What You Should Know:

–       Ciba Health, a cutting-edge digital health company simplifying healthcare with a personalized, whole person-care approach to prevent and reverse chronic diseases through root-cause treatment, today announced rapid growth and an expansion to its leadership team on the heels of its $10M Series A funding.

–       Ciba Health raised an oversubscribed $10M Series A funding round led by DigiTx Partners, with participation from E12 Ventures, 3CC Capital, Plug and Play Ventures and angel investors. 

Ciba Health Elevates Leadership Team to Drive Innovation in Whole Person-Care Revolution

Ciba Health, a pioneer in whole person-care disrupting traditional healthcare with a root-cause approach, has announced key appointments to its leadership team. Nwamaka Imasogie, formerly a Principal Software Engineer on the healthcare AI team at Microsoft, joins as Chief Technology Officer, while Roger Chahine has been promoted from Chief Strategy and Operating Officer to President. Imasogie and Chahine bring with them extensive technology and healthcare expertise, fortifying Ciba Health’s position as an industry leader.

The company’s innovative approach combines expert care teams, advanced lab testing, and a root-cause methodology to revolutionize the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes and digestive health issues. With a focus on accelerating product development and scaling operations to meet burgeoning market demand, Ciba Health bridges gaps between primary providers and specialists to deliver personalized, comprehensive care programs. Its onboarding process, including a thorough questionnaire and extensive clinical tests identifying over 300 lab markers, surpasses traditional methods by a significant margin.

Ciba Health’s services extend to both employer-based benefits and individual adults and dependents, currently serving over 97,000 individuals with an impressive provider retention rate of 98%. Since its inception in 2020, the company has experienced remarkable growth, boasting a 100% revenue increase year over year and a 300% surge in platform patients.

Imasogie, previously Chief Technology Officer at an AI medical software company, brings a track record of rapid product development to her new role, where she will drive scalability through algorithmic implementation and streamlined processes. Chahine, with experience as a Founding Partner at Day223 Ventures, will lead business development efforts and international expansion as President of Ciba Health.

Recent initiatives include the launch of a Pediatric Metabolic Program in March, catering to children aged five and older, and strategic partnerships with Instacart Health and Solera Health to enhance nutrition services and expand employer offerings. Ciba Health plans to further revolutionize the digital health sector by fostering high-touch, technology-driven solutions and expanding collaborations with third-party administrators and health plans.

“We are thrilled to have secured this investment from such a respected group of investors,” said Dr. Innocent Clement, CEO of Ciba Health. “Their support validates our vision and commitment to creating a healthcare system with no gaps, so patients and their providers have all the information needed to treat and reverse chronic diseases with a more holistic approach. We will leverage this funding to drive the growth of our platform and make a meaningful impact on the lives of patients worldwide through a root-cause medicinal approach.”

What You Should Know:

–              Geisinger Health Plan (GHP) with OncoHealth®, the leading platform for managing the cost and complexity of cancer, will provide supportive cancer care services to GHP’s more than 550,000 members.

–              GHP will implement OncoHealth’s market-leading software and services platform, which combines oncology value management services with virtual cancer care to be sure people with cancer get the most appropriate treatment and support throughout the duration of their treatment. Services include 24/7 oncology nursing, mental health, nutrition, and resource navigation.

Empowering Oncology Care: OncoHealth’s Innovative Solution for GHP Members

OncoHealth’s specialized oncology value management solution, fully delegated, leverages the company’s oncology expertise to collaborate with providers and align with GHP’s policies. This collaboration aims to ensure optimal treatment for GHP members, encompassing both medical and pharmacy anticancer drugs as well as radiation oncology services. As an integral component of this solution, GHP gains access to OncoHealth’s real-time dashboards, utilizing both the health plan’s data and OncoHealth’s proprietary benchmarking data. These dashboards enable the identification of trends and the development of proactive policies to effectively manage oncology drug spending while maintaining high-quality member care.

With over a decade of experience, OncoHealth has been a leading provider of comprehensive cancer support solutions, earning trust from 18 health plans nationwide and serving 12 million members. GHP’s implementation of OncoHealth is scheduled to commence in May 2024.

“Our goal is to prioritize the needs of our members going through treatment,” said Jamie Miller, associate vice president of pharmacy at GHP. “They have received a life-threatening diagnosis, and the last thing we want is to make that treatment harder than it should be. With the help of OncoHealth, we’re able to create a more collaborative process so we can work closely with our providers and health system to make sure members receive the white-glove care they deserve.”

What You Should Know:

–              Suki, the leader in voice artificial intelligence (AI) technology for healthcare, today announced it has been awarded a national group purchasing agreement for AI scribes with Premier, Inc.

–              Effective May 1, 2024, the new agreement allows Premier members, at their discretion, to take advantage of special pricing and terms for Suki pre-negotiated by Premier for AI scribes.  

