Category: Health

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