Tuesday's short takes

Donna Cusano

NeuroVigil, developer of the iBrain non-invasive EEG monitor [TA 25 Aug] earlier this month received an amazing first round financing–reportedly at a pre-investment valuation twice that of Google and Facebook combined, and for less than 2% of the company’s stock. CNBC, Mobihealthnews (estimating the investment at ‘tens of millions’)……Text4Baby went to Russia [TA 6 May], US State Department announced MAMA–Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action–to bring health SMS to expecting and new mothers in Bangladesh, India and South Africa. The $10 million program involves USAID, Johnson & Johnson, the UN Foundation, mHealth Alliance and BabyCenter LLC, but not Text4Baby. US State announcement…WLSA’s co-founder Robert McCray’s guest article in Mobihealthnews ponders at length ‘Why wireless health matters’ and the industry model it’s moving healthcare to (in the US): music, auto manufacturers or financial services….West Wireless Health Institute (WWHI) recaps its second Health Care Innovation Day in Washington (HCI-DC) in photos and video here (registration required)….and getting ready for summer, Partners Healthcare’s Center for Connected Health’s ‘Step it Up’ is testing two 16-week pilots in Boston schools with networked wireless pedometers with data going to a web portal that tracks step activity and sends the information back to the students.