Empowering Premier Members: Introducing Suki Assistant for Streamlined Clinical Documentation

Premier members now have access to Suki Assistant, an AI-powered tool designed to alleviate administrative burdens for clinicians. Utilizing generative AI technology, Suki passively listens to conversations between patients and clinicians, automatically drafting clinical notes. Additionally, it simplifies other time-consuming tasks such as ICD-10 and HCC coding, providing answers to queries, and facilitating dictation. Suki seamlessly integrates with major EHR systems like Epic, Cerner, Meditech, and Athena, ensuring support for all documentation workflows by synchronizing note content in real-time. Clinicians have the flexibility to either pre-chart within the EHR and finalize notes with Suki or commence note-taking with Suki and incorporate pertinent information, such as vitals, from the EHR. Upon completion, the note content is transmitted back to the EHR, updating relevant sections accordingly. On average, clinicians complete notes 72 percent faster with Suki, while health systems witness up to 9X ROI due to enhanced efficiency, increased reimbursements facilitated by detailed documentation, and heightened encounter volumes, among other benefits.

Premier stands as a prominent healthcare improvement organization, bringing together an alliance of approximately 4,350 U.S. hospitals and 300,000 other providers to revolutionize healthcare delivery. Through integrated data and analytics, collaborative efforts, supply chain solutions, consulting services, and more, Premier facilitates superior care and outcomes at reduced costs. The provider selection process at Premier is rigorous, evaluating candidates based on various criteria including quality, capacity to deliver value, and the level of service and support offered.

This announcement marks the latest in a series of achievements and partnerships that solidify Suki’s position as a leader in the AI assistant category. Notably, Suki received a remarkable rating of 93.2/100 in a KLAS assessment and has established collaborations with industry leaders such as Amwell and MEDITECH. Currently deployed across 30+ specialties and all clinical settings, including ambulatory care, telehealth, skilled nursing facilities/home health, and inpatient facilities, Suki continues to expand its reach and impact.

“We are thrilled to work with Premier as their exclusive solution for AI scribes,” said Heather Miller, VP of Partnerships for Suki. “Premier’s mission to improve the health of communities is very much aligned with Suki’s goal of making healthcare technology invisible and assistive so clinicians can focus on what matters most: their patients.  We look forward to helping Premier’s members reduce their administrative burden with the quality and value they expect from Premier-selected solutions.”

What You Should Know:

–              NeuroFlow, a behavioral health technology and analytics company helping to measure and manage population risk, has launched a suite of perinatal and postpartum pathways to support behavioral health throughout and after pregnancy.

–              These programs are a manifestation of NeuroFlow’s commitment to improving identification and timely support for behavioral health comorbidities, overcoming systemic barriers to care for populations that lack the resources they need during a vulnerable and momentous time in their lives.

NeuroFlow’s Innovative Approach: Transforming Maternal Mental Healthcare

In 2022, the White House declared a maternal health crisis in response to the escalating maternal mortality rates. The majority of these fatalities are preventable, with over 23% attributed to behavioral health conditions. Fast forward two years, and parents are still grappling with this harsh reality, with 75% of women facing perinatal mental health issues remaining untreated due to inadequate screening or access to care. Notably, disparities in postpartum behavioral health screenings are glaring among low-income women and women of color.

Numerous organizations are striving to enhance access to care for women and families throughout the pregnancy journey. However, most still lack sufficient mechanisms for consistently screening behavioral health needs at every pregnancy stage and tailoring resources accordingly. Addressing this challenge head-on, NeuroFlow is implementing upstream strategies to identify maternal behavioral health needs through regular screenings and proactive support. This includes promptly reaching out to parents experiencing suicidal ideation or self-harm ideation. The launch of these vital pathways strategically coincides with Mental Health Awareness Month, aimed at fostering discussions and highlighting these critical issues.

NeuroFlow’s novel maternal mental health offering employs enhanced logic to deliver timely, clinically validated assessments throughout pregnancy, guiding parents to the appropriate level of care. The personalized experience also encompasses educational content and milestone planning for each trimester and the postpartum period, including resources for dealing with pregnancy loss. NeuroFlow has developed curricula to support both broad population health initiatives and Ob-Gyn workflows, integrating pathways directly into patient care. This proven model, honed through collaboration with industry partners, is drawing interest from organizations such as disability insurers, Medicaid MCOs, and health systems committed to improving maternal population management and addressing mental health comorbidities. NeuroFlow’s ability to gauge risk and connect individuals to care pathways across various at-risk populations has led to reduced emergency department visits and enhanced symptom detection.

“Our goal is to normalize the challenges of new parenthood and ensure that no parent feels alone or ashamed during this incredibly stressful time,” said NeuroFlow Director of Clinical Growth and Strategy Amanda Brooks. “By providing a pathway that augments the care they are receiving from their provider, new and expecting parents’ care is improved, and the risk of untreated postpartum mental health conditions is mitigated.”

What You Should Know:

–              Opmed.ai, the AI optimization platform for healthcare, announced today the successful raise of $15M in series A funding.

–              The round was co-led by NFX and Grove Ventures, with Secret Chord Ventures, the Impact investor Sir Ronald Cohen, and Unbox Ventures also participating

Revolutionizing Healthcare Efficiency: Opmed.ai’s AI-Powered OR Optimization Solutions

The funding announcement arrives amidst a critical shortage in healthcare labor, with projections indicating a deficit of 3.2 million healthcare professionals by 2026. Meanwhile, hospitals grapple with escalating labor costs, which surged beyond 20% last year. Operating Rooms (ORs) constitute a substantial portion, accounting for 40% of a hospital’s expenses while generating 60-70% of its revenue, often serving as the primary driver of profitability. Nonetheless, the inefficiencies in OR scheduling, facilitated through archaic spreadsheets or predominantly manual methods, compound these challenges.

