Today on Health in 2 Point 00, we have a no-nonsense April 1st episode—with deals this time! On Episode 115, Jess asks me about Olive raising $51 million for its AI-enabled revenue cycle management solution, Bright.md raising an $8 million Series C for its asynchronous telemedicine platform, and AristaMD raising $18 million for a different sort of telemedicine, eConsults, which allow primary care physicians to consult with specialists virtually. —Matthew Holt
Covid-19 & Digital Health in Italy: “10 Years of Evolution in 10 Days” | WTF Health
By JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF HEALTH
“It’s fair to say that, in Italy, we are doing 10 years of digital health evolution in 10 days.”
Our “man-on-the-street” in Italy (well, man-sheltered-in-place in Italy) Roberto Ascione, CEO of Healthware, reports in on the Covid-19 outbreak and what’s happening with digital health startups, health system partners, and hospitals as Italians continue battling at the forefront of the coronavirus outbreak.
A few weeks ahead of the U.S., there are many things to learn about Covid-19 testing, treatment, outcomes, and timing from the experience in Italy, including some foresight on how pathways for telehealth and digital health continue to evolve as conditions become more serious and the outbreak progresses. (For all you Gretzky fans, this is “skating to where the puck will be” kind of stuff…)
Some navigational guidance on this chat which took place March 26, 2020:
- Update on Italian Covid-19 outbreak from health industry insider
- 10:25 minute mark: Digital Health startup case study, Paginemediche, self-triage chatbot data from 70K Italians, data sharing with Italian government & WHO, telehealth model flipping to give overwhelmed physicians opportunity to triage and “invite” patients based on needs
- 19:10 mark: How to work with Italian digital health startups to advance Covid-19 work
Telehealth Startup CEO On How Covid-19 Is Changing Telemedicine Use In Hospitals | WTF Health
By JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF HEALTH
Jamey Edwards, CEO of one of the larger in-hospital B2B telehealth startups in the US, Cloudbreak Health, is already seeing changes in the way hospitals are using his company’s telemedicine services in the wake of COVID-19.
From a noted rise in the rate of infectious disease consults, to “quarantine rooms” where telemedicine equipment is cleverly deployed to practice “clinical distancing” to minimize risk to front-line healthcare workers (and also preserve PPE), Jamey talks about what he’s seeing among hospital clinicians and what they seem to need most right now from telehealth providers amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
With changes to licensing regulations, HIPAA policies, and reimbursement changing the very infrastructure around telehealth, will we finally see virtual care become a true part of the healthcare system at-scale?
“One of the hardest things to do in our healthcare system is match cost to acuity,” says Jamey. “I’m not going to say we’ve overvalued the in-person encounter, but we certainly have been very hesitant to step away from it.”
“The fact of the matter is that that’s a bias. And so it’s up to us to look at these biases and say, ‘Well, no. What is the right way to do this?’”
Behind the Big Deal: Teladoc Health’s Acquisition of InTouch Health | Joe DeVivo, InTouch Health
By JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF HEALTH
It was a seminal moment in virtual care as Teladoc Health acquired Intouch Health for $600 million, effectively taking its mostly direct-to-consumer telehealth platform directly into more than 2,500 care providers — or, as they say, “from hospital to home.” We caught up with InTouch Health’s CEO, Joe DeVivo, to hear his thoughts on the deal, including what it means for the further advancement of virtual care and for the digital health industry at-large.
Filmed at J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, January 2020
THCB Spotlights: Scott Shreeve, CEO of Crossover & Jay Parkinson, Founder of Sherpaa
Today on THCB Spotlights, Matthew chats with a couple of the OGs from the original days of Health 2.0—Scott Shreeve, founder and CEO of Crossover Health, and Jay Parkinson, founder of Sherpaa, who were the first ones doing something different in terms of doctors figuring out this digital health stuff. The two of them ask the question, what would happen if you married the physical world with the online world and created a new care model that exceeds at both? While Scott was putting in onsite primary care clinics to employers like Apple and Facebook, he realized Crossover wasn’t reaching 70% of the people they were contracted with because many employees were geographically remote. Meanwhile, Jay was doing something similar with virtual primary care—which differs from traditional telehealth in that his model enables a true relationship between patient and provider—and the rest is history.
