Maarten van Smeden turning to Twitter for help in one of clinical research’s classic battles.

Digital Health

Sonde Raises $19M for Voice-Based Screening

Sonde Health puts a few unique spins on the hard problem of early disease detection, but its core tech is built around doing one thing extremely well: flagging patients at risk for health conditions using short voice clips.

Now, after landing a string of new partnerships and $19.25M in Series B funding, Sonde is turning its sights to global expansion.

Sonde’s AI-enabled platform analyzes vocal biomarkers like smoothness, pitch, and clarity to gain insight into a patient’s mental state. It also measures breath cadence and vocal capacity to gauge their respiratory health.

• This data isn’t positioned as a standalone solution for diagnosing medical conditions, but as a way to improve the clinical workflows of physicians / therapists, the patient stratification of RPM programs, and the value of call center audio.

• Sonde’s platform can be embedded directly onto device chipsets for passive health monitoring, a feature that’s already being explored within Qualcomm’s smartphone chips and GN Group’s hearing products.

• This technology also produces a treasure trove of every healthcare startup’s favorite asset – data. Sonde claims to have the largest and most diverse health-labeled voice dataset, with over 1.2M voice clips from 85k users across four continents.

The latest funding will help Sonde expand into Asia, where it’s reportedly seen high demand for its existing solutions, and support the addition of more health conditions to its platform.

• A validation study of Sonde’s mental health tools is underway at McMaster University, and research on new focus areas is in development at Cambridge University (cystic fibrosis) and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (dementia).

• A partnership with Korean telecom giant KT corporation should also streamline the international expansion by bringing Sonde into its call centers and telehealth solutions.

The Takeaway

Although voice-tech is a relatively new healthcare arena, the prospect of passively diagnosing conditions has attracted plenty of competition from startups like Kintsugi ($20M Series A in March) and Eleos ($20M Series A in April), and it’s definitely on the radar of larger players like Microsoft (Nuance) and Amazon (Alexa).

As these companies begin to refine the AI models supporting voice diagnosis, access to proprietary data sets for training the algorithms will become increasingly important for gaining an edge, and Sonde’s funding announcement makes it clear that it plans on turning its dataset into its biggest competitive advantage as quickly as possible.

How Medallion Helped Skintap Launch in 15 States

In order to launch and scale, Skintap had to build a network of dermatologists who could see patients across the US. Learn how Medallion helped Skintap’s providers get licensed in over 15 states in less than four months – without any headaches and well before their launch date.

The New Standard for Prescription Safety

Synapse Medicine’s quick-deploy Prescription Assistance API and components can be up and running in less than a day and instantly connect your HCPs to real-time drug data and prescribing support. Find out how easy it can be to equip your providers with the tools they need to ensure prescription safety and precision for their patients.

The Wire

• Amazon Ends 3P HIPAA Apps: Amazon is ending support for sharing HIPAA-protected information through third-party Alexa apps, which includes the removal of all apps that utilized the feature (including Teladoc for Alexa). Alexa’s HIPAA-compliant feature originally launched in 2019 to allow third-party developers to create their own programs that took advantage of the voice assistant, and while those developers will no longer have that ability, it’s important to note that Amazon will still be building first-party HIPAA-compliant features within its own Alexa Smart Properties for Healthcare business unit. 

• symplr & CHIME Point Solutions Survey: A new survey from symplr and CHIME found that 60% of CIOs are juggling over 50 point solutions to manage healthcare operations, with 24% using more than 150 applications between workforce, provider data, and compliance management. Unsurprisingly, 88% of the 132 executives surveyed felt that working with this many different applications complicates their job, and 84% believed that streamlining these solutions is critical to reducing burnout and retaining talent. 

• Humana VBC: Humana’s annual value-based care update gave a good high-level view of Humana’s Medicare Advantage business and the broader VBC market, showing that 68% of the payor’s MA beneficiaries are now under some form of VBC contract. Humana’s VBC contracts now account for over 74k providers and 3M members, but considering that 66% of Humana’s MA beneficiaries were in VBC contracts in 2017, it looks like the biggest takeaway is that secular MA growth is driving the business as opposed to any shift away from FFS.