Enter Opmed.ai, specializing in optimizing healthcare operations, with a primary focus on OR efficiency, leveraging advanced AI technology. The company’s optimization engine rapidly assesses billions of permutations, customized to forecast based on industry-specific variables, automatically generating alternative schedules that vastly enhance resource utilization. Considering that each idle minute potentially translates to revenue losses ranging from $50 to $150, with empty ORs incurring costs of $1,000 per unused hour, the impact of this technology is profound. By adopting Opmed.ai, hospitals stand to gain over $1 million per OR in additional revenue annually, while concurrently slashing costs by $500,000 and fortifying resilience against unforeseen disruptions.

Despite the intricate nature of ORs and healthcare environments at large, Opmed.ai boasts an implementation timeframe of merely two to four weeks. Once deployed, it identifies over and underestimations, addresses gaps, anesthesia durations, turnover times, and other pertinent factors, subsequently generating optimized alternative plans. These plans account for staffing, equipment, preferences, add-ons, and various other considerations, streamlining the process for scheduling professionals with just a few clicks. Moreover, the platform facilitates the creation of longer-term quarterly and yearly block allocation plans, driving OR utilization up by 10% and yielding compounded savings and revenue. Remarkably, the return on investment for hospitals typically materializes within a mere 3-4 months.

Founded by Dr. Mor Brokman Meltzer, Avi Paz, and Prof. Baruch Barzel, Opmed.ai presents an innovative healthcare optimization engine, harnessing AI and network science to revolutionize healthcare scheduling and resource allocation, commencing with operating rooms.

“Opmed.ai is a perfect representation of the next generation of great AI platforms. They solve a complex issue with a highly specialized vertical solution that has no alternative that comes close,” said Renana Ashkenazi, General Partner of Grove Ventures. “Adding to the attractiveness of the investment is the fact that the ROI is so clear and significant, even from an early stage. We’ve seen the millions of dollars it has saved and generated in hospitals where it’s already deployed, and as impressed as we were, the hospitals’ enthusiasm has been even greater. We look forward to helping the Opmed.ai team rapidly expand in both the hospitals and use cases they serve.”

What You Should Know:

–              OM1 introduces three new products: OM1 Orion, OM1 Lyra, and OM1 Polaris powered by PhenOMTM – an artificial intelligence-powered digital phenotyping platform for personalized medicine and clinical research.

–              OM1 is the leader in providing Real-World Evidence (RWE) insights from bench to bedside, leveraging advanced predictive and generative AI platforms coupled with deep clinical data to empower healthcare stakeholders.

Revolutionizing Healthcare with AI-Powered Solutions: OM1 PhenOM’s Impact on Patient Care and Research

In today’s healthcare landscape, disparate data sources create critical knowledge gaps from research and development to clinical decision-making. OM1 PhenOM stands out as a leader in innovative AI-powered solutions, addressing these challenges by providing insights that empower healthcare providers (HCPs) at the point of care, bridging gaps in patient journeys, and facilitating research and treatment for hard-to-find patient populations.

PhenOM, launched last year, leverages OM1’s high-quality data cloud, comprising billions of data points from over 340 million patients. This platform improves individual care and population health by offering distinct product lines that integrate next-gen AI technology and clinically robust real-world data. Here’s how PhenOM tackles key pain points across the healthcare ecosystem:

1. OM1 Orion: This solution caters to pharmaceutical decision-makers, offering a comprehensive view of the patient journey. By analyzing deep clinical data, OM1 Orion provides insights into disease progression and burden for specific patient sub-populations. It enables the discovery of unmet needs, identifies real-world drivers and barriers to care, and uncovers complex patterns in disease progression and treatment response. OM1 Orion significantly enhances research efficiency and reduces associated costs.

2. OM1 Lyra: Designed for clinicians and patients, OM1 Lyra generates personalized insights to guide treatment decisions. By predicting diagnosis, treatment options, and risk, Lyra facilitates personalized medicine at the point of care. It translates population-level patterns into actionable insights tailored to individual patients, placing their uniqueness at the forefront of treatment strategies.

3. OM1 Polaris: This solution optimizes clinical trial recruitment by leveraging real-world data and tailored phenotypic profiles. By predicting outcomes and identifying prospective patients, investigators, and sites, Polaris streamlines recruitment timelines, reduces costs, and increases the likelihood of trial success.

OM1 is a pioneer in healthcare innovation, specializing in personalized medicine, evidence generation, and real-world evidence research. Their insights-driven technology, powered by next-generation AI platforms and regulatory-grade deep longitudinal data, is backed by globally recognized thought leadership.

“There is a tremendous untapped opportunity to synthesize data sources to better understand patient journeys and treatment decisions, which we’ve learned to address with our digital phenotyping technology,” said Joseph Zabinski, VP, Head of Commercial Strategy & AI at OM1. “Now, with our expanded product offerings, we can identify patients to reveal hidden characteristics and predict outcomes, ultimately improving how we conduct research and deliver care.”

