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Commure + Augmedix | Freshpaint Series B
July 22, 2024
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Together with
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“The problem is that healthcare providers are now drowning in data, making it almost useless. They’ve been given the full clinical encyclopedia when all they need is the CliffsNotes summary of the patient’s priorities.”
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Curation Health CEO Kevin Coloton
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Commure is buying the dip in Augmedix, and it isn’t leaving a single share behind.
The take-private transaction will see Commure acquire Augmedix for $139M, which means shareholders are set to receive $2.35 per share – a 150% premium above their last close.
- Not bad for an overnight return, but then again Augmedix was trading at nearly $6 back in January.
Commure provides a healthcare-focused operating system that connects patient care, clinical operations, and administrative functions into a single interface powered by AI.
- Since merging with Athelas late last year, Commure’s solution suite has grown to include everything from patient engagement and RPM to revenue cycle management and staff safety.
- Commure also recently announced its own Commure Scribe documentation solution, which it made available at no cost to providers and will continue to offer alongside Augmedix’s product portfolio.
Augmedix got its start as a tech-focused VC darling before leaning in on scribing, and it took an interesting path to its current position near the front of the ambient AI pack.
- October 2020: Augmedix hits the OTC market through a SPAC merger
- October 2021: Augmedix gets uplisted to the NASDAQ with a $40M public offering
- July 2024: Augmedix gets taken private once again by Commure
The acquisition makes Commure a newfound powerhouse in the healthcare AI arena, with a strong foothold in one of the hottest corners of the market.
- Not only does Augmedix advance Commure’s strategy of using LLMs to consolidate various point solutions into a unified platform, but it also brings along over 20 health system partners – including a marquee collaboration with HCA.
The Takeaway
The ambient AI consolidation has begun, and Commure just fast-tracked its way to a leadership position. Commure has its work cut out for it to prove that its operating system approach makes Augmedix more valuable than the market gave it credit for, but this could mark the start of a new wave of consolidation if it can pull it off.
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- Freshpaint Series B: Data privacy up-and-comer Freshpaint landed $30M in Series B funding to help healthcare organizations unlock high-performance marketing without compromising sensitive information. A string of investigations into sloppy data-sharing practices was quickly followed by regulatory tightening, and Freshpaint’s platform ensures that its customers are staying on the right side of the law by preventing protected data from being shared with tools that aren’t HIPAA-compliant and de-identifying website visitors before their information is used for advertising.
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- Thoughtful AI Raises $20M: Revenue cycle automation company Thoughtful AI raised $20M in Series A funding, which it paired with the launch of three “role-based, fully human-capable” AI Agents. The aptly named agents – CAM, EVA, and PHIL – perform comprehensive workflows for claims processing, patient eligibility verification, and payment posting, slashing the amount of human intervention needed to run provider RCM departments.
- Battle of the LLMs: A new study pitted GPT-4 against Claude3 on a series of 24,500 questions based on objective medical knowledge drawn from Kahun’s Knowledge Graph. Both models performed better on semantic questions (Ex. selecting the most common subtypes of dementia) than numerical questions (Ex. finding the prevalence of dysuria in patients with UTIs), although Claude3 edged out above GPT-4 in both categories (semantic: 68.7% vs. 68.4%, numeric: (63.7% and 56.7%). Human medical professionals stole the show in validation testing, with an overall accuracy of 82.3%.
- The Downside of Wearables: AFib patients are increasingly using consumer wearables for symptom monitoring, but a new JAHA study suggests that the benefits of these devices are getting offset by their negative impact on health anxiety and overutilization. After analyzing 9-months of EHR data for 172 AFib patients (83 who used wearables), the researchers found that wearables users reported high rates of “intense fear and anxiety” (20% of users) and used more healthcare resources like outpatient clinic visits (2.04 vs. 1.33) or portal messages to providers (3.59 vs. 2.41). Cardiac Wire has you covered with all the details.
- VA Scribe Pilot: AI scribes were definitely the flavor of the week, with the Department of Veterans Affairs announcing that Abridge and Nuance came out on top of its AI tech sprint challenge. That means that both companies will now kick off pilot programs to deploy their automated clinical documentation solutions “for test and evaluation in live VA environments.”
- Valuations Come Down to Earth: HSBC’s H1 Healthcare Investment Report confirmed that there’s a comeback brewing for digital health venture funding, with increased activity across every sector. The report touches on many of the same trends that were in Rock Health’s analysis, but added a few interesting takeaways – like the fact that 9 of the 23 late-stage rounds were “down rounds” that reduced the startup’s valuation. HSBC noted that most of these rounds were still viewed as a “relative success” and a healthy correction to overly inflated pandemic-era valuations.
- Heartbeat Funding: Virtual cardiology practice Heartbeat Health scored $25M in Series C funding (total raised now >$52M) that it will use to add to its clinical offering and care team, and expand to more U.S. customers. Heartbeat Health combines a team of cardiovascular clinicians and digital health tools to support a range of virtual care and diagnostic services aimed at closing gaps in cardiovascular disease management.
- Prior Auth Damages: According to the American Medical Association’s annual prior authorization survey, 78% of doctors think issues with prior authorization result in patients forgoing care. The survey of 1,000 physicians showed that 94% believe prior auths “always, often, or sometimes” delayed a patient’s access to necessary care, and 19% reported that those delays have resulted in patients being hospitalized. Prior auths have been in the hot seat over the last few weeks, with multiple other studies turning up the heat.
- KeyCare + CentraCare: KeyCare’s been on a roll, and Minnesota-based CentraCare is now the latest system to give its patients access to around-the-clock urgent care via virtual visits embedded directly in their MyChart portal. Similar to KeyCare’s partnership with Deaconess that was announced less than a month ago, CentraCare is initially focusing on treating minor illnesses to help keep patients out of the ED, although there’s room to expand the collaboration to KeyCare’s other primary care, behavioral health, and specialty-specific solutions.
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