Rural and underserved communities

A drone flying over a forest area
By  Adam Ang 04:36 am April 30, 2024
A project building a specialised medical drone at the University of Sydney has received A$3.6 million ($2.3 million) in funding.  Backed by a strategic partnership between the university and health sector-focused ASAC Consultancy, the Wildu Aero Project is developing a hydrogen-fuelled vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for carrying medical cargo.  What sets this...
Person using a virtual reality headset with their arms extended above their head
By  Jessica Hagen 05:28 pm April 23, 2024
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced the launch of a new initiative, Home as a Health Care Hub, that focuses on using augmented reality and virtual reality to improve health equity by reimagining the home environment as part of a healthcare system.  The FDA contracted with an architectural firm that designs buildings with health and equity in mind to consider what will be needed to...
Doug Hirsch, cofounder and chief mission officer at GoodRx
By  Trevor Dermody 03:51 pm April 19, 2024
Prescription cost savings company GoodRx partnered with grocery chain Publix to bring the company’s GoodRx Gold platform to Publix customers.  The Gold platform offers prescription drug savings as well as telehealth options, including provider visits and telepharmacy appointments.  Doug Hirsch, cofounder and chief mission officer at GoodRx, sat down with MobiHealthNews to discuss the partnership...
Healthcare provider sitting at a desk wearing a stethoscope around their neck and working on a computer
By  Jessica Hagen 02:03 pm January 30, 2024
Accompany Health, a hybrid care provider for low-income patients with complex needs, announced its launch with $56 million in Series A funding from Venrock, ARCH Venture Partners, IVP, Evidenced and Granite Capital Management.  WHAT IT DOES The Bethesda-based company offers low-income patients 24/7 in-home and virtual care services, including primary care and urgent care, mental health services,...
A signboard of a CureBay e-clinic in rural India
By  Adam Ang 04:16 am January 26, 2024
Rural-focused e-clinics chain CureBay scored another Rs 620 million ($7.5 million) in funding as part of a Series A round led by Elevar Equity. This comes on top of the first $6 million it raised in 2022. According to their press release, the additional funds will be used to invest in their membership programme by hiring over 200 data scientists and experts in pharmacy and diagnostics. It will...
Radiologists checking an X-ray analysis from Lunit INSIGHT CXR
By  Adam Ang 02:38 am January 19, 2024
Samsung to integrate Lunit's AI in premium X-ray devices South Korean medical AI provider Lunit has signed a three-year supply contract with Samsung Electronics.  The deal is for the integration of Lunit's two chest X-ray AI solutions – Lunit INSIGHT CXR and Lunit INSIGHT CXR Triage – into Samsung's line of premium X-ray devices.  According to a press release, the AI-integrated X-ray devices will...
Person answering their front door and getting a delivery from another person
By  Nathan Eddy 12:55 pm January 8, 2024
Healthcare data analytics company Socially Determined and Uber Health, the ride-hailing company's healthcare arm for patients and providers, are partnering to improve access to food and prescription delivery as well as transportation services by leveraging social determinants of health analytics. Socially Determined offers payers, providers, life sciences organizations and others an analytics...
Four business people standing in a room with two of them shaking hands
By  Nathaniel Lacktman and Louis Lehot 12:00 pm December 8, 2023
Today, a tale of two markets are seen in healthcare mergers and acquisition: the present (as reflected in the data about declining dealmaking) and the future (reflected in the increasingly positive outlook by dealmakers). While deal data can vary according to how it is defined and who is reporting, it has declined substantially across the board since the high-water mark in late 2021 and early...
Healthcare professional listening to a pregnant person's stomach with a stethoscope
By  Jessica Hagen 02:08 pm November 7, 2023
Editor's note: This story has been updated with a comment from Philips.  Royal Philips received an additional $44.6 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, bringing its total received to $60 million, to support the global deployment of the tech giant's AI-enabled, FDA-cleared Lumify Ultrasound System. In 2021, Philips received an initial grant of $15.4 million from the Gates...
Healthcare worker standing beside a pregnant person lying in bed while both are touching the pregnant person's stomach
By  Jessica Hagen 09:04 am September 19, 2023
GE HealthCare has secured a grant of more than $44 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to design AI-enabled applications and tools to help less experienced health professionals in low- and middle-income countries perform ultrasound scans that address fetal and maternal health and respiratory diseases. Caption Health, founded in 2013 and acquired by GE HealthCare earlier this year,...