What You Should Know:

–              Thyme Care, the leading value-based cancer care enabler, today announced Julia Frydman, MD as the company’s first medical director for palliative care.

–              An academic researcher and former assistant professor from a leading health system renowned for its palliative care and geriatrics department, Dr. Frydman brings important clinical expertise to Thyme Care and will launch the company’s Enhanced Supportive Care services. This virtual palliative care program will help eligible members and their caregivers manage physical and psychological symptoms and provide an additional layer of support as they navigate living with cancer.

Advancing Palliative Care Access and Quality: Introducing Thyme Care’s Enhanced Support Services under Dr. Julia Frydman’s Leadership

Despite evidence demonstrating the manifold benefits of palliative care, such as enhancing patients’ quality of life, understanding of illness, and end-of-life care, while concurrently reducing healthcare expenses, merely 12% of eligible patients avail themselves of these services. Various factors impede access, including a scarcity of proficient clinicians, limited outpatient referral options, and widespread misunderstandings regarding the scope of palliative care. Despite recommendations from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) advocating for the integration of palliative care at the outset of a cancer diagnosis, misconceptions persist among both patients and clinicians, associating it solely with end-of-life care. Consequently, adoption of services aimed at fostering coping mechanisms and alleviating treatment-related pain and suffering is hindered. Notably, community oncologists cite patient and caregiver reluctance towards discussing palliative care and insufficient availability of dedicated staff as key barriers. Furthermore, referral options, when available, are often inadequately integrated into oncologists’ workflows.

Assuming the role of the new medical director for palliative care, Dr. Frydman will spearhead Thyme Care’s Enhanced Support Care Services. Through close collaboration with oncologists and meticulous patient selection, she will oversee a team dedicated to guiding patients through complex medical decisions, aligning their aspirations and values with their cancer treatment. These services will be seamlessly integrated into the company’s comprehensive cancer care model, complemented by a round-the-clock oncology-trained Care Team providing clinical support and navigation services. Dr. Frydman will not only offer clinical oversight and mentorship to the Care Team but also deliver direct clinical care to patients.

Before joining Thyme Care, Dr. Frydman held the position of Senior Assistant Professor at the Mount Sinai Health System in New York City, where she led initiatives to enhance access to top-tier palliative care through educational and research endeavors. Her previous roles involved collaborating with interdisciplinary teams to address complex symptoms, psychosocial issues, and medical decision-making among hospitalized patients. Dr. Frydman’s professional journey includes training as an Internist at New York University, followed by specialization in Hospice & Palliative Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where she also completed a Master’s in Clinical Research.

“Palliative care doctors are critical and are so often the ones making sure a patient’s goals and values are aligned with the medical interventions and course of treatment. For a variety of reasons, those services aren’t always accessible to cancer patients and they often aren’t delivered in collaboration with the oncologist, leading to a fragmented experience for everyone involved,” said Bobby Green, MD, an oncologist and co-founder and chief medical officer of Thyme Care. “I’m so excited to welcome Dr. Frydman to Thyme Care. This is an exciting milestone for us, and a natural evolution of our cancer care model as we work with our oncology partners to support cancer patients.”

What You Should Know:

–              Today Truveta announced the availability of expanded concepts from clinical notes — including family history, medication details reported to providers, and complex concepts for a wide range of therapeutic areas from cardiology to rare disease and more – and millions of de-identified medical images for scientifically rigorous research.

–              Truveta delivers the most complete, timely, and clean electronic health record (EHR) data from more than 100 million patients across more than 30 US health systems, empowering researchers with regulatory-grade data across all diseases, drugs, and devices.

Truveta: Revolutionizing Healthcare Data Integration and Insights

“Access to complex concepts captured in clinician notes or medical images has been limited by manual processes, impeding the ability to study large, representative, and diverse populations in depth,” said Michael Simonov, MD, vice president of product, Truveta. “With the most advanced AI, trained by clinical experts, Truveta delivers complex clinical concepts – as well as de-identified medical images and their associated metadata – for study integrated with the most complete, timely, and clean EHR data.”

Truveta Data Overview

Truveta Data offers a comprehensive representation of both inpatient and outpatient care, sourced from over 800 hospitals and 20,000 clinics nationwide. This expansive dataset facilitates a holistic understanding of the patient journey, empowering researchers to enhance therapy adoption, clinical trials, and patient care.

Advanced Insights from Clinical Notes

Unlocking critical patient health information from unstructured clinical notes has long posed a challenge in medical research. Truveta addresses this by capturing a variety of clinical notes, such as progress notes, nursing evaluations, and laboratory reports, and utilizing advanced AI technology to extract and clean this data. The recent addition of new concepts, including medication details and family history, enriches Truveta’s dataset, enhancing its utility across various therapeutic areas.

Unparalleled Medical Imaging Dataset

Truveta introduces a groundbreaking capability by integrating millions of de-identified medical images with patient electronic health record (EHR) data. This vast imaging dataset covers diverse modalities, including MRI, CT, X-ray, ultrasound, mammogram, and nuclear medicine. With over 85 million imaging studies available, researchers gain insights into symptoms, diagnoses, and disease progression, further facilitated by complete image metadata.

