Portfolio News

Finding your ‘why’: Accolade CEO Raj Singh shares lessons learned from his tech career journey

A desire to change the world helps Accolade CEO Raj Singh make big decisions, but it took time for him to find his why. Singh initially became an engineer to please his mother, who really wanted him to be a doctor. He admits he was a mediocre engineer who reluctantly agreed to help his brother Steve, who was getting his own company, Concur, off the ground. As part of that work, he went to San Francisco, where he met people building apps and services. Although what...

Lightship Closes $20M Series B Financing Led by McKesson Ventures and Define Ventures and Appoints David MacMurchy as CEO

Lightship, a provider of enterprise level, direct-to-patient clinical research solutions, announced a $20 million investment led by McKesson Ventures and Define Ventures with participation from Khosala Ventures, Brook Byers, and Marc Benioff. “We launched Lightship over a year ago to transform the existing research landscape,” said Lightshp Co-founder Alon Krashinsky. “Delivered at enterprise scale, we believe this model will accelerate clinical research by as much as 30 to 50 percent. We are thrilled to be able to work with McKesson Ventures and Define Ventures to continue...

Emory Healthcare Takes Data-Driven Approach to Improving Patient Portal

During a recent webinar, OpenNotes Director of Dissemination John Santa, MD, MPH, spoke with several informatics executives at Atlanta’s Emory Healthcare about their work to improve the health system’s three patient portals. The executives described their efforts to deploy a “portal scorecard” to identify and patch weaknesses in the portals. The scorecard asked health systems to note whether their patient portal has certain features or not. Those features included availability of lab results; notes and visit details; prescription renewals and refills; medication summaries; and viewing, scheduling,...

Swiss hospital drones to take off again

Matternet drones grounded after two safety incidents have been given the go-ahead to fly again. The company had been working with Swiss Post to carry lab samples by drone between hospitals. However, after an emergency landing in Lake Zurich following a GPS hardware error and a crash near a children’s play area after a drone parachute malfunction, the drones were grounded. After the second incident, Swiss Post asked Matternet to make several changes to its drones: Reinforce parachute ropes with metal braiding; Have two ropes instead of...

Kyruus Raises $42 Million in New Financing After Delivering Another Year of Record Growth

Kyruus, a provider of search and scheduling solutions for health systems, recently announced that it raised $42 million in new financing in a Series D round that brings its total funding to more than $125 million since its founding in 2010. Venrock and Highland Capital Partners led the round, with participation from other existing investors such as Providence Ventures and Salesforce Ventures. Kyruus, which already serves one in five U.S. health care providers, plans to use the new funds to extend its product portfolio while also...