Portfolio News

Time-crunched doctors are relying on remote-working scribes to take notes via video call

Medical scribes first appeared in the 1970s, when they began serving as note-takers for ER physicians. But after the federal HITECH Act motivated healthcare providers to adopt electronic health records, scribing really took off. EHRs were supposed to simplify patient record-keeping, but instead they had the opposite effect, with physicians needing to enter visit data and notes into a cumbersome and time-consuming electronic record. Thus, scribing became a fast-growing field in the U.S. The COVID-19 pandemic has also increased the need for remote scribes because note-takers...

Telemedicine startup Hims closing in on deal to go public: 4 details

Hims, a direct-to-consumer telehealth startup, is close to securing a deal to go public through a merger with special-purpose acquisition company Oaktree Acquisition Corporation, according to a September 25 report in Bloomberg. According to people familiar with the deal, the merger could be announced next week and would place Hims’ value at around $1.6 billion. Oaktree is in talks with investors to raise $75 million to help fund the transaction. Representatives for the two organizations did not comment on the situation. Hims launched in 2017 with a...

2020 Precision Health Virtual Symposium

Evidation Health Director of Strategic Partnerships Bray Patrick-Lake was one of the speakers at the afternoon keynote address at the 2020 Precision Health Virtual Symposium, which focused on how health data is gathered and used in research and how the data is being used for patient care. Patrick-Lake started her talk by saying that some time back, she had a health event that led to a clinical trial, and that clinical trial did not go well, partly because it was designed without input from patients and...

Koneksa Completes $16M Series B Financing to Expand Digital Biomarker Platform

Koneksa, a company that develops and implements patient-centric digital biomarkers for drug development, has closed a $16 million Series B financing round. The funds will be used to expand the development of Koneksa’s digital platform for integrating wearables, sensors, and other patient-facing technologies into clinical research. The round was led by Spring Mountain Capital, with new investors McKesson Ventures, Novartis Pharma AG, and MBX Capital. The company’s existing investors also participated in the round. Since its 2015 launch, Koneksa has partnered with pharmaceutical and biotech companies to...

Illumina to Acquire GRAIL to Launch New Era of Cancer Detection

GRAIL and Illumina have entered into a definitive agreement under which Illumina will acquire GRAIL for cash and stock consideration of $8 billion upon closing of the transaction. In addition, GRAIL stockholders will receive future payments representing a tiered single-digit percentage of certain GRAIL-related revenues. The agreement has been approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies. “Over the last four years, GRAIL’s talented team has made exceptional progress in developing the technology and clinical data required to launch the Galleri™ multi-cancer screening test. Galleri...