• Plug-and-Play RPM Software: SmartFuture introduced its new RPM Software Development Kit, offering plug-and-play integration with over 400 wireless medical devices (e.g. Omron, Abbott, Roche) and most popular EMR platforms. The RPM SDK works with a range of wearable devices like oximeters and ECG monitors to let developers quickly implement white-labeled RPM capabilities within existing apps.

• September Telehealth Use: Fair Health’s Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker showed that telehealth use remained stable between August and September, accounting for 5.4% of total visits. Although mental health conditions retained the lion’s share of all telehealth diagnoses, it’s really interesting to see how the distribution has changed between now and the beginning of the pandemic.

• CMS Prior Auth Rule: CMS proposed a new rule meant to streamline prior authorization by requiring payors to implement additional electronic processes, shorten their response times for physician requests, and provide reasons for denials. Payor advocacy organization AHIP voiced support for the rule in part because it would also establish standardized data exchange processes to help payors transfer data when patients change health plans. If the new rule is finalized, the policies would take effect in 2026.

• Sutter Integrates GetWell Loop: California-based Sutter Health is integrating Get Well’s digital care platform, GetWell Loop, into its Scout virtual resource to help young adults manage their mental health through personalized educational content delivered via text or email. GetWell Loop will streamline the user experience of accessing the resources, providing feedback on the content, and reaching out to human support within a single tool.

• Population Health Adoption: A Numerof & Associates survey of 300 C-suite healthcare executives found that more than 80% believe population health-based approaches will be “critically” or “very important” to the future success of their organization. According to the respondents, only 25% feel “very” or “completely” prepared to transition to a financial model focused on patient outcomes and utilization, and 21% cite the threat of financial loss as the largest obstacle standing in the way of their organization moving to a pop health strategy.

• Automating Equipment Deliveries: Tomorrow Health unveiled a new Clinical Rules Engine designed to automate the ordering of durable medical equipment when patients transition from the hospital to at-home care. The EHR-integrated engine utilizes a five-step provider questionnaire tailored to patient health plans that allows providers to send necessary equipment requests directly to the supplier, reportedly cutting down the time it takes for the patient to receive the equipment from 9 days to 36 hours. 

• Highmark Medically-Tailored Meals: Highmark Health launched a pilot program to provide medically-tailored meals to 1k members who are at high-risk of food insecurity and have an eligible chronic condition: chronic kidney disease, congestive heart failure, hypertension, and diabetes. During the six-month pilot, participants will receive two medically-tailored meals per day and access to a wellness coach to help address SDOH factors, which is projected to reduce members’ total cost of care by 10-16%. 

• FDA Cleared AR/VR Devices: The FDA’s Digital Health Center of Excellence recently published a list of all 39 fully cleared augmented reality / virtual reality devices, including the eight devices that have been approved so far this year. Although the list includes several products that we’ve covered before (MindMotionPRO from MindMaze, EaseVRx from AppliedVR), it was surprising to see how many AR/VR solutions are being deployed in other areas, particularly orthopedics and radiology.

Work When You Want, On Your Terms

connectRN is the leading nurse community created to connect nurses with each other, provide career support, and deliver flexible work opportunities. Find out how the platform provides access to work flexibility and the vital resources nurses need to build a thriving career.

Streamlining Care With BrainInsight AI

Discover how Hyperfine’s BrainInsight AI tools are streamlining patient care by giving clinicians the quantitative biomarker information needed to reduce the burden of manual brain MRI measurements and decrease the time to diagnose and treat.

Patient Engagement for a VP of Patient Experience

Nuance’s patient engagement guide for hospital execs gives a patient’s-eye view of the engagement experience and explores what the growing demand for convenient interactions means for the VP of Patient Experience.