Reimbursement. There may be many good clinical reasons for telehealth to grow. Telehealth may be embraced enthusiastically by clinicians. But, if the healthcare industry can bill $1,000 an hour for in-person visits, but can only bill $800 an hour for telehealth, change is going to be very slow in coming. (All numbers made up just to illustrate). Unless telehealth segments and increasingly becomes a direct-to-consumer play, like this example. And if I could do eggs over easy like that I’d be a proud man….