Purify-One, an industry leading manufacturer of ultraviolet (UV) disinfecting devices, has teamed up with school districts throughout the country allowing them to reopen safely without exposing students, teachers, and staff to harsh, potentially toxic disinfecting chemicals.

“As a practicing front line emergency physician, we are seeing an increased number of patients seeking treatment in the emergency room for eye, nose, and throat irritation as well as respiratory impairment from exposure to cleaning chemicals,” said Dr. John Parente, the company’s Chief Medical Officer and board-certified emergency medicine physician. Dr. Parente added “By utilizing UV light with the Purify-One wand, the students, teachers and staff are eliminating exposure to chemicals which cause these unwanted side effects. Children’s vulnerabilities to chemicals are much greater than adults making them even more susceptible to harmful side effects.”

In addition to the reduction of chemical exposure, Purify-One offers an economical and eco-friendly alternative for school districts. A single Purify-One UV wand can disinfect a classroom for over 50,000 hours of use (approximately 10 years of normal use) greatly reducing cleaning costs for the district and protecting the environment by lessening pollution. In addition, classroom furniture, school electronics and sporting equipment surfaces are not destroyed or degraded by chemicals saving the district hundreds of thousands of dollars in replacement costs.

School districts throughout the country are embracing this next generation technology for a safer, more economical and environmentally responsible option to reopen and stay open. Purify-One wands are tested and proven to destroy viruses (including SARS-CoV-2 which causes COVID-19), bacteria, mold and mildew.

About Purify-One

Purify-One is a thirty-year veteran in the light technology space and leading manufacture of UV disinfecting devices with a guiding principle of improving the health of our communities. The company’s core purpose is to help educate the public on the many advantages of UV disinfecting as a healthier and safer alternative to traditional chemicals.

Cardinal Health announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to sell its Cordis business to Hellman & Friedman (H&F) for approximately $1 billion, which includes buyer’s assumption of certain liabilities and seller’s retention of certain working capital accounts. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of Cardinal Health’s fiscal year 2022, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory clearances.

“Cordis has a long history of innovation in minimally-invasive cardiovascular technology, and we are confident that with H&F as its owner, Cordis will be well-positioned for growth, innovation and success,” said Mike Kaufmann, CEO of Cardinal Health. “Cardinal Health and H&F have a shared passion for delivering high-quality medical products to customers and we are excited about the future for the Cordis business under H&F’s ownership.”

“Our decision to divest Cordis demonstrates our disciplined approach to evaluating our portfolio and focusing our resources in our strategic growth areas where we are an advantaged owner,” Kaufmann continued. “Looking forward, we remain committed to our medical distribution and global medical products businesses.”

“Cordis is an excellent fit with our philosophy of investing in great businesses as a market-leading cardiovascular device manufacturer known for high-quality products, strong physician satisfaction and superb patient outcomes,” said Hunter Philbrick, Partner at H&F. “We are excited to invest in the talented Cordis, Ajax and Zeus teams to drive industry leadership, therapeutic innovation and improved patient experiences.”

“We at Ajax Health and Zeus Health are ecstatic about injecting growth into Cordis’ powerful platform, and will do so through investments in the core business and through an independent R&D engine – the ‘Cordis Accelerator’ – to develop and commercialize a new pipeline of products exclusively for Cordis,” said Duke Rohlen, CEO of Ajax Health and Zeus Health, partners to H&F in the transaction, and Executive Chairman-designate of Cordis and CEO of Cordis Accelerator. “We see an unparalleled opportunity to partner with both existing Cordis leadership and H&F to combine a best-in-class innovation engine with a strong and robust commercial chassis. Together, we will establish Cordis as the standard bearer for medical device innovation.”

After closing, most assets and liabilities associated with the Cordis business will transfer to H&F. Cardinal Health will retain full authority for lawsuits related to inferior vena cava filters in the United States and Canada, as well as liability associated with these matters. Cardinal Health estimates that, after completion of the transition services agreement, the divestiture of the Cordis business will decrease Medical segment profit by approximately $60 million to $70 million on an annual run-rate basis.

In connection with the entry into this definitive agreement, Cardinal Health will classify the Cordis business as held for sale, which Cardinal Health expects to result in a pre-tax loss of up to $120 million in the third quarter of its fiscal year 2021. Additionally, Cardinal Health was authorized to incur costs associated with the planned divestiture of up to $125 million, primarily in its fiscal years 2021 and 2022.

Tower Health in Pennsylvania has officially launched Epic Systems EHR across the entirety of its health system when it recently went live at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia.

Due to coronavirus travel bans and the need for social distancing, Epic Systems and health IT professionals at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children were forced to conduct a remote, virtual implementation.

“Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this entire project was completed virtually, and the successful launch is a testament to the incredible hard work and dedication of the entire team at Tower Health,” Michelle Trupp, chief information officer at Tower Health.

“This is a huge accomplishment. The significance of this moment in Tower Health’s quest to advance health and transform lives cannot be understated. We are sincerely grateful for the hard work of so many individuals who have been instrumental to this launch, and your collective commitment to making this transition smooth and successful,” Trupp continued.

Affiliated Tower Health Medical Group practices, such as Reading Hospital, have been using Epic since 2013. This final implementation occurred roughly one and a half years after Tower Health completed its previous Epic implementations at Brandywine, Chestnut Hill, Jennersville, Phoenixville, and Pottstown Hospitals.

The health system said the Epic EHR system will provide real-time access for patients and providers, regardless of their Tower Health affiliation.

“Now, all Tower Health hospitals and physician practices are utilizing the same EHR, which is a huge step forward in our journey to becoming a fully integrated healthcare system,” said Don Mueller, St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children Chief Executive Officer.

“This is truly an exciting moment and one worthy of celebration. A single, shared platform will incorporate patients’ health information from all Tower Health care sites into one record – leading to more informed clinical decisions, improved outcomes, and seamlessly coordinated care. This will drive common practices, protocols, and care expectations, while also fostering timely communication among providers,” Mueller continued.

After completing the network infrastructure upgrade, St. Christopher built and tested the new EHR system. Across the entire clinical and non-clinical staff, there were nearly 570 total training classes and in total, they spent time learning the system with 195 super users, seven specialist training providers, 31 credentialed trainers, 1,922 Epic support team members, and 1,270 trained new users.

St. Christopher patients, or their guardian or parent caregivers, will also be able to access Epic’s patient portal, MyTowerHealth. Using the online patient portal, the patients and caregivers can schedule appointments, place orders for prescription refills, communicate with providers, and view both healthcare history and lab results. Patients can access the patient portal on their mobile phones or computer.

The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked several notable hurdles for EHR vendors and health organizations across the country.

In May, Epic completed its first-ever remote, virtual EHR implementation at Valley Children’s Healthcare, which provides healthcare for over 1.4 million children in the Madera County area of California.

Not only was the entire go-live process conducted virtually, but Epic and Optimum Healthcare, a staffing and consulting services firm, teamed up to combine seven different EHR platforms into one Epic EHR platform.

This had been the first time a third party engineered an entirely virtual go-live. Optimum utilized over 20 analysts and provided executive oversight to help Valley Children’s IT team execute the transition.

According to the vendors and the health system, despite the lack of in-person support staff at the hospital, the implementation went live without an issue and it went on as if the vendors were on-site, both Epic and Valley Children’s Healthcare confirmed.

athenahealth, Inc., a leading provider of network-enabled software and services for medical groups and health systems nationwide, today announced the launch of its Telehealth Insights dashboard. Updated monthly, the dashboard gives providers, healthcare leaders, and patients across the U.S. an in-depth look at telehealth adoption rates by specialty area to understand where and why telehealth might have the most staying power – and to ultimately help practices increase the patient-provider connection and provide broader access to healthcare.

The COVID-19 pandemic sparked rapid growth in the use of virtual care channels nationally. Virus-related lockdowns made telehealth appointments an important option for many providers, and policy changes that relaxed reimbursement criteria for virtual visits made providing care at a distance financially viable.

The Telehealth Insights Dashboard utilizes de-identified data on 18.4 million appointments from 60,000 providers on the athenahealth network between 11/1/2020 and 1/31/2021. This resource reveals the percentage of appointments that have been held virtually by specialty over recent months. The overall specialty breakout includes:

Mental health: 33% of appointments held virtually
Primary care: 17% of appointments held virtually
Pediatrics: 9% of appointments held virtually
Cardiology: 7% of appointments held virtually
OB/GYN: 4% of appointments held virtually

For the period provided, the interactive dashboard also reveals insights into how providers and patients can take advantage of virtual care:

Patient convenience: Compared to in-person visits (4%), telehealth visits are more likely to occur after-hours or on weekends (7%).
Flexibility: Telehealth appointments are almost 2X as likely to be scheduled for the same day as compared to in-person appointments.
Engagement: Telehealth visits are most likely to occur with already-established patients (19%); but some providers are also starting relationships with new patients via telehealth (12%).
Shorter visits: Telehealth appointments are more likely to be under 15 minutes long (70%), compared to in-person visits (62%).

