Connected Health

The vendor of clinical decision support and precision medicine technology is working with First Databank on the new gene-based drug-drug interaction capability.

(SPONSORED) CMC is a clinical approach to care grounded in personalized, urgent-care plans developed with patients by their doctors and nurses. The plan details the patient's diagnosis and treatment, contact information, their wishes and their escalation treatment plan.

The telemedicine tech vendor is betting the ubiquitous Microsoft systems will enable a more robust, secure and scalable collaboration platform.

The new app mimics the Uber set-up, with certified interpreters standing by to come to a hospital and help interpret languages between caregivers and patients.

The company will also tout a new data recovery partnership with Amazon Web Services, the CEO said.

The digital tool makes it easy for people to add a new device to their home – or clinic – Wi-Fi network.

Hackensack University Medical Center is tapping new technologies to achieve more effective medication adherence, according to Hackensack UMC’s director of pharmacy Nilesh Desai. Hackensack UMC has been an early adopter of technologies and processes to advance medication safety and nurse workflows, Desai explained, along with interoperability between automated dispensing cabinets and EHRs. [Also: 11 essential quotes from notable HIMSS keynotes] Nurses are responsible for interacting with the automated medication dispensing cabinets, and the time they spend at the cabinets can be reduced significantly via more interoperable systems, for instance. Desai will discuss the hospital's progress in this realm during a HIMSS16 session titled “Impact of an ADC System on Medication Administration.” See all of our HIMSS16 previews Medical administration systems must be able to address patient-specific medications and offer robust inventory and data management processes, Desai said. Hackensack UMC tapped Omnicell, a provider of medication and supply management solutions and analytics software for healthcare facilities, to deliver automated medication management solutions throughout the 775-bed hospital. Twitter: @HealthITNews This story is part of our ongoing coverage of the HIMSS16 conference. Follow our live blog for real-time updates, and visit Destination HIMSS16 for a full rundown of our reporting from the show. For a selection of some of the best social media posts of the show, visit our Trending at #HIMSS16 hub.

Lantern, a San Francisco-based startup, with 17 employees, is working with UPMC Enterprises, the commercialization arm of the Pittsburgh-based healthcare giant, to further develop the company’s online mental health wellness services and products. The startup, founded in 2012, recently closed on a $17 million investment led by UPMC Enterprises on February 10. All other previous investors, including Mayfield Fund, SoftTech Venture Capital and Stanford University, joined the round. [Also: 3 recent health IT IPOs to watch] UPMC, one of the largest integrated healthcare delivery systems in the country, is the ideal partner, Alejandro Foung, Lantern co-founder and CEO, said in a statement announcing the new funding. "A large part of UPMC's appeal, Foung added, is its "focus on disease prevention – a sharp contrast to the fee-for-service model that currently dominates the behavioral health landscape." "This is for us about a very long-term bid on how we can use technology to engage consumers and patients in their mental health, said Mark Stabingas, executive vice president at UPMC Enterprises. "There’s an acute shortage of mental health professionals," he said. "There are lots of people who could benefit from mental health services." UPMC clinicians will work with Lantern on two pilots aimed at expanding Lantern’s programs to address additional behavioral health issues and potentially to address populations of patients with more complex conditions, Stabingas said. As taken as the UPMC team is with the products, the Lantern team has built to date, Stabingas said, "We are compelled first and foremost by the team. We are as much focused on the idea that we can partner with the team to build something really compelling for the long haul that has the opportunity to help millions and millions of patients." [Also: Steward ACO picks Patrick Kennedy-backed Quartet] Among the companies, UPMC has backed is Evolent, a public company that offers a mix of consulting and technology. Its cloud-based IT, which includes population health and analytics tools, is built to help hospitals and health systems migrate from a fee-for-service system to value-based care. Another behavioral health IT company recently in the news is Quartet, which is backed by Rhode Island Congressman Patrick Kennedy who serves on the board of the New York-based startup. Twitter: @HealthITNews