Bridging Evidence Gaps with Truveta

By seamlessly integrating imaging and pixel data with comprehensive patient medical records, Truveta fills crucial evidence gaps and amplifies patient insights. This integration not only facilitates point-of-care diagnoses and accelerates clinical research but also drives improved patient outcomes. Additionally, Truveta Studio offers a user-friendly interface for researchers to visualize, annotate, and analyze medical images, fostering scientifically rigorous research endeavors.

What You Should Know:

–              WeightWatchers (NASDAQ: WW), (“WeightWatchers,” “WW,” or the “Company”) today announced that WeightWatchers for Business is partnering with Personify Health (formerly Virgin Pulse) to support employers looking to provide weight health care solutions for their populations.

–              Now, organizations using the Personify Health personalized health platform will have integrated access to WeightWatchers for Business and its full-spectrum weight health platform, which is customizable to support benefit coverage decisions. The spectrum of care is flexible and can grow in intensity from behavioral to medical interventions and a combination thereof for users on the platform, providing individualized pathways according to true clinical need.

Empowering Health: WeightWatchers for Business and Personify Health Unite for Personalized Wellness Solutions

Key features of the comprehensive WeightWatchers for Business platform, designed to help users achieve their health goals, include:

1. WeightWatchers offers evidence-based behavior-change programs for long-term results, including specialized programs for individuals with diabetes and those taking GLP-1 medications.

2. Eligible users gain access to virtual clinical care and medication management, including GLP-1s and other anti-obesity medications, facilitated by certified healthcare professionals, dietitians, fitness experts, and care coordinators, subject to employer coverage.

3. The platform fosters supportive communities and provides coaching both online and offline, catering to a wide audience.

4. Integrated health insights offer users real-time access to data and analysis.

WeightWatchers for Business has been a trusted B2B partner for over 35 years, serving 500+ businesses across various sectors. The platform prioritizes health and is tailored to individuals with overweight, obesity, pre-diabetes, diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia. By combining behavior-change programs with clinical support, it delivers sustainable results. Notable outcomes include an average 19.4% weight loss at 12 months, 80% maintenance of weight loss when transitioning from GLP-1 to lower-cost medications, and 85% achievement of normal blood pressure among members with hypertension within six months.

Virgin Pulse and HealthComp have united to form Personify Health, dedicated to promoting and empowering healthier lifestyles. This merger brings together top-tier health plan administration, holistic well-being, and navigation solutions into a single, personalized health platform, setting a new standard in the industry.

“We’re grateful for our partnership with Personify Health and proud to work alongside them as one of the most innovative leaders in the industry,” said Rémi Cossart, Head of WeightWatchers Clinic and WeightWatchers for Business. “We understand the importance of weight health care and the needs of organizations, and are excited to open up access to Personify Health’s network to help eliminate weight bias, maximize personalized health outcomes, and ensure quality care.”

Personify Health’s comprehensive partner ecosystem helps organizations close gaps in care across 25+ health and wellbeing categories while addressing the most common and costly health concerns. Companies using the Personify platform can choose to have access to WeightWatchers for Business to support the weight health care needs of their employees, complementing the impactful guidance from 200 coaches and actionable weight management content Personify offers.

What You Should Know:

·      Yseop, a world-leading Artificial Intelligence (AI) software company and pioneer in Generative AI, has announced today the development of an enhanced Generative AI application tailored for the Biopharma industry, with support from Amazon Web Services (AWS).

·      A member of the AWS Partner Network (APN), Yseop has strategically utilized AWS since its inception, leveraging its robust security and scalability to enhance its Large Language Model (LLM) ecosystem, infrastructure, and technological expertise. With AWS’s backing, Yseop aims to empower leading Biopharma companies globally, facilitating the expedited delivery of pharmaceuticals and vaccines to market.

Yseop and AWS Revolutionize Biopharma with Enhanced Generative AI Application

By harnessing the capabilities of AWS, Yseop now seamlessly embeds LLM models, facilitating the generation of comprehensive scientific content while ensuring compliance with the stringent security standards of the pharmaceutical sector. This collaborative effort between AWS and Yseop enables scientific and medical writers within prominent pharmaceutical corporations to significantly augment their productivity, thereby accelerating the dissemination of therapeutics to those in need.

Miguel Alava, AWS Managing Director, Software Companies EMEA, emphasized the joint initiative between Yseop and AWS, stating, “Yseop and AWS are collaborating to democratize access to generative AI, delivering unparalleled business value to the life sciences sector while navigating challenges such as scalability and trust. Leveraging capabilities like Amazon SageMaker and Amazon Bedrock, Yseop can effectively address the rigorous AI software and data requirements prevalent across Biopharma.”

In the Biopharma domain, Yseop’s collaboration with AWS offers a multitude of advantages, including accelerating time-to-value through a pre-configured SaaS enterprise platform powered by AWS, securely scaling content generation across organizations via AWS managed services and tools such as Amazon EKS, Amazon RDS, and Infrastructure as Code CDK, managing end-to-end data and document flows with enhanced security features, and harnessing the latest AI capabilities through a model-agnostic SaaS powered by AWS SageMaker, AWS Inferentia, and AWS EC2.

