Peloton's acquisition spree. Bloomberg reports three smaller acquisitions by connected fitness company Peloton Interactive over the past several months. These include AI voice assistant company Aiqudo in February, as well as fitness smartwatch maker Atlas Wearables and interactive workout mat Otari in the final quarter of last year.
Peloton told the publication that the three deals had closed and...
AI isn't ready for COVID-19 prime time. A systematic review of published this week in nature machine intelligence warns that new models using machine learning to review chest radiographs and chest computed tomographies for COVID-19 have major methodical deficiencies or underlying biases.
Among the 62 published or pre-print papers outlining these approaches, the authors wrote that not a single one...
No-cost medications for patients in need. Online prescription discount platform GoodRx has partnered with the National Association of Free and Charitable Clinics (NAFC) to kick off a philanthropic program that will support patients in need with free prescriptions and care.
With a target goal of more than $5 million in free medications provided during 2021, the company said that it has kick-...
A facelift for hospital room TVs. Amwell announced today a new tech addition to the company's hospital-focused telehealth product. Specifically, the company's Hospital TV 100 kit transforms a hospital room's existing television into a two-way video conversation with virtual providers – an approach that Amwell said will allow hospitals to leverage their existing infrastructure to scale their...
SPAC rumors pan out. Just a few weeks after rumors spread of Sharecare's upcoming merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), the patient-engagement and benefits-navigation platform made it official with an announcement on Friday.
Sharecare will be merging with Falcon Capital Acquisition and listing on NASDAQ. The deal is set to be funded through $345 million in cash in trust from...
A call for independent policing of non-HIPAA health data. The Center for Democracy & Technology, a nonprofit organization focused on tech policy and architecture, and the eHealth Initiative & Foundation, a coalition of industry and academic stakeholders, yesterday released a framework proposal calling for self-regulation of consumer data use by health devices and products that don't...
Short seller calls out Clover Health. Hindenburg Research, a short seller that describes itself as a specialist in forensic financial research, published a report criticizing Clover Health's business and alleging that the Medicare Advantage insurtech company has not disclosed active investigations by the Department of Justice.
Hindenburg – which said that it does not have positions for or against...
23andMe's new COVID-19 resource. Consumer genomics company 23andMe has released a new interactive tool that allows users to see how various health factors could impact the risk of COVID-19 hospitalization. The COVID-19 Severity Calculator pulls data from the company's COVID-19 study, which included 10,000 participants diagnosed with the disease and 750 who were hospitalized.
23andMe warned that...
Alexa, listen to me sleep. Hot on the heels of its Halo fitness, weight and sleep wearable, Business Insider reports that Amazon is also working on a contactless bedside device for tracking sleep apnea. The device in development reportedly uses millimeter-wave radar to watch breathing and movement. Codenamed "Brahms," the tracker is roughly the size of a palm, and would speak with other connected...
Long-term data on ambulatory monitoring patches. Scientists from the Scripps Research Translational Institute and Johnson & Johnson have unveiled three-year study data for iRhythm Technologies' Zio wearable ambulatory monitoring patches at this year's American Heart Association Scientific Sessions. The mSToPS study examined 1,738 participants who were a mean age 73.7 years at the time of...