Will ‘Digital-First’ Health Plans Usher in Telehealth At-Scale? | Danielle Russella, American Well
By JESSICA DAMASSA, WTF HEALTH
Is healthcare on the way to ‘telehealth at-scale?’ We checked in with American Well’s Danielle Russella, President & GM of Health Plan Solutions, to rumor-check the buzz we’ve been hearing about “digital-first health plans” and what that means for the future of health plan coverage for telehealth services. From provider uptake and payment parity to patient awareness and utilization, Danielle weighs in on the state-of-play of telehealth/health plan relations and how digital health seems to finally becoming part of payer strategy talks within the C-suite. At American Well, that’s meant more growth in last 2 years than in the previous 8 years, says Danielle. Is that why we’re hearing those IPO rumors? Tune in to find out if there’s any merit to that chatter.
Filmed at HLTH 2019 in Las Vegas, October 2019.
Health in 2 Point 00, Episode 93 | Ginger, VillageMD, & Health Recovery Solutions
The drought is over! On Episode 93 of Health in 2 Point 00, Jess and I talk deals, deals, deals. Ginger, which provides digital mental health services, raises $35 million and is growing quite fast; VillageMD, one of numerous companies who are trying to figure out a new way to do primary care, raises $100 million; Health Recovery Solutions, which does remote patient monitoring, gets $10 million. In other news, Livongo’s stock price collapsed a little bit, but it was crazy when it first came out so now prices are more “normal”; uBiome files for bankruptcy, and Tula Health’s $2.5 million raise gets quite possibly the best press release we’ve ever seen (you’ve got to hear this). —Matthew Holt
Telemedicine is a Tool, not a Panacea, to Reach Underserved Communities
By PHUOC LE, MD and SAM APTEKAR
“Kijan ou ye? How are you?” I asked my patient, a fifty-five year-old Haitian-American woman living in Dorchester, Massachusetts. It was 2008. I had been her primary care doctor for two years and was working with her to reduce her blood pressure and cholesterol levels. “Papi mal dok– I’m doing ok doc.” We talked for 15 minutes, reviewed her vital signs and medications, and made a plan. I then electronically transmitted a new prescription to her pharmacy. The encounter was like thousands of others I’d had as a physician, except for one key difference– I was in Rwanda, 7,000 miles away from Dorchester and 6 hours ahead of the East Coast time zone.
At the time, I knew that telemedicine – the practice of providing healthcare without the provider being physically present with the patient – was a resourceful means of working with rural populations that have limited access to healthcare. However, I had no idea that just ten years down the road, many health professionals and policymakers would laud the emerging tech field as the answer to inaccessible healthcare for rural communities. While I’m aware of telemedicine’s promising benefits, I’m certain that it cannot, on its own, solve the most pressing issues that continue to afflict the rural poor and underserved.
Ever since the invention of the telephone, providers have been practicing telemedicine. However, not until the advent of advanced technologies such as high-speed internet, smartphones, and remote-controlled robotic surgery, has the field of telemedicine started to beg the question: “Do we still need in-person interactions between patient and doctor to provide high quality healthcare?” This question is particularly important for patients who live in rural areas, where a chronic shortage of providers has existed for decades.
Continue reading…THCB Spotlights: Brooke LeVasseur, CEO of AristaMD
Today on THCB Spotlights, Matthew talks to Brooke LeVasseur, who is the CEO of AristaMD. AristaMD provides eConsults to empower providers to get patients faster access to care. The average wait time to see a specialist is one to two months, and the proportion of referrals to specialists that never happen can be incredibly high, at 40% in Medicare populations for instance. AristaMD aims to provide an efficient way for primary care providers to tap into the expertise of specialists to immediately start executing on a treatment plan without the patient having to wait or travel. Tune in to find out how AristaMD is actually rolling this out and get a demo of the platform.
Health in 2 Point 00, Episode 87 | Omada, Call9 & Politics
Today on Health in 2 Point 00, Jess and I are getting in the spirit of things with this week’s Democratic debate. In Episode 87, Jess asks me about Omada Health’s $73 million raise, bringing its total to $200 million, and about what happened with nursing home telehealth startup Call9 shutting down. We turn to politics with Trump telling HHS to have hospitals publish their price list—and it’s unclear that this is even going to make a difference—and to health care coverage in the Democratic debate. —Matthew Holt
