Author: Elizabeth

It’s no secret the U.S. healthcare system is frequently hard to navigate, even for industry experts. 

Finding doctors, figuring out insurance and accessing care can be a particular challenge for young people who are doing it for the first time, said Lori Evans Bernstein, CEO and cofounder of Caraway. Young women and others assigned female at birth also face a complex landscape of abortion restrictions as well as a growing need for mental healthcare in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Caraway, which offers virtual mental and physical healthcare geared toward women ages 18 to 27, has been expanding into new states, most recently adding services in Ohio and North Carolina. The startup emerged from stealth over the summer with $10.5 million in seed funding.

Bernstein sat down with MobiHealthNews to discuss Caraway’s rollout in new states and what the startup has learned since its launch in September. 

Editor’s note: This article has been updated with a comment from Apple.

Ten state attorneys general are urging Apple to add new protections for reproductive health data contained in third-party apps hosted on the App Store.

In a letter sent to CEO Tim Cook, attorneys general of California, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, North Carolina, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont and Washington said lax rules for safeguarding reproductive health data could harm patients or providers in the wake of the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. 

The group said location history, search history and adjacent health data — information related to past, present or future reproductive health of the user — could pose a risk to people looking for or providing abortions, birth control or other reproductive care.

The attorneys general argue Apple should require app developers to delete location, search and health data that isn’t required for

Novi Health, a Singapore-based health tech company and specialist clinic, has scored $5 million in a Series A funding round led by Monk’s Hill Ventures.

WHAT IT DOES

Founded in 2018, the company offers a healthcare platform that integrates clinical treatments with behavioural and lifestyle interventions to address chronic conditions.

It has two core digital products: Novi Magnum and Novi Optimum Plus. The former helps people with diabetes control their condition using continuous glucose monitoring technology, coupled with medical care and dietary and lifestyle coaching. A study has found that this programme helped participants reduce HbA1c by 1% and weight by almost 6% over three months. 

Meanwhile, the latter is targeted at people wanting to lose excess weight. It also integrates medical treatment with health coaching to achieve sustainable and healthy weight loss.

WHAT IT’S FOR

Novi Health’s latest funds will be used to hire more people for its technology,

ASX-listed health tech firm CardieX announced it acquired Silicon Valley-based Blumio, a developer of cardiovascular sensor algorithms and data analytics tools.

CardieX focuses on hypertension, cardiovascular health and other arterial health disorders, while Blumio develops wearable-sensor technologies focused on capturing cardiovascular data, including blood pressure measurements. 

The acquisition follows a three-year collaboration between the companies, which determined Blumio’s sensor technology was compatible with CardieX subsidiary ATCOR’s SphygmoCor arterial technology that measures the central aortic pressure waveform.

CardieX will also utilize Blumio’s assets to improve its Arty Heart Health Analytics Platform in its CONNEQT Pulse and for its CONNEQT Band devices.

“Blumio brings a suite of capabilities in wearable sensor development, signal processing and big data analytics expertise that will benefit both of our ATCOR and CONNEQT brands, especially in relation to the ongoing development activities surrounding our CONNEQT Band. This acquisition is a natural extension of our core solutions that

AI-enabled care facility automation platform care.ai announced it raised $27 million in funding led by multi-asset investment firm Crescent Cove Advisors. 

WHAT IT DOES

The Florida-based company’s Smart Care Facility Platform includes a network of sensors spread through a care facility that monitors patients using AI, which allows a facility to collect real-time behavior data for clinical and operational insights.

The funds will help the company help grow the company and deliver “ambient intelligence to healthcare.” 

“The physical, emotional, and economic burden on our caregivers has never been more challenging. Processes remain manual and time-consuming, and care teams are bogged down with burdensome tasks and documentation – and unfortunately, clinicians and patients suffer the consequences,” Chakri Toleti, CEO and founder of care.ai, said in a statement.

“Our mission is to enable the transformational promise of a smart care facility, providing a level of care the world has never seen. We’ve

Israeli startup AEYE Health announced last week it had received FDA 510(k) clearance for its AI-based screening tool for diabetic retinopathy.

The AEYE-DS system, which received the agency’s green light earlier this month, uses images from each eye to detect signs of more-than-mild diabetic retinopathy, a complication from diabetes that can lead to blindness or other serious vision problems. 

It’s currently cleared to use images obtained by the desktop retinal camera Topcon NW-400. AEYE said it was working to receive clearance to use the system with a portable camera, and that it’s studying use for screening glaucomatous optic neuropathy.

“The time has finally come for autonomous screening technology to exceed the efficacy of the human expert,” AEYE board member Dr. Sean Ianchulev said in a statement. “The implications are that it can be practical for deployment on the front lines of population health – the primary care offices,

Denver-based in-home care provider DispatchHealth raised $330 million in funding, with the equity raise led by Optum Ventures. This brings the company’s total raise to over $700 million.

New investors Blue Shield of California, Olayan Group, Adams Street Partners, Pegasus Tech Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank joined in funding. Existing investors supported the round, including Humana, Questa Capital, Oak HC/FT and Echo Health Ventures.

Silicon Valley Bank and K2 HealthVentures led the debt raise. 

The funds will be used to continue building the company’s proprietary platform, called the Last Mile Health Care Technology Platform, aimed to help with care delivery via logistics, clinical support and coordination with other parties in its ecosystem. 

The latest funding round was initially reported by Home Health News.

The recent raise comes after the in-home care provider announced it scored $200 million in Series D funding in early 2021, which brought the company’s total

Elizabeth Holmes, former CEO of the failed blood-testing startup Theranos, on Friday was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison for defrauding investors. 

The sentence ends a years-long saga that raised questions about Silicon Valley’s “move fast and break things” culture, particularly as it relates to healthcare. 

Holmes, 38, was convicted of conspiracy to defraud investors and three counts of wire fraud in January. She faced up to 20 years in prison, and her defense team argued she should be given a maximum sentence of 18 months. Prosecutors aimed to sentence her to 15 years in prison.

Federal Judge Edward Davila said he will also determine how much money Holmes has to pay to investors, if any. 

Holmes gave birth to her first child in 2021, and she’s currently pregnant with her second. 

Theranos was launched in 2003 by a then 19-year-old Holmes, who dropped out of Stanford University.

AI-backed genomic and clinical data company Sema4 announced this week it would exit the reproductive health testing business, shut down its lab in Stamford, Connecticut, and lay off about 500 employees.

The company said it would complete its departure from the segment in the first quarter next year. It will now employ about 1,100 workers. According to a WARN Act Notice filed in Connecticut, the cuts affect 206 employees who report to its headquarters in Stamford, 227 who work in the Stamford lab and 15 from its Branford lab. 

The latest layoffs come months after Sema4 cut around 250 staffers, then around 13% of its workforce, as part of another restructuring. Combined with layoffs from earlier this year, Sema4 said in August it had cut about 30% of its jobs from its legacy business.

By eliminating the reproductive health segment, the company will double down on its GeneDx exome and