Month: January 2022

Medically Home Gains $110M Strategic Investment

Posted on by Jason Barry

The hospital-at-home space continues to pick up speed as Medically Home announces a new $110M round and a fresh set of strategic partners.

  • The round was led by medtech company Baxter International and mobile care provider Global Medical Response, joining Cardinal Health, Mayo Clinic, and Kaiser Permanente who added to previous investments. Each investor is now a strategic partner in Medically Home, a strong sign of confidence in the company’s expansion plans.
  • Medically Home’s platform enables in-home care for high-acuity patients through the use of RPM devices, emergency response systems, and durable medical equipment installation. Providers use these tools to continuously monitor and communicate with patients from a customized “command center.”
  • The new strategic partners strengthen Medically Home’s care delivery model. GMR’s network of 30k deployable clinicians will provide quicker response times, while Baxter’s involvement will give care teams access to a wider set of therapies for critical conditions.
  • Although the funding’s purpose was not explicitly stated in the press release, it’s clear that Medically Home is intent on expanding its capabilities, and $110M is a healthy amount of capital to begin scaling its services nationwide.

The Takeaway

Medically Home operates at the intersection of several key trends. The pandemic has made brick-and-mortar settings dangerous for the type of high-acuity patients that Medically Home treats, many hospitals are operating at or near capacity, and consumer preferences are increasingly shifting towards comfortability and in-home care. Medically Home’s services address each of these directly, and judging by its growing partner roster, many companies share a belief in the care model.

Rock Health Funding Trends for 2021

Posted on by Jason Barry

Regular Digital Health Wire readers could probably guess that 2021 was a spectacular year for digital health funding, and Rock Health’s latest full-year report confirms that investment in the space topped even the most bullish expectations.

  • Total funding for US digital health startups climbed to $29.1B across 729 investments, nearly doubling 2020’s former record of $14.9B. The growth was shaped by 88 different $100M+ rounds combining for $16.6B, including four of the largest digital health raises of the decade: Noom ($540M), Ro ($500M), Mindbody ($500M), and Commure ($500M). [Chart 1]
  • M&A activity grew at a similarly breakneck pace, with 272 M&A moves easily eclipsing 2020’s total of 146. Last year also saw a record 23 companies go public through either SPAC mergers (15) or IPOs (8), shattering the previous record of 8 exits set in 2020. [Chart 2]
  • The most funded value propositions of the year included R&D catalysts such as decentralized trials ($5.8B) and on-demand healthcare ($4.5B). Healthcare marketplaces were among the fastest growing segments, with 3.2x funding growth driven by D2C marketplaces like Mindbody and caregiver marketplaces like Honor. [Chart 3]
  • Mental healthcare was the most popular clinical indication among investors ($5.1B), raising $3.3B more than any other clinical focus. Outside of the pandemic’s less-than-stellar impact on many people’s mental health, this area has seen a funding frenzy due to the rise of virtual behavioral health platforms such as Lyra Health and NOCD. [Chart 4]

Bubble Watch

Despite last year’s record breaking digital health funding, Rock Health’s view on the market was that it “wasn’t an across-the-board bubble, but it wasn’t placid water either.” Many companies are exceeding pre-pandemic projections by wide margins, and it’s possible that historical digital health benchmarks are too low, as opposed to today’s valuations being too high. If these companies can find a way to sustain their momentum beyond the pandemic, there’s a chance we could see a repeat performance in 2022.

Mobile Technology for Hospitalists

Posted on by Jason Barry

Mobile technology such as smartphones and tablets might not be living up to expectations when applied in the hospital setting, at least according to a new study published in JMIR Human Factors.

The purpose of the study was to identify difficult tasks and contextual factors that introduce inefficiencies to the hospital workflow, with the goal of informing better integration of mobile technology.

  • Methods – The researchers recruited 12 hospitalists at a 200-bed VA hospital in Indiana to undergo interviews guided by the Systems Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety framework, which analyzes five factors (people, environment, tasks, tools, and organization) to describe how providers’ work systems impact outcomes.
  • Results – The hospitalists identified chart reviews, orders, and documentation as the most redundant or difficult tasks, with most of the issues associated with a lack of access to EHRs at the bedside. Participants noted that many apps are designed to be broadly useful, causing them to lack task-specific features that would improve usability.

When asked about ideas for mobile technology, participants prioritized reduction in task time and task completion at bedside, leading to three representative examples of needed tech:

  • Apps that improve patient-provider communication and entering orders at bedside
  • Note-taking apps with sharing features and nurse contact information
  • Apps for electronic consent

The Takeaway

Although this was only a small study, the theme that emerged in the interview responses was clear: designing for the many overlooks the needs of the few. All participants reported that mobile apps with missing features are quickly abandoned in favor of “their memory” or “pen and paper,” while the most useful apps address a specific problem with a purpose-built solution.

Vera Acquires Castlight for $370M

Posted on by Jason Barry

Healthcare’s long march towards value-based care recently took another step forward with the announcement that Vera Whole Health is acquiring care navigation company Castlight Health for approximately $370M.

Vera will acquire all outstanding shares of Castlight for $2.05 per share (a 25% premium), which will be welcome news for recent investors but do little to ease the losses of those that picked up shares for nearly $40 following Castlight’s 2014 IPO. 

  • Castlight’s digital platform combines health benefits and care navigation to help employers and health plans make better decisions surrounding plan design, while also enabling members to easily connect with “the right care at the right time.”
  • Vera’s model centers around whole-person care through its network of primary care providers and clinics. The company operates entirely at risk, allowing it to retain any savings from care management after a flat per-member, per-month rate for customers.
  • The combined company aims to scale value-based care in the employer market by integrating Castlight’s navigation platform with Vera’s clinical network, while also allowing employers to participate in full risk-sharing for their commercial populations.

