Portfolio News

Genomic Medicine Has Entered the Building

As the promises of genomics are starting to come to fruition, hospitals need to start preparing for the changes genomics will bring to health care. Thousands of Americans are being treated, or are changing their treatments, based on information from genome testing. The cost of whole exome sequencing, which reveals the entire protein-coding portion of DNA, is about the same as an MRI exam in many parts of the country. This genome revolution has been most apparent in the realm of cancer treatment. Companies like GRAIL, Inc. are...

Aledade to Create Physician-Led ACO in New Jersey

Bethesda, Maryland-based Aledade, a value-based care network with 15 accountable care organizations (ACOs), is planning to form a primary care physician-led ACO in New Jersey in January 2018. Aledade will collaborate with the New Jersey Academy of Family Physicians for the ACO. As part of the partnership, the company will provide the ACO with software, data, and resources to aid providers’ transition to value-based reimbursement. Aledade, a McKesson Ventures portfolio company, offers a model that puts primary care physicians where they should be: quarterbacking their patients’ health...

Healthcare is Looking to the Tech World for Recruitment

It's no surprise that the healthcare sector is full of executives with health-related backgrounds. A 2011 study of CEOs at the best hospitals in the US found that most CEOs specialized in cardiovascular care, cancer, and digestive disorders. And according to the Harvard Business Review, hospitals run by physicians—as opposed to those run by executives with only management backgrounds—receive quality scores that are 25% higher. However, in more recent times, healthcare leadership is coming from a more technology-based background. For example, Providence St. Joseph Health recently hired...

Amazon Has a Secret Health Tech Team Called 1492 Working on Medical Records, Virtual Doc Visits

Amazon has started a skunkworks lab headquartered in the company’s Seattle home base to work on healthcare technology innovations. Dubbed 1492, the lab is focusing on both hardware and software projects, including pulling data from existing electronic medical records and telemedicine projects. The idea is to make this data more readily available to both patients and healthcare professionals. A separate Amazon team is also purportedly working on selling pharmaceuticals. There is also speculation that Amazon is exploring a telemedicine platform to facilitate easier virtual consultations. Though Amazon...

Amazon Sees GRAIL as a Special Opportunity for its Cloud Business

In March 2017, Amazon invested in GRAIL, a health startup that is researching deep sequencing technology to discover early signs of cancer in the blood. At the time, it was unclear as to why Amazon would be interested in a company like this, given the fact that the tech giant doesn’t normally invest in startups in the life sciences sector. But a recent article published by CNBC lends insight into why Amazon is taking a bet on GRAIL. According to author Christina Farr, GRAIL is going...