The Telehealth Insights Dashboard comes on the heels of athenahealth’s first-ever native telehealth solution, athenaTelehealth, which was developed in eight weeks and immediately deployed to customers at scale. athenaTelehealth has contributed to 17 million telehealth sessions held—and a 10X increase in overall telehealth volume across the athenahealth network in 2020.

“The pandemic has necessitated a new era in medicine in which telehealth appointments are a core aspect of the patient-provider relationship. Our goal in providing this resource is to look at trends and insights associated with virtual care and to give providers actionable insights into their patients’ virtual care needs,” said Jessica Sweeney-Platt, vice president of research and editorial strategy at athenahealth. “Further, providers can learn from the experiences of other practices in their specialty area to increase their appointment volume, and ultimately their revenue.”

About athenahealth, Inc

athenahealth partners with medical organizations across the country to drive clinical and financial results. Our vision is to create a thriving ecosystem that delivers accessible, high-quality, and sustainable healthcare for all, and we are pursuing this through our medical record, revenue cycle, patient engagement, and care coordination service offerings. Our expert teams build modern technology on an open, connected ecosystem, yielding insights that make a difference for our customers and their patients.

Israel-based Ibex Medical Analytics, which has an AI-driven imaging technology to detect cancer cells in biopsies more efficiently, has raised a $38 million Series B financing round led by Octopus Ventures and 83North. Also participating in the round was aMoon, Planven Entrepreneur Ventures and Dell Technologies Capital, the corporate venture arm of Dell Technologies. The company has now raised a total of $52 million since its launch in 2016. Ibex plans to use the investment to further sell into diagnostic labs in North America and Europe.

Originally incubated out of the Kamet Ventures incubator, Ibex’s “Galen” platform mimics the work of a pathologist, allowing them to diagnose cancer more accurately and faster and derive new insights from a biopsy specimen.

Because rates of cancer are on the rise and the medical procedures have become more complex, pathologists have a higher workload. Plus, says Ibex, there is a global shortage of pathologists, which can mean delays to the whole diagnostic process. The company claims pathologists can be 40% more productive using its solution.

Speaking to TechCrunch, Joseph Mossel, Ibex CEO and co-founder said: “You can think of it as a pathologist’s assistant, so it kind of prepares the case in advance, marks the regions of interest and allows the pathologist to achieve the efficiency gains.”

He said the company has secured the largest pathology network in France, and LD path, which is five pathology labs that service 24 NHS trusts in the U.K., among others.

Michael Niddam, of Kamet Ventures, said Ibex was an “excellent example of how Kamet works with founders very early on.” Ibex founders Joseph Mossel and Dr. Chaim Linhart had previously joined Kamet as Entrepreneurs in Residence before developing their idea.

EKF Diagnostics, the global in vitro diagnostics company, announces the global launch of its STAT-Site® WB handheld analyzer which delivers β-ketone and glucose measurements from whole blood in seconds. This follows the securing of its CE mark certification alongside its FDA CLIA-waiver, meaning that the portable, dual-purpose analyzer is ideal for professional use in the management of diabetes patients.

The STAT-Site® WB is used for the quantitative determination of β-ketones (Beta-Hydroxybutyrate or BHB) and glucose in whole blood taken from capillary or venous samples. The easy-to-use analyzer is reagent free, utilizing two different test strips to deliver results in just 10 seconds for β-ketones and 5 seconds for glucose. This enables clear and comprehensive management of diabetes patients displaying early symptoms of ketosis, ensuring their rapid treatment and subsequent regular monitoring.

βHB is used to aid the diagnosis and monitoring of patients with ketosis (diabetic ketoacidosis or DKA). As β-HB accounts for 78% of all ketones present in the body, and is the first to appear during ketosis, it provides the clearest indication of a patient’s condition before and after treatment. The STAT-Site WB is calibrated to the gold standard Liquicolor Beta-Hydroxybutyrate method, meaning that it delivers laboratory accurate results within seconds near to the patient.

Further ensuring results accuracy, the handheld analyzer is simple and intuitive to use, even for inexperienced users. The STAT-Site WB auto-starts when a test strip is inserted and will also automatically detect if it is a BHB or glucose test to be undertaken. Just 1 µL of whole blood is required for direct analysis and the system will also detect and alert if insufficient blood is available. An automatic strip ejection function ensures that cross contamination is avoided.

Also making it ideal for remote testing, the analyzer uses two 1.5V AAA alkaline batteries which are easy to obtain and replace, whilst test strips are available individually foil wrapped or in a vial with a shelf life of six months once opened. Results are clearly displayed on a large LCD screen interface with capacity for up to 400 measurements to be stored on the system – these can be downloaded via a mini USB lead.

