3M Health Information Systems as entered an agreement with Verily (formerly Google Life Sciences) to develop new population health measurement technology. The joint platform will work to assess quality performance data across healthcare delivery systems and patient populations, providing actionable insights that can be used to make improvements in healthcare quality and cost. The platform will build on 3M’s experience in health data coding and classification, and risk stratification methodologies, and Verily’s domain expertise in data analytics and software development. More
IBM and Siemens Healthineers, a separately managed healthcare business of Siemens, announced a five year strategic alliance in population health management. The goal is to help hospitals, health systems, integrated delivery networks and other providers deliver value-based care to patients with chronic conditions. The partnership leverages the expertise and reach of both companies – Siemens’technology-driven innovation and IBM’s cognitive health offerings. More
Mount Sinai Hospital has agreed to work with startup Kaigo Health to provide its patients with an app that combines personal health coaching, chronic disease management, and telehealth. Mount Sinai will roll out the technology for patients in its OB-GYN, maternal health, cancer and urology departments to begin with, with other parts of the hospital to follow. Kaigo Health hires coaches who are healthcare professionals but not practicing doctors. Patients are connected to a coach through an app, and that coach will connect with them about things like medication adherence, diet, and exercise, as well as help them navigate their insurance and connect them to members of their care team — either by setting up appointments, or via HIPAA-safe texting or video communications. More
Athletic gear company Under Armour is collaborating with Mindbody, the provider of cloud-based business management software for the wellness services industry, to enhance the offerings of Under Armour’s MyFitnessPal. With the integration of Mindbody, app users now have access to classes at tens of thousands of fitness studios in the Mindbody network across the country. It's a notable direction for Under Armour, which quietly acquired a startup called Gritness focused on connecting people to in person fitness classes, back in 2015. More
Physician shift scheduling platform provider Lightning Bolt Solutions has partnered with MD Interconnect, which makes a cloud-based mobile and web application called RapidConnect. Through the collaboration, RapidConnect will be made available to WakeMed Physician Practices, a network of nearly 300 physicians that operate as part of the WakeMed Health & Hospitals in Raleigh, North Carolina. RapidConnect enables faster communication between hospital and community healthcare providers. More
South Carolina and Georgia-based AnMed Health, a not-for-profit health system, partnered with patient engagement provider TeleHealth Services to leverage the company’s SmartTigr patient education technology. The collaboration was part of an initiative to improve health literacy across the health system, and led to an increase in Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems patient satisfaction scores. More
GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare’s Theraflu and the Weather Company teamed up to launch a sickness-tracking app, the Cold and Flu Tracker. The app’s data comes from Sickweather, a real-time, crowd-sourced illness map of sickness and the Center for Disease Control. Normally, people can only be made aware of cold and flu activity when the weekly CDC flu report is released. With the app, which is available on weather.com, Theraflu.com and the Weather Channel app, users can now know in near-real time when sickness is sprouting up in their area and take action to protect themselves. The app is part of GSK’s overall campaign to launch the new Theraflu ExpressMax Caplets, and the Theraflu brand will also be the company’s first to leverage IBM Watson advertising. Through the websites or on their smartphone, consumers will have the ability to interact with the Theraflu ad via voice or text and ask Watson questions such as, “How long is the flu contagious?” which Watson’s chatbot will respond to. More
