Dave Muoio

By  Dave Muoio 11:28 am January 14, 2021
Fourteen-and-a-half months later, Google has finally completed its acquisition of health wearables company Fitbit. The news was announced this morning in complementary statements from Fitbit cofounder and (now previous) CEO James Park and Rick Osterloh, Google's SVP of devices and services. "This is just the beginning because becoming part of the Google family means we can do even more to inspire...
By  Dave Muoio 03:11 pm January 13, 2021
Period and fertility-tracking-app maker Flo Health has settled with the Federal Trade Commission regarding a complaint alleging improper disclosure of sensitive user data to third-party marketing and analytics services from Facebook, Google and others, the agency announced today. The FTC's complaint listed several ways in which Flo deceived its users. These included messaging from the company...
A telehealth visit via smartphone
By  Dave Muoio 11:45 am January 13, 2021
Teladoc Health has launched new pilots of its virtual primary care program and hopes to explore its take on a hospital-at-home offering with large health system partners before the end of the year, CEO Jason Gorevic said this week during a J.P. Morgan virtual presentation. Shortly after the talk, Teladoc also announced a new pilot with continuous glucose monitor (CGM) company Dexcom for eligible...
By  Dave Muoio 11:48 am January 12, 2021
Digital health investment firm Rock Health is the latest market spectator to tally up and break down what's widely being considered an exceptional year in activity and fundraising. Per the firm's 2020 Market Insights Report, released yesterday, the space claimed $14.1 billion of investments spread across 440 deals. By their reckoning, this represents a respective 72% and 15% increase over 2018,...
By  Dave Muoio 02:01 pm January 11, 2021
Biogen has announced a new multiyear research study on cognitive decline that will be conducted using the Apple Watch and iPhone. The observational study is being conducted in collaboration with Apple, according to the announcement, and is set to kick off later this year. The project's primary goal is to establish digital biomarkers for monitoring long-term cognitive performance and to spot early...
By  Dave Muoio 02:41 pm January 8, 2021
Editor's note: This story has been updated with additional information and quotes from Hinge Health. Hinge Health, a San Francisco company tackling musculoskeletal (MSK) health through digital programs with live virtual sessions, has wrapped up a $300 million Series D round that places its total value at $3 billion, according to a recent announcement. The "heavily oversubscribed" round was led by...
Franklin with a medical mask on a 100 dollar bill
By  Dave Muoio 11:19 am January 7, 2021
Mercom Capital Group has released its tally of 2020's digital health funding: $14.8 billion in equity raised across 637 deals, as well as $6.8 billion in debt and public market financing across 26 deals. These represent a respective 66% and 278% increase over the firm's count for 2019, according to the Mercom report released yesterday. In total, 1,694 different investors took part in these deals...
By  Dave Muoio 11:03 am January 6, 2021
Israeli researchers have recently detailed a new machine learning-based COVID-19 model that predicts a positive diagnosis from symptoms and – notably – is designed to be implemented among the general population. Published in npj Digital Medicine, the tool was developed and tested on roughly 100,000 reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing records recorded from Israeli...
By  Dave Muoio 11:19 am January 5, 2021
Today SocialClimb, the maker of marketing software for providers, announced a $12 million investment from Resolve Growth Partners. WHAT IT DOES The company's tools focus primarily on reputation management and digital advertising that targets "more profitable" patients. Core to the offering is automated messaging to encourage patients to leave reviews on various social platforms. It also tracks...
Former Haven Dr. CEO Atul Gawande
By  Dave Muoio 02:36 pm January 4, 2021
Haven, the high-profile joint venture from Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase, is officially calling it quits after a nearly three-year run. The company had sought to leverage each of the three business' strengths to devise a new model for employee health coverage and access to care, but launched relatively few projects and shed a number of key employees near the end of its lifetime....