Digital health goes to Washington
Offices may have been closed for Presidents' Day, but the federal government has been hard at work over the past several weeks launching programs and initiatives that impact digital health. Cancer X, a public-private partnership that stems from the White House Cancer Moonshot, identified top cancer research questions to be answered using real-world data. HHS hosted its first-ever food as medicine summit and launched a partnership with Instacart to study the outcomes of healthy food delivery. The FDA expanded and elevated its office that handles digital health, cybersecurity, and supply chain, and CMS clarified guidelines limiting the role of AI in Medicare Advantage coverage decisions.
Operating within a regulated industry, healthcare innovators need to be prepared to work with the government. Policy plays a large role in determining what’s possible (and profitable) in digital health, and federal priorities can focus attention on important innovation areas. We salute the federal efforts to corral players toward collaboration.
Headed to Los Angeles for ViVE 2024 next week? Don't miss the panel "Venturing into Greener Pastures" on February 27 at 9:00am. Rock Health's Megan Zweig will moderate a discussion on how the needs of health systems will impact funding trends in 2024 with executives from McKesson Ventures, Insight Partners, Lazard, and ICONIQ Growth. If you still need to purchase a ticket, use our discount code to get $150 off: v24p_rock150.
Headlines
Digital Tools Helped Lower Blood Pressure in Marginalized Patient Groups
Digital health interventions found to meaningfully reduce hypertension STAT
Samsung Introduces An Online Women’s Health Resource For Clinicians
theSUITE is a digital space for OB/GYN practitioner and sonographer collab FemTech Insider
Can AI And A Chatbot Help Smokers Quit?
Microsoft and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center partner on chatbot for smoking cessation GeekWire
Abortion Pills Offered Via Telehealth As Safe As In-Person Medication Abortions
New research finds no difference in efficacy and adverse event rates STAT
Cigna, HelloFresh Team Up To Improve Access to Healthy Food
Food as medicine partnership provides discounted meal kits to Cigna’s employer customers MedCity News
Invitae Prepares For A Sale As It Files For Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
More tough news for genetic testing companies Fierce Biotech
Recent Funding
- PatientFi picks up $25M for its healthcare payments and financing solutions
- Upwards, an online marketplace for families, employers, and childcare providers, inks $21M
- 9amHealth closes $9.5M for its on-demand cardiometabolic care services
- Anatomy Financial nabs $7.6M for its financial automation solutions
- AI-powered medical coding and claims software RapidClaims launches with $3.1M
- Merit Medicine seeds $2M for its AI tools to predict high-cost medical events for employers