I have the pleasure of meeting or speaking with many digital health, health IT, med-tech, and life sciences startups every week. And, as a #HIMSS16 Social Media Ambassador, I’m looking forward to meeting many more at HX360 during HIMSS16. Since I’m a serial entrepreneur and angel investor myself I know how hard it is these days to get to product/market fit while working with top-notch investors who understand how to help scale a business. The path from an idea to product/market fit, profitability, and long-term success for any startup is what I refer to as the “Venture Development Lifecycle” (VDLC). VDLC is the path from an idea to product/market fit and profitability. As you go from one phase to another in the VDLC and are seeking investors to join you on the journey you’ll have one key task at each phase: show how you’ve already reduced risk in the previous phases and which risks remain in future phases. The VDLC has risks throughout the process but some of the highest risks come when a venture is moving from one capital raise phase (e.g. seed or angel) to another (e.g. VC, growth equity, or PE). Experienced investors already know that de-risking startups as they move from seed to angel to VC to later stage capital is necessary. Unfortunately, investors don’t always work together in a strategically integrated approach throughout the VDLC, putting earlier stage capital at more risk than is necessary. Traditionally it’s the entrepreneur that has had the job of understanding each investors’ risk tolerance and de-risking approach. However, many entrepreneurs don’t know really how to evaluate their product/market fit risk, capital risk, execution risk, and the myriad other problems they’re likely to face. Entrepreneurs shouldn’t be left to integrate the various investors on their own; instead, investors should form strategic partnerships with other investors where they formally form a vertically integrated supply chain throughout the VDLC. Since some of the highest risks for startups come when a venture is moving from one capital raise phase (e.g. seed or angel) to another (e.g. VC, growth equity, or PE), entrepreneurs need to figure out how you’re going to explain the risks in your business and de-risk your innovations. Try and answer these questions for the various digital health investment phases: Seed: how high is the innovation risk? Can you show that the idea works elsewhere? Angel: have the requirements and innovation risks been ironed out enough so that a product’s technical risks are all that remain before landing a customer? Super angel: Have the technical risks been ironed out so that pilots and initial customers are showing success? Series A institutional: Have the product/market fit risks been ironed out so that it’s clear that scalable sales are the next barrier? Series B and further: Have the initial sales risks been removed so that further scale and support are now the next barrier? As you go through the VDLC you’ll see it’s mostly a matter of understanding your risks and ironing out the key ones at each stage. You should seek out investors at each stage that clearly understand the de-risk’ing process and could potentially work together as either a syndicate or a strategically integrated value chain. When you interview investors, see how many of them have worked together in the past in either a vertical integrated manner or even as a loosely affiliated approach. The more you lay out your process, the more you understand your risks and help investors understand how you’re de-risked, the easier time you’ll have in the capital raise process. If you’re attending HX360 at HIMSS16 try and discover how angels and earlier stage capital can better collaborate with payer investors and VCs through more diverse and sophisticated syndications. When early and late stage capital get more involved in advisory roles with their investments throughout the VDLC, de-risking innovations becomes easier and more successful innovations will get to market faster.  

Healthcare IT News and HIMSS are accepting topic and speaker proposals for the Pop Health Forum 2016, May 19-20, in Boston. While population health management is key to bending healthcare’s cost curve and improving the quality of care, achieving those goals is easier said than done. With that in mind, the Pop Health Forum’s goal is to give attendees, 250-plus healthcare providers and payers, solid information on how to improve their population health initiatives. Click here to submit a proposal and for more information. Attendees prefer case studies and are eager to learn how their peers are addressing common challenges and pain points. As such, we place a high value on proposals from payer and provider organizations that offer practical, actionable information and real-life solutions. Proposals should focus on one or more of the forum’s three key areas, the cornerstones of population health: data analytics, care coordination and patient engagement. The deadline to submit a proposal is 5 p.m., Feb. 12.