Wellness company Noom, primary care startup Carbon Health, mental health startup Cerebral, and digital pharmacy startup Truepill have all slashed a big chunk of their workforce over the past few months. Truepill reached a $1.6 billion valuation last year—but last month, it still laid off 15% of its workforce to adapt to “shifting markets.”.

Primary care startup Carbon Health, telehealth startup Ro, mental health entrant Cerebral, digital pharmacy startup Capsule, AI firm Olive, and healthcare payments company Cedar are just a few that have cut large portions of their workforces over the past two quarters. The layoffs indicate health tech companies are not recession proof, even when that company has reached a billion-dollar valuation.

The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) began investigating ADHD pharmacy platform Cerebral after reports that it was prescribing Adderall and Ritalin to patients too often, per Insider. Insider reported that some patients set up multiple accounts to receive drugs like Adderall. The US federal government considers Adderall a controlled substance because of its potential for abuse. What’s next?

Digital health players will need to avoid making the same clinical and ethical mistakes as virtual mental health startups like Cerebral—otherwise they’ll be viewed by consumers and regulators as dishonest drug pushers. WeightWatchers has the brand name recognition to succeed, whereas lesser-known startups could struggle, particularly if patients’ health plans don’t cover the pricey meds.

Alto, Capsule, Cerebral, Truepill, and Medly have all experienced rounds of staff cuts—multiple ones, in some cases—in 2022. Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drugs, which launched in January 2022, has avoided layoffs so far as it partnered with PBMs Rightway and now EmsanaRx this year.

The news: A joint investigation by STAT and The Markup organization found 49 of 50 direct-to-consumer (D2C) virtual care websites, from Cerebral to Workit, were sending consumers’ sensitive medical information to big tech and social media platforms. 13 of the 50 had at least one tracker that collected patients’ answers to medical intake questions, including trackers for Meta, Google, TikTok, Bin, Snap,

Cerebral, a telemental health company, let go an undisclosed number of employees after the Department of Justice began investigating its prescribing practices, although the CEO blamed the current economic situation. Thirty Madison, a telehealth company for patients with chronic conditions, let go 3% of its workforce following its merger with women’s health firm Nurx in February.

The Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center explains that when you drink something really cold too fast, you are rapidly changing the temperature in the back of the throat, at the juncture of the internal carotid artery, which feeds blood to the brain and the anterior cerebral artery, which is where brain tissue starts. So when the cold hits, it causes a dilation and contraction of those two arteries.

Bailey was rushed to the hospital with a cerebral hemorrhage and doctors thought that he would die. He survived, but would never play hockey again. The next month, January 24th, 1934, the NHL board of directors organized a game to be played for Bailey's benefit between the Maple Leafs and a team of the league's best players.