Last Month In Digital Health - February
CONTENTS: 1)Digital Pharma. 2) Digital Moves 'n' Shakes 3)Wearables & Sensors 4) Digital Mental Health 5) COVID Tech 6) Funding News
1. Digital Pharma
- Biogen & Apple to launch virtual study on cognitive decline. The research project will be conducted using the Apple Watch and iPhone, and is set to begin during 2021
- Almirall partners with Happify Health using Digital Therapeutics to boost Mental Health in Psoriasis patients (1/3 of people with moderate to severe psoriasis suffer from MH issues like anxiety and depression)
- Merck and Philips partner to develop personalised fertility treatment. Remote patient monitoring, cloud-based platform services and AI-enabled ultrasound diagnoses will be used to improve outcomes in fertility treatment
- Abbott to launch App, NeuroSphere myPath, to track and report pain relief in Chronic Pain patients
- UCB Pharma backs epilepsy-focused digital heath startup Nile AI with $29M, becomes majority shareholder and hopes to gain insights from the platform
- Sanofi just announced a €24M collaboration with other French companies, Capgemini and Orange with plans to advance healthcare innovation in Europe
- AstraZeneca deploys Care Access Research tool for COVID-19 treatment clinical trial
- Eli Lilly chips $30M into VC fund aimed at minority-owned healthcare companies
2. Digital Moves 'n' Shakes
- Digital Pill company etectRx inks deal with Digital Therapeutic firm Pear Therapeutics. The pair will meet quarterly to discuss possible integrations and collaborations with the pharma industry.
- Anthem offers details of its new digital health incubator.
- Period and fertility tracking app, Flo gets FTC slap for sharing user data when it promised privacy
- Haven the joint effort by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase to lower costs and provide better healthcare for their employees, has dissolved with experts saying it never had a defined strategy
3. Wearables & Sensors
- Strong rumors that the Apple Watch series 7 could come with Blood Glucose Monitoring
- Amazon reportedly building a bedside sleep apnea monitor
- And Itamar Medical acquires Spry Health to improve remote sleep apnea treatment & plans to develop a wearable remote patient monitoring device for end-to-end digital care for OSA sufferers.
- Veterans Affairs Dept and Fitbit roll out digital health services to 10,000 patients, staff
4. Digital Mental Health
- Pace launches out of private beta with a plan to scale virtual group therapy
- Mind Cure releases mental health digital therapeutic for psychedelic research
5. COVID Tech
- 23andMe releases a free COVID-19 Severity Calculator
- Zocdoc and Notable Health release vaccine administration support tools
- Tech and health companies including Microsoft & Salesforce team up on digital COVID-19 vaccination records
6. Funding News
- Hinge Health scores $300M series D to expand digital musculoskeletal health solution
- Everlywell banks $175M to expand at-home testing
- Color raises $167M funding at $1.5 billion valuation to expand ‘last mile’ of US health infrastructure
- Digital health co K Health raises $132M at $1.4b valuation
- Paige uses computational and digital pathology to help oncologists and pathologists make decisions faster raises $100M Series
- 23andMe scores $82M
- Chronosphere nabs $43M Series B to expand cloud native monitoring tool
- Connecting employer healthcare plans to surgical centers of excellence nets Carrum Health $40M
- DarioHealth nabs Upright Technologies for $31M to expand into digital musculoskeletal market
- VOLTA MEDICAL raises $28M using AI in persistent AFib ablation
- Digital Physiotherapy company SWORD Health closes $25M Series B round to accelerate company growth
- Liva Healthcare raises €24.5M to drive European leadership in digital chronic disease prevention and management
- Conversa Health expands its Series B round to $20M
- NeuroFlow Secures $20M for Tech-Enabled Behavioral Health Integration Platform
- Lumiata raises $14M for its service to predict healthcare outcomes
- Swiss startup OnlineDoctor completes €5M Series A funding
- New digital mental health startup Hurdle lands $5M to focus on caring for Black communities
- Sano Genetics, a startup helping with Long COVID research, raises £2.5M in seed funding
- Heights raises $2M for its subscription supplements aimed at new ‘braincare’ category