|
Maven, Suki, Glooko | Carequality Resolution
October 14, 2024
|
|
|
|
|
Together with
|
|
|
|
“At the bottom, you’ve got core technology – network switches, routers. Right above that, you have security. Only after you have those two can you put on top of that application, and then data on top of that. Only at the very top, the self-actualization piece, is AI. As leaders, all of us need to be thinking about the entire pyramid, not just picking one or the other.”
|
|
CommonSpirit Health CIO Daniel Barchi
|
|
|
|
It isn’t every week we see digital health startups score a hat trick of massive funding rounds – let alone one that rakes in a combined $295M – but Maven Clinic, Suki, and Glooko clearly came to play.
Maven Clinic kicked off the action by closing $125M of Series F funding and vaulting its valuation to $1.7B. The women’s and family health startup also gave us a behind-the-scenes peek at its 10-year roadmap:
- Fertility Benefits – Maven’s fertility benefits administration product has brought millions of lives under management since launching last year, and it’s leaning in on forming more clinic partnerships to create a seamless experience between Maven’s virtual care model, financial platform, and in-person treatments.
- VBC – The maternity program that serves as the bedrock of Maven’s platform is moving past “phase one” by using real-time data to engage members with a broader ecosystem of services, enabling Maven to take on full-risk and align incentives with outcomes.
- Engagement – Soon-to-be-announced AI capabilities will bolster Maven’s engagement engine with more insights into fertility, maternity, and family building, as well as often-overlooked areas like return-to-work, parenting, and menopause.
Next up we saw ambient AI startup Suki land $70M of Series D financing on the heels of adding over a dozen new health systems in the past few months.
- The release highlighted an expanded partnership with MedStar Health that’ll make Suki Assistant available to thousands of clinicians across specialties including primary care, cardiology, and gastroenterology.
- Suki also teased plans to expand beyond its existing Suki Assistant and Suki Platform offerings, although details were sparse on what that might entail.
Glooko rounded out last week’s top scorers with a $100M Series F round and the appointment of a new CEO to guide the digital diabetes developer through its next chapter.
- Freshly appointed chief Mike Alvarez will accelerate the global expansion of Glooko’s solution suite that helps diabetics take control of their condition and equips care teams with a unified platform for managing devices, data, and engagement.
The Takeaway
Digital health startups are off to a hot start in Q4, and Maven Clinic, Suki, and Glooko are the ones cranking up the heat. All signs are pointing to more late-stage mega-rounds as companies look to shore up their balance sheets and bridge the gap to a quickly thawing IPO market, unless of course they’re already eager to diveright in.
|
|
|
Building a Clinician-Led Culture of Innovation
Nabla Chief Clinical Director Andrew Lundquist sat down with the Digital Thoughts podcast to discuss how one of the best ways to improve patient care has been hiding in plain sight: give clinicians more time. Listen to the full episode to learn about the new technologies helping to tackle some of healthcare’s most timeless challenges.
|
|
A First Principles Approach to Responsible AI
Playback Health has over 15 years of experience breaking down complicated technology problems into basic elements then reassembling new solutions from the ground up, and just published a short-and-sweet guide to help others take a “first principles approach” to responsible AI.
|
|
High-Quality Care at Patient Fingertips
K Health is making high-quality medical care a reality for patients everywhere by turning their smartphones into the first stop along their care journey. Discover how K Health’s clinical-grade AI is reducing time-to-treatment and improving the patient experience while allowing more providers to practice at the top of their license.
|
|
- Carequality on Epic v. Particle: Carequality’s final resolution on the dispute between Epic and Particle found that a handful of Particle’s customers improperly accessed patient records for non-treatment purposes, yet Particle wasn’t to blame since it maintained robust processes for vetting users. Epic naturally took that as confirmation that Particle users violated its rules, while Particle said it proved Epic’s original claims were baseless. Either way, Epic agreed to implement more transparency with data exchange, and the saga now continues with Epic and Particle’s ongoing antitrust lawsuit.
- Health System Monopolies: A KFF study found that hospital consolidation has caused 47% of U.S. metropolitan areas to have just one or two health systems controlling all inpatient care. As of 2022, 67% of hospitals were under health system ownership, up from 56% a decade earlier. With nearly a third of all health spending going toward hospital care, antitrust regulators continue to weigh whether mergers benefit patients through higher quality care or increase costs through diminished competition.