Crucially, AWS provides Yseop and its clientele with a fully managed, private cloud environment, crucial for compliance within the regulated life science industry.

Yseop stands at the forefront of Generative AI for life science and pharmaceutical enterprises, revolutionizing content automation solutions with a human-centric, AI platform. Serving as a trailblazer in Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology, Yseop acts as a “Copilot” for medical writers, enhancing their efficiency and accuracy in generating pivotal reports essential for drug development and approval processes. By integrating cutting-edge language models, Yseop ensures that pharmaceutical firms effectively tackle the most demanding content tasks with ease, scalability, and utmost application security.

 What You Should Know:

–              LifeMD, Inc.® (Nasdaq: LFMD), a leading provider of virtual primary care services, and Withings Health Solutions, a leader in digital health technology, announce a new strategic partnership designed to revolutionize weight management patient care by providing LifeMD’s GLP-1 weight-loss patients with Withings advanced in-home health monitoring devices, including the Body Pro 2 scale and the BPM Connect Pro blood pressure monitor.

–              With these devices, LifeMD is setting a new standard in virtual care by providing clinicians with near real-time and actionable patient data that can drive compliance, enhance clinical decision-making, encourage preventive healthcare, and, most importantly, improve long-term outcomes.

Revolutionizing Weight Loss Treatment: The Integration of Digital Health Technology and GLP-1 Therapy by LifeMD and Withings

LifeMD’s GLP-1 weight-loss program stands out as a unique support system for patients embarking on their weight-loss journey. It facilitates accessible healthy living through online consultations with licensed clinicians, prescriptions for weight management medications, and orders for full-service laboratory testing. Leveraging detailed health data from Withings’ in-home health monitoring devices, LifeMD aims to gain deeper insights into the effectiveness of GLP-1 treatments and their impact on overall health. This partnership also sets the stage for pioneering real-world evidence studies.

The Body Pro 2, the inaugural cellular body composition scale, not only measures weight but also offers a comprehensive analysis of body composition, encompassing body fat, muscle mass, water percentage, and bone mass. Equipped with features like Personalized Health Nudges and ProgramMemberID, exclusive to Withings, the device places patient care at the forefront. Personalized messages can be sent to patients via the scale’s screen, ensuring that measurements are attributed to the correct patient.

BPM Connect Pro provides medically accurate blood pressure monitoring, allowing healthcare providers to monitor changes in blood pressure alongside weight-loss progress. As GLP-1 medications can reduce the risk of cardiovascular events, BPM Connect Pro provides LifeMD-affiliated providers with a holistic view of their patients’ progress and the ability to adjust medications as needed.

Both devices employ cellular connectivity, ensuring that LifeMD receives continuous, HIPAA-compliant, accurate, and reliable measurements. These measurements are displayed in near real-time via the LifeMD patient portal, accessible to both patients and clinical teams. Thanks to cellular connectivity, the devices are ready to use out of the box and require no installation.

This partnership represents a significant advancement in GLP-1 weight-loss treatment and showcases the potential of digital health technology to revolutionize patient care and outcomes in the virtual care landscape.

LifeMD, a premier provider of virtual primary care, offers telemedicine, laboratory and pharmacy services, and specialized treatment for over 200 conditions. These services encompass primary care, men’s and women’s health, weight management, and hormone therapy.

“By being one of the first to monitor body composition in GLP-1 weight-loss programs, LifeMD is pioneering a comprehensive approach to weight management. This collaboration underscores our shared commitment not just to weight management but to a deeper understanding of a patient’s health,” said Antoine Robiliard, VP of Withings Health Solutions. “LifeMD’s dedication to leveraging advanced technology to enhance the patient experience aligns perfectly with our vision. Our cellular devices, with patient engagement features, will help LifeMD’s teams drive consistent patient engagement and benefit from larger datasets to make more informed decisions.”

 What You Should Know:

–              LifeMD, Inc.® (Nasdaq: LFMD), a leading provider of virtual primary care services, and Withings Health Solutions, a leader in digital health technology, announce a new strategic partnership designed to revolutionize weight management patient care by providing LifeMD’s GLP-1 weight-loss patients with Withings advanced in-home health monitoring devices, including the Body Pro 2 scale and the BPM Connect Pro blood pressure monitor.

–              With these devices, LifeMD is setting a new standard in virtual care by providing clinicians with near real-time and actionable patient data that can drive compliance, enhance clinical decision-making, encourage preventive healthcare, and, most importantly, improve long-term outcomes.

Revolutionizing Weight Loss Treatment: The Integration of Digital Health Technology and GLP-1 Therapy by LifeMD and Withings

LifeMD’s GLP-1 weight-loss program stands out as a unique support system for patients embarking on their weight-loss journey. It facilitates accessible healthy living through online consultations with licensed clinicians, prescriptions for weight management medications, and orders for full-service laboratory testing. Leveraging detailed health data from Withings’ in-home health monitoring devices, LifeMD aims to gain deeper insights into the effectiveness of GLP-1 treatments and their impact on overall health. This partnership also sets the stage for pioneering real-world evidence studies.

