Portfolio News

Investors Pouring Billions into Digital Health Ventures

As COVID-19 has caused a sea change in healthcare, with the rapid expansion of virtual healthcare and telemedicine, investors have been busy pouring their dollars into the digital health space. In fact, between January and June of 2021, almost $15 billion in funding went to the digital health sector, according to a report by Rock Health. That was more than the already record-breaking numbers from the entire year of 2020. “I don’t think a lot of investors expected to double the pace of last year,” Rock...

Merck taps Evidation to use apps, wearables to detect early stages of Alzheimer’s

Merck has tapped McKesson Ventures portfolio company Evidation Health to explore whether data collected from wearables and smartphone apps can help to detect Alzheimer’s disease before visible changes in cognition take place. The companies are partnering to research whether sensor data can be used to develop digital measures to accelerate drug development for Alzheimer’s. The work builds on Evidation’s previous research on neurodegenerative disease detection from digital sensors and apps. “We know that digital measures have the potential to make visible what is currently clinically invisible. This...

Accolade, Inc. (ACCD) Q1 2022 Earnings Call

On July 8, 2021, Accolade made its Q1 2022 (quarter ended May 31, 2021) earnings call. The call began with Accolade CEO Rajeev Singh, who began by sharing some of the latest news. The company is one month past the close of the PlushCare acquisition and is well underway with the work of integrating Accolade, PlushCare, and 2nd.MD into a single business. “Combine that with the excellent financial results to start the new fiscal year and the return of our first wave of employees to our offices,...

Data Mining will Become Essential to Reduce the Disease Burden and Empower Healthcare Stakeholders

An increasing number of people, from patients to payers to biotech companies to providers, are playing a role in medical decision-making, and pharmaceutical companies are looking for more effective ways to communicate the value of innovative treatments they offer. One of the ways they are doing so is by looking to evidence-based programs that provide opportunities for action to convince these stakeholders of a treatment’s value. A comprehensive data set can help analytics teams see millions of patient journeys and quickly identify patients and providers...

Rehumanizing Doctor-Patient Relationships with Manny Krakaris, CEO, Augmedix

In a recent episode of the Cowen Insights podcast, Cowen’s healthcare technology analyst, Charles Rhyee, spoke with Augmedix CEO Manny Krakaris. They discussed the administrative burden of medical note documentation on providers today and how Augmedix’s offerings can increase productivity and prevent physician burnout. Augmedix provides a remote scribe service that leverages technology such as AI, machine learning, and natural language processing to save clinicians an estimated 2-3 hours a day. The remote sessions are transcribed into notes that go into a patient’s chart, along with...