- Microsoft AI Advances: Microsoft ramped up its healthcare AI push with the introduction of new medical imaging foundation models, a healthcare agent service in Copilot Studio, and a deeper collaboration with Epic centered around nursing workflows. Epic and Microsoft are actively working with a long list of major systems – including Advocate Health, Mercy, and Intermountain – to build an ambient AI solution that drafts flowsheets for review, allowing nurses to shift more attention from paperwork to patients. No mention of an expected launch date.
- Inboxoligists to the Rescue: Corewell Health West published solid results from a pilot program for an in-basket triage system involving an RN completing initial triage and an advanced practice provider serving as an “inboxologist.” The model helped PCPs handle 41% fewer messages and spend 47% less time on received messages, resulting in a 93% reduction of time-to-resolution for patient messages and significantly improved satisfaction scores.
- Clarify Launches Performance IQ Suite: Clarify launched its Performance IQ Suite to deliver AI-powered insights to health plans and others seeking to optimize provider networks and manage costs effectively. The Performance IQ Suite supports everything from provider performance assessments and referral optimization to competitive landscape analysis and network design. The launch coincided with a sleek rebranding that highlights Clarify’s “stackable building blocks” to achieve healthcare’s double bottom line: delivering margin aligned to mission.
- Dangers of TikTok: Discouraging new CDC data on youth mental health revealed over three-quarters of students use social media several times a day, and those with the most usage also reported the most frequent bullying. About 40% of adolescents reported feeling persistently sad or hopeless, with an alarming 20% having seriously considered suicide. On the same day as the report, over a dozen states filed lawsuits against TikTok alleging the app’s algorithm and feature design is harmful to youth mental health and especially addictive to children.
- DiMe x Google x Mayo Clinic: DiMe is joining forces with Google and Mayo Clinic to build an action-oriented playbook for health systems looking to implement AI while maximizing its impact and market reach. The power trio will convene industry experts and patient groups to develop best practices and tools to optimize AI for evolving care delivery settings, taking a long-term view to future-proof the playbook and avoid the pitfalls of many “need-it-now” AI roadmaps.
- Hospital Tax Breaks: Nearly 3,000 U.S. non-profit hospitals received a combined $37.4B in tax breaks in 2021. A joint analysis from TCU and Johns Hopkins revealed that just 7% of the hospitals accounted for half of the tax benefits, with the amount varying significantly from state to state. Sales, property, and state income tax accounted for a whopping 55% of the benefits, while less than a third were federal (31%). The authors stress that policy efforts to strengthen accountability will likely be more effective when pursued at the local level.
- Reporting Gaps for AI Med Devices: A scoping review in Nature investigated reporting gaps for 692 FDA-approved AI/ML-enabled medical devices, finding that many sociodemographic factors remain woefully underreported. Only 3.6% of approvals reported race/ethnicity, just 18.4% included the age of study subjects, and less than 1% provided any socioeconomic data at all. Even more surprisingly, under half (46.1%) included comprehensive results of performance studies, and only a small fraction linked to peer-reviewed safety/efficacy data (2%) or a prospective study for post-market surveillance (9%).
- Improving Trends for Hospital EDs: An EDBA survey of 1,165 hospital EDs (covering more than 40M patients) showed decent improvements to ED length of stay despite ongoing challenges with boarding at high-volume facilities. Dedicated staff for improving ED flow and fewer pandemic-related complications led to ED length of stay decreasing from 184 minutes in 2023 to 205 minutes in 2022. Boarding times fell to 110 minutes from 182 the year prior, although EDs with over 80k patients annually still saw boarding times of 178 minutes.
- WebMD Coach Debut: WebMD Ignite unveiled Coach, a new care management solution that allows payors to easily deliver educational resources and promote member engagement. Coach integrates into health plan care managers’ workflows through a centralized app that allows them to target resources at precise populations then encourage behavior change with automated recommendations for specific content.
|
|
Lift MA Plan Performance by Impacting SDoH
Social factors and non-medical issues strongly influence health outcomes, and addressing these contributing determinants of health can not only improve the lives of patients, but also enhance Medicare Advantage plan success. Learn how Clear Arch Health’s remote monitoring services are helping MA plans deliver cost-effective care while enabling more seniors to age independently.
|
|
RPM Made Easy with a User-Friendly Platform
Seamlessly integrate Withings RPM with your existing EHR system and empower your care team to focus on what matters most – patient care.
|
|
Navigate the Future of Healthcare AI at Elevate
Join Medallion at Elevate on October 30th and experience the top minds in healthcare coming together to share bold ideas and connect in an informal, down-to-business setting. This was hands-down the best virtual conference we attended last year, and the lineup for 2024 is packed with execs from orgs like from VillageMD, Multiplan, and Community Health Systems. Take advantage of Elevate by registering here.
|
|
|
|
|