The Body Pro 2, the inaugural cellular body composition scale, not only measures weight but also offers a comprehensive analysis of body composition, encompassing body fat, muscle mass, water percentage, and bone mass. Equipped with features like Personalized Health Nudges and ProgramMemberID, exclusive to Withings, the device places patient care at the forefront. Personalized messages can be sent to patients via the scale’s screen, ensuring that measurements are attributed to the correct patient.

BPM Connect Pro provides medically accurate blood pressure monitoring, allowing healthcare providers to monitor changes in blood pressure alongside weight-loss progress. As GLP-1 medications can reduce the risk of cardiovascular events, BPM Connect Pro provides LifeMD-affiliated providers with a holistic view of their patients’ progress and the ability to adjust medications as needed.

Both devices employ cellular connectivity, ensuring that LifeMD receives continuous, HIPAA-compliant, accurate, and reliable measurements. These measurements are displayed in near real-time via the LifeMD patient portal, accessible to both patients and clinical teams. Thanks to cellular connectivity, the devices are ready to use out of the box and require no installation.

This partnership represents a significant advancement in GLP-1 weight-loss treatment and showcases the potential of digital health technology to revolutionize patient care and outcomes in the virtual care landscape.

LifeMD, a premier provider of virtual primary care, offers telemedicine, laboratory and pharmacy services, and specialized treatment for over 200 conditions. These services encompass primary care, men’s and women’s health, weight management, and hormone therapy.

“By being one of the first to monitor body composition in GLP-1 weight-loss programs, LifeMD is pioneering a comprehensive approach to weight management. This collaboration underscores our shared commitment not just to weight management but to a deeper understanding of a patient’s health,” said Antoine Robiliard, VP of Withings Health Solutions. “LifeMD’s dedication to leveraging advanced technology to enhance the patient experience aligns perfectly with our vision. Our cellular devices, with patient engagement features, will help LifeMD’s teams drive consistent patient engagement and benefit from larger datasets to make more informed decisions.”

What You Should Know:

–              Intuity Medical, Inc., a medical technology company committed to making it easier to live with diabetes, announced today that its POGO Automatic® Blood Glucose Monitoring (ABGM) system, featuring one-step testing, is now covered by Medicare Part B. This decision expands access to the innovative monitor for the 16.5 million seniors age 65 and up living with diabetes.

–              The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) created two new coverage codes specifically for POGO Automatic, recognizing this new and significantly different technology compared to traditional blood glucose meters (BGMs). POGO Automatic features an all-in-one design that integrates testing supplies into a 10-test cartridge.

Advancing Diabetes Management: POGO Automatic Blood Glucose Monitoring System

POGO Automatic, the pioneering and sole FDA-cleared automatic blood glucose monitoring (ABGM) system available, revolutionizes diabetes management. It enables people with diabetes (PWD) to effortlessly test their glucose levels without disrupting their daily routines. This one-step process automates the multi-step glucose monitoring associated with traditional BGMs, particularly aiding seniors in checking their blood glucose more easily.

Endorsed as the optimal solution for numerous diabetes patients by Rosemarie Lajara, MD, an endocrinologist at Southern Endocrinology & Diabetes Associates, P.A. in Plano, Texas, POGO Automatic is recognized by healthcare professionals for its user-friendly design, which can enhance testing compliance. Dr. Lajara emphasizes the significance of such innovation for diabetes patients, especially within the Medicare population, which often includes individuals facing dexterity, visual, or physical challenges hindering traditional self-monitoring blood glucose (SMBG) meters.

Automating blood glucose testing steps addresses an unmet need for many patients who struggle with handling traditional blood glucose meters, test strips, lancets, and lancing devices. The introduction of new coverage codes—Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) codes E2104 for the monitor for use with integrated lancing/blood sample testing cartridge and A4271 for the integrated lancing and blood sample testing cartridges—enables Medicare beneficiaries, who previously lacked access to this new technology, to acquire POGO Automatic under their Medicare Part B coverage.

Intuity Medical, Inc., founded with the mission of simplifying life for people with diabetes, introduced the FDA-cleared POGO Automatic® Blood Glucose Monitoring System. This innovative system streamlines testing with its all-in-one design, eliminating the need for separate strips and lancets. Manufactured in the U.S., POGO Automatic cartridges are produced at the company’s headquarters in Fremont, California.

What You Should Know:

·      Navina, the AI-driven primary care platform revolutionizing the interpretation of intricate patient data into actionable guidance during care encounters, has unveiled the initial outcomes of its collaboration with Upperline Health. Upperline Health stands as the nation’s largest network committed to value-based specialty care and pioneers of their own ACO REACH. This partnership aims to refine the accuracy of patients’ comprehensive health evaluations and optimize clinical processes to maximize meaningful patient interaction time.

·      Previously, Upperline Health’s specialists in podiatry, vascular care, chronic care management, and preventative health grappled with incomplete patient medical histories dispersed across disparate systems and modalities, particularly as the Medicare beneficiary population seeking specialist care burgeoned. However, within just a month of integrating Navina, specialists embraced its AI-generated insights for 97% of patient encounters. This utilization empowered them to precisely assess patients’ health statuses and significantly bolstered their capacity to deliver comprehensive care.

