Lunit opens European unit to hasten expansion

Lunit opens European unit to hasten expansion

South Korean medical AI company Lunit has announced its decision to establish a wholly-owned subsidiary in Europe.According to a press release, Lunit Europe Holdings will be based in Amsterdam in the Netherlands and will begin local staff recruitment shortly. 
WHY IT MATTERS
Although Lunit had a branch office which previously managed its European business, its subsidiary in the continent will allow it to plan for the expansion of its sales network and fortify existing partnerships there. 
According to data from Statista, the European medical device market is expected to be worth $136 billion this year. Its biggest segment is cardiology devices with a projected…

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Health benefits platform Collective Health announces layoffs

Health benefits platform Collective Health announces layoffs

Collective Health, a health benefits management platform, has laid off 54 employees as it arranges its workforce to better align with customer needs. The company’s CEO, Ali Diab, announced the layoffs on LinkedIn, saying the employees were being let go due to a “workforce reduction,” while urging companies that may encounter those employees during the hiring process to provide them with “strong consideration.”
Collective Health acts as a third-party health benefits administrator, bringing companies’ various benefits into one platform to let employers manage their offerings while assisting employees with navigating their healthcare.
“We can confirm that as part of a restructuring of our workforce,…

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Q&A: How the PHE's end could affect telehealth, patient care

Q&A: How the PHE’s end could affect telehealth, patient care

The public health emergency declared in early 2020 was put in place to provide waivers from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to ease the burden on hospitals and other providers during the pandemic. It has been extended 12 times since its implementation and is finally slated to end on May 11. Heather Meade, principal at Washington Council Ernst & Young, spoke with MobiHealthNews about how the end of the PHE could affect telemedicine companies’ funding streams and patients’ access to care.  
MobiHealthNews: What are the benefits and detriments to the PHE ending, especially for telehealth?
Meade: I mean, we need permanent policy…

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VinBrain harnesses Stanford data to improve radiology AI

VinBrain harnesses Stanford data to improve radiology AI

Vietnamese healthcare AI developer VinBrain has started a new partnership with Stanford University to enhance AI medical imaging.Based on their latest data use agreement, Stanford will initially provide VinBrain access to about 240,000 anonymised medical images and reports to train and test the AI on its DrAid clinical decision support platform while also helping improve the accuracy of an information extracting method for structuring radiology reports called RadGraph.
WHY IT MATTERS
According to VinBrain, its latest partnership with Stanford aims to enhance efficiency in radiology reports while “tackling complexity, ambiguity, and limitations in medical image interpretation.”
Through Stanford’s support, the company will be able…

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Roundup: First insomnia DTx in South Korea gets regulatory nod and more briefs

Roundup: First insomnia DTx in South Korea gets regulatory nod and more briefs

South Korea clears first local insomnia DTx The South Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety has given its first market approval for a digital therapeutic device for treating insomnia, according to a news report.
The mobile-based medical device-as-a-software called Somzz by Aimmed delivers a CBT programme that helps increase sleep duration.
India OKs health monitoring smartwatch CardiacSense
Xplore Health, a medical tech company in India, has received approval from the Indian Regulatory Authority for a wearable health monitoring device it carries.
The company is the distributor of the medical smartwatch product of Israeli medical device developer CardiacSense.
Based on a news report, the smartwatch enables continuous monitoring of vital…

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Retail disruptors face big strategy questions in 2023, says AHA

Retail disruptors face big strategy questions in 2023, says AHA

A new report from the American Hospital Association Center for Health Innovation explores how retail companies and tech giants like Apple and Google will drive transformational change in healthcare delivery in 2023 and beyond.WHY IT MATTERS
With billions of dollars invested this past year, such as CVS Health’s purchase of Signify Health, the AHA report highlights retail healthcare companies having grabbed significant market share in primary care, concierge medicine, virtual care and in-home medical services. 
They’ve also broadened their reach into pharmacy benefits management, behavioral health and other areas, said AHA researchers in the report.
One example is Amazon. While the company is in the process of buying…

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Digital MSK startup IncludeHealth scores $11M and more digital health fundings

Digital MSK startup IncludeHealth scores $11M and more digital health fundings

Digital musculoskeletal (MSK) health company IncludeHealth announced it had raised $11 million in a funding round led by CincyTech with participation from Tamarind Hill and other investors.The company said it would use the funds to expand MSK-OS, its virtual care platform for delivering musculoskeletal care and physical therapy. Late last year, IncludeHealth announced a partnership with Yale New Haven Health System to offer a hybrid MSK care model for the system’s patients using the platform. 
In addition to the funding round, the startup said it had hired Ray Shealy as COO and added Grant Koster, who served as senior vice president of…

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Medication risk analysis company MDI Health raises $20M

Medication risk analysis company MDI Health raises $20M

Healthcare analytics company MDI Health scored $20 million in Series A funding, bringing the company’s total funding to $26 million.Intel Capital led the round, with participation from Maverick Ventures Israel, alongside existing investors Fresh.Fund, Arc Impact, Hanaco Ventures, Jumpspeed Ventures, former Optum senior vice president Richard Montwill, Welltech Ventures and Basad Ventures.
Yoni Greifman, Intel Capital’s investment director, will join MDI’s board of directors.
WHAT IT DOES
Israel-based MDI offers an AI-enabled tool that provides medication risk analysis based on a patient’s medical records with the aim of preventing adverse drug reactions.
The funds will help the company scale its U.S. and Israeli research and…

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Primary care tech company Elation Health acquires billing platform Lightning MD

Primary care tech company Elation Health acquires billing platform Lightning MD

Elation Health, which offers tools for telehealth, patient engagement and an EHR geared toward primary care providers, announced on Thursday that it had acquired billing and practice-management company Lightning MD.Elation said it would combine the billing and revenue cycle software with its tools to offer an all-in-one product in beta starting this summer. Practices who use other management and billing software through Elation’s API will still have that option. 
Founded in 2017, Lightning MD partnered to integrate with Elation’s services last year. 
“Healthcare technology is rapidly evolving, particularly in the primary care sector where we have the greatest opportunity to improve patient outcomes and…

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Ensuring digital health solutions help, not harm

Ensuring digital health solutions help, not harm

A healthcare risk prediction algorithm used on more than 200 million people across the country was found to demonstrate racial bias.One-third of the top 100 hospitals in the U.S. were found to be using a tracking tool called Meta Pixel to collect and send patients’ personal health information to Facebook without their consent.
Pulse oximeters – digital products that use infrared light beams to measure the amount of oxygen in the blood – have transformed the way we care for people with conditions from heart failure to COVID, but are inaccurate for people with dark skin.
How do these egregious practices pass through…

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