“STAT-Site WB provides an affordable, easy-to-use technology that can help to reduce the cost of long-term healthcare of the growing diabetic and pre-diabetic population globally,” said Gavin Jones, Head of Product Management, EKF Diagnostics. “Having direct access to lab quality β-ketone and glucose near patient results ensures the practitioner has the essential data needed to make informed clinical or lifestyle decisions in seconds.”

EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc, which includes the EKF Diagnostics, Stanbio Laboratory and DiaSpect brands, specializes in the development, production and worldwide distribution of point-of-care analyzers for use in the detection and management of diabetes and anemia, and also in sports and maternal medicine. EKF products are sold in more than 100 countries around the globe, through a network of specialist distributors.

Point-of-care diagnostics: EKF Diagnostics designs and manufactures world-class diagnostic devices, as well as distributing rapid test kits for infectious diseases and pregnancy. The EKF analyzer range is used widely in GP surgeries, pharmacies, blood banks, sports clinics, hospitals and laboratories for glucose, lactate, hemoglobin, hematocrit and HbA1c measurement.

Central laboratory: EKF, through its wholly owned subsidiary, Stanbio Laboratory (Boerne, Texas, USA), manufactures a comprehensive range of clinical chemistry reagents, as well as associated analyzers. In addition, EKF Life Sciences (Elkhart, Indiana, USA) manufactures enzymes used in reagent development and also provides contract fermentation facilities.

COVID-19 testing: EKF also sells a range of COVID-19 testing products, including: PrimeStore MTM, an FDA-approved and CE marked sample containment device that allows the safe handling, transportation and analysis of test swabs and samples, which it manufactures under license; and COVID-SeroKlir, a leading ELISA-based antibody test from Kantaro Biosciences that provides a precise quantitative measurement of COVID-19 IgG antibodies.

Proscia®, a leading provider of digital and computational pathology solutions, and Ibex Medical Analytics, the pioneer in artificial intelligence (AI)-based cancer diagnostics, have entered into a strategic partnership to support pathologists in detecting prostate cancer, the second leading cause of cancer death among men in the United States. Through the collaboration, the partners will advance the use of computationally-enabled workflows leveraging AI, which drive accuracy, efficiency, and quality gains in routine pathology diagnosis.

The standard of care for diagnosing cancer is the pathologist’s assessment of tissue biopsies using the microscope. Diagnosing prostate cancer from a tissue biopsy is challenging given that it requires the pathologist to review a large number of samples to find tumor foci that are often subtle, minute, and dependent on a qualitative grading system to assess disease severity. This review process can lead to an increased utilization of pathologists, missed diagnoses, reliance on ancillary tests, and reduced confidence in treatment decisions.

Proscia and Ibex have joined forces to deliver a unified software solution that powers AI-enabled workflows for prostate cancer diagnosis, helping laboratories to drive meaningful productivity and quality gains. The joint product integration will bring together Ibex’s Galen™ Prostate solution with Proscia’s Concentriq® image and data management platform, introducing AI-powered triaging, cancer detection, and grading of prostate core needle biopsies into routine workflows. Galen Prostate is already deployed in laboratories worldwide and supports pathologists with real-time quality control by alerting on misdiagnosed and mis-graded cancers.

“As prostate cancer impacts millions of patients each year, and as pathologists face ever-increasing challenges, it is paramount that we empower laboratories with clinical-grade AI solutions that provide accurate, timely diagnosis and ultimately improve patient outcomes,” said Joseph Mossel, CEO and Co-founder of Ibex Medical Analytics. “We are excited to partner with Proscia to accelerate development and rollout of end-to-end digital pathology solutions that utilize the full potential of our AI technology.”

Proscia’s Concentriq is used by top reference laboratories and health systems for routine image viewing, management, and analysis and serves as a launchpad for computational applications. The deeply integrated solution will make Galen Prostate available to users of Concentriq, starting with select customers in the United States and Europe. As Concentriq also works with leading scanners and laboratory information systems (LIS), offering seamless integrations with Philips, Leica, 3DHISTECH, and Hamamatsu, it will incorporate AI insights delivered by Galen Prostate into laboratories’ connected digital ecosystems.

“Computational pathology is poised to make the biggest impact on the field since the introduction of the microscope over a century ago,” said David West, CEO of Proscia. “Our partnership with Ibex helps laboratories to capitalize on this promise by seamlessly deploying a solution backed by great science and proven customer success into workflows at scale.”

To learn more, please visit Proscia’s virtual booth and Ibex’s virtual booth at the USCAP 110th Annual Meeting. The partners will be hosting a live presentation, “Improving the Speed and Accuracy of Prostate Cancer Diagnosis,” which USCAP Annual Meeting attendees can access here on March 15th at 10:45AM PT and March 16th at 10:30AM PT.