Revolutionizing Specialty Care: Navina & Upperline Health Partnership Enhances Patient Health Assessment and Clinical Workflows

Before joining forces with Navina, Upperline Health specialists encountered formidable obstacles due to fragmented health records and outdated paper-based workflows. Navina’s introduction streamlined access to precise and timely data, alleviating administrative burdens and allowing clinicians to prioritize accountable care.

Navina seamlessly integrates with Upperline Health’s diverse data infrastructure, encompassing their Athenahealth electronic health record (EHR), health information exchanges (HIEs), claims, and third-party systems housing unstructured notes and scanned documents. Leveraging advanced AI and natural language processing (NLP), Navina harmonizes data from various sources to furnish the most current and precise patient information, alongside offering recommendations during care encounters, even highlighting suspected conditions previously undocumented.

Each insight provided by Navina is traceable to its original clinical source, nurturing clinician confidence and empowering them to make informed, data-driven care decisions. On average, Upperline Health specialists concur with over 80% of Navina’s clinical insights, underscoring its efficacy and value in enhancing patient care delivery.

“Navina closely aligns with our holistic approach to specialty care, enabling us to offer better patient care, and improve outcomes.” said David Thorpe, CEO of Upperline Health. “In a matter of days, Navina’s AI platform achieved high provider engagement and satisfaction across our clinics, a testament to AI’s immense potential to support the clinical workflow and promote proactive, efficient value-based care.”

What You Should Know:

– Baton Health has launched its Universal Primary Source, revolutionizing healthcare credentialing by granting access to hundreds of primary source databases instantly.

– The platform has garnered over 30 organizations as clients and early adopters, showcasing its potential to transform healthcare credentialing and reduce verification times from hours or days to mere seconds.

– Baton Health’s state-of-the-art platform eliminates manual data entry and provides instant, accurate access to comprehensive data from state, federal, and specialty databases, resulting in significant cost and time reductions for various stakeholders in the healthcare industry.

– The company’s pioneering efforts are evident through collaborations with leading entities such as Mocingbird, The Clinic by Cleveland Clinic, Amwell, and Brevard Health Alliance, offering a National Credentialing Directory attracting over 350 users with a streamlined, error-free approach to credential verification.

What You Should Know:

–       G1 Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: GTHX), a commercial-stage oncology company, and Pepper Bio, the world’s first transomics drug discovery and development company, announced a global licensing agreement (excluding the Asia-Pacific region) for lerociclib for all indications outside acute radiation syndrome (ARS).

–       As Pepper Bio’s first in-licensed therapeutic, lerociclib is a potent and selective inhibitor of cyclin-dependent kinases 4 and 6 (CDK4/6). The therapeutic has previously demonstrated impressive efficacy in clinical studies across various cancer types, including two completed Phase 3 clinical trials in HR+/Her2- metastatic breast cancer. 

Pepper Bio Advances Liver Cancer Treatment with Lerociclib: A Breakthrough in Precision Medicine

Pepper Bio’s revolutionary transomics platform, COMPASS, is reshaping the landscape of drug discovery by offering a comprehensive view of disease biology. By translating biological maps encompassing genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and phosphoproteomics, COMPASS provides researchers with unprecedented insights into the real-time function of proteins, revolutionizing drug development methodologies. Leveraging COMPASS, Pepper Bio identified CDK4 and CDK6 as promising targets in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), the most prevalent form of liver cancer and the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths.

In a significant milestone, Pepper Bio conducted preclinical testing of lerociclib, a potential therapeutic for HCC, demonstrating superior efficacy compared to standard care both during and after dosing. This success led to an in-licensing agreement, marking lerociclib as Pepper Bio’s inaugural therapeutic slated for Phase 2 clinical trials.

Under this partnership, Pepper Bio gains exclusive rights to develop, manufacture, and commercialize lerociclib for non-ARS indications across major global markets, excluding the Asia-Pacific region licensed to Genor Biopharma. Collaborating closely with G1 Therapeutics, Pepper Bio aims to seamlessly transition lerociclib through clinical trials and regulatory approval processes.

This development follows Pepper Bio’s oversubscribed seed funding round, supported by notable investors such as NFX, Silverton Partners, and Merck Digital Sciences Studio. With these resources, Pepper Bio is poised to initiate clinical development programs for lerociclib, with the overarching objective of expediting regulatory approvals and bringing this innovative therapy to patients worldwide.

The agreement outlines upfront payments to G1 totaling mid-single-digit millions, with potential milestone payments reaching up to $135M across three indications, alongside double-digit royalties on lerociclib’s annual net sales. This collaboration underscores the commitment of both parties to advancing precision medicine and addressing unmet medical needs in liver cancer treatment.

“Liver cancer is a real and devastating diagnosis for hundreds of thousands of patients each year. Adding lerociclib into our pipeline is a significant step forward in our mission to find treatments for untreatable diseases,” said Jon Hu, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Pepper Bio. “Lerociclib holds tremendous promise as a cornerstone of our oncology portfolio, and we are excited to leverage its potential to bring life-saving treatments to those in need.”