CellScope [TA 9 Apr 2009, 10 Jan], a recent graduate of Rock Health’s first class of startups, announced its raising of $1 million in seed funding from Khosla Ventures. It develops optical devices to smartphones to turn them into diagnostic-quality imaging systems for use in home health and telemedicine consults. Note that our first article on them was three years ago, which gives you an idea of the development to funding curve. Rock Health release
Independa announced today at the Digital Health Summer Summit in San Diego (say that three times fast!) that it is incorporating the 2net™ Platform from Qualcomm Life, a cloud-based service, into its Artemis suite of telecare monitoring. The significance of this is that it closes interoperability gaps–the objective of organizations such as Continua, for instance–and it gives the relatively new Independa’s systems more options for tracking older adults’ well-being, as well as telehealth data. Release
Hughes Telematics, which is 1/3 owner of the Lifecomm MPERS JV (with Qualcomm and AMAC/Tunstall), agreed to be acquired by Verizon Communications effective in 3rd Quarter 2012. Handicappers on this side of the Atlantic see this as a ‘take that‘ to AT&T’s various ventures in healthcare, as Hughes auto/truck telematics technology can greatly expand Verizon’s scope and distribution in mHealth and connected in-car devices. Notably the Lifecomm JV has been roiled a bit by two out of three partners being acquired in the past year. eWeek article, Verizon release
EHRs distracting doctors from patient care? Really? 73% say yes. That’s according to a 500-physician survey by online physician community Sermo and EHR provider athenahealth. The ‘reader’s digest’ version on EHRs is at iHealthBeat. (See below on how patient notes get lost in EHRs) But..there’s more. They ain’t happy about ACOs (39%), insurer intrusiveness (83%) or the ACA (a/k/a Obamacare) in every aspect queried, either. See the full Sturm und Drang at Healthcare IT News.
Top 11 emerging chronic disease technologies to watch Yes, including ‘Home Telehealth’. HealthcareFinanceNews.