The Takeaway

Merging value-based primary care with navigation has been a go-to strategy for providers looking to offer more personalized care while simultaneously controlling expenses. We saw a similar move with the merger of Doctor on Demand and Grand Rounds early last year, and Vera’s acquisition of Castlight could be a sign of more consolidation to come in 2022.

Anchors Improve App-Guided Meditation

Posted on by Jason Barry

Although previous mental health research has shown numerous benefits to persistent app-guided meditation practices, few users consistently engage at a level necessary to attain the benefits.

A recent study published in JMIR investigated whether anchors help to establish a persistent app-guided meditation routine, allowing more users to realize the complete benefits.

Anchoring is the pairing of app-guided meditation with an existing daily routine to help develop the practice as an unconscious habit and improve consistency. Example anchors used in the study include “after I finish breakfast in the morning” or “after I finish my coffee in the afternoon.”

Methods – Researchers randomly assigned participants to one of three study groups, which each received reminders to meditate for at least 10 min/day using the Calm app and one of the following anchoring strategies:

  • personalized anchor group (PA, n=56) – could select from a list of possible anchors
  • fixed anchor group (FA, n=49) – was assigned a specific anchor
  • control group (n=62) – did not use any anchoring strategy

Results – During the 8-week intervention, the FA group had significantly higher odds of daily meditation than any other group (1.14 OR), and all participants experienced a linear decline in daily meditation (0.96 OR). Interestingly, the FA group also showed the smallest decline in daily meditation odds during an 8-week follow-up, suggesting that assigned anchors may improve meditation consistency more than self-selected ones. This chart highlights the results nicely.

Impact – Meditation apps are among the most scalable treatments for a variety of disorders, and could have the potential to help level the supply-demand imbalance between mental health providers and patients. Despite their promise, high attrition among app users is a large barrier, but positive results such as these continue to help address the issue.

Babylon Accelerates US Expansion With Higi Acquisition

Posted on by Jason Barry

Babylon Health finalized its acquisition of Higi, which manufactures Smart Health Station kiosks frequently found in pharmacies and grocery stores.

Babylon became a strategic investor in Higi in mid-2020 before it began integrating its symptom-checking and care navigation solutions into the company’s kiosks, a pilot test that appears to have been successful. 

  • Babylon helps patients through two primary services: Babylon 360 (AI-enabled value-based care) and Babylon Cloud Services (cloud-based data analytics suite). The company’s AI platform is designed to improve provider decisions surrounding triage and symptom assessment, while also helping patients navigate their care journeys.
  • Higi’s network of over 10k FDA-cleared kiosks can be found within five miles of 73% of the US population, providing screenings for blood pressure, weight, and body mass index. The company pairs these stations with at-home devices and a nationwide clinical network to assist healthcare organizations with remote monitoring.
  • The acquisition follows Babylon’s $200M funding round in October, which was led by sustainability-focused firm AlbaCore to help the company provide care to under-served populations. The new capital was earmarked for expanding Babylon’s US member base and value-based care applications, and the Higi acquisition checks both boxes.

The Takeaway

Meeting consumers where they are has been one of the biggest digital health trends following the onset of the pandemic, and acquiring Higi’s large kiosk network is an on-theme way to kick off Babylon’s US expansion. Babylon can now extend its care platform to millions of existing Higi customers, while gaining a foothold in retail healthcare to serve as a new entry point to its care ecosystem.

Digital Health Trends to Watch in 2022

Posted on by Jason Barry

Happy New Year, and welcome to the first Digital Health Wire of 2022. The past year was anything but boring for those working in digital health, with the pandemic continuing to expose the strengths and weaknesses of our healthcare system.

As with any new year, 2022 brings its own set of challenges for digital health companies to address, and a new roundup of the trends connecting them together.

  • Data Dominance – EHRs, wearables, and telehealth solutions are among the long list of technologies ushering in a new era of healthcare data collection, and leveraging this data to improve outcomes will be a centerpiece of digital health strategies in 2022 and beyond. As more data is able to be collected, more impactful insights will be able to be distilled, and Oracle’s recent acquisition of Cerner is likely a sign of more action to come in the pursuit of patient data.
  • Hospital at Home – Over the past year, the remote care space has gained a lot of momentum, with organizations like Moving Health Home beginning to advocate for policies that enable home-based clinical care. At the same time, remote care providers like DispatchHealth and Current Health have seen a surge in utilization, which will help to generate data demonstrating the effectiveness of home-care models and could accelerate regulatory support.
  • Less Tuck-In Acquisitions – Last year saw record digital health M&A activity by nearly every metric, but the rising valuations of private startups could start to have a negative impact on the total number of acquisitions. Tuck-in acquisitions, where larger businesses acquire companies for their talent or technology, might begin to see a slowdown if younger startups continue to command higher multiples earlier in their life cycles.
  • More Mergers – Although it’s possible that investor enthusiasm is making smaller companies less attractive as acquisition targets, it is also creating a landscape of well-funded startups that will be looking at consolidation as a way to combine strengths, such as with the recent merger of Ginger and Headspace.
  • Behavioral Health Spotlight – Behavioral health is among the fastest growing segments of digital health, with a stress-inducing pandemic simultaneously lowering the stigma surrounding mental illness while increasing mental health literacy. These circumstances have created a large disconnect between the supply of mental health providers and the demand from patients, and the companies tackling this problem will continue to attract a lot of attention from consumers and investors alike.

It’s hard to say which, if any, of these trends will be the top story of the next 12 months, but it seems likely that we’re heading into another year with more innovation than can fit into a five-bullet roundup. Wishing you the best in 2022, Digital Health Wire readers!

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