Onduo Health, the virtual diabetes coaching program backed by Verily (and to a lesser extent Sanofi) announced this morning that it is expanding its platform beyond Type 2 diabetes to include several other conditions frequent among its populations.

Multi-condition services focused on hypertension, pre-diabetes, weight loss and mental wellbeing – as well as underlying coaching support for dieting, physical activity and medication management – are now available to the company’s payer and employer clients, Onduo CEO Dr. Vindell Washington told MobiHealthNews. The company is also increasing its support for mental and behavioral health issues such as anxiety and depression over the next several months, with other offerings slated for the back half of 2021.

“We’re pivoting to be more focused on whole person-centered care, and our first expansions are … rounding out some of the cardiometabolic solutions that are needed in the industry and continuing along that path,” Washington said.

“We’ve always had what we call supporting strategies for diabetics – that’s around diet, exercise, medication adherence and sleep. But we’ve actually expanded the population to which we’re trying to bring those solutions.”

Further, Onduo has kicked off a multi-language support effort by announcing that its offerings are now available for those who speak Spanish. To do so the company has translated all of the language included in its app, and hired coaches as well as providers with medical Spanish fluency, Washington said.

Onduo describes its take on chronic disease management as “personalization at scale.” For Washington, the technology side of this consists of three major components: connected devices like continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) to collect signal data, artificial intelligence to make sense of those signals, and user interface design backed by behavioral science to spur change.

Onduo will continue to rely on its tech-heavy approach, although “that doesn’t mean that we necessarily want to develop a device for every condition,” he said. “But we do have a lab in South San Francisco. We’re thinking about that, and we’re also not opposed to using some currently existing devices in the works. So [for instance], we’re using for the blood pressure program-connected Bluetooth blood pressure cuffs that we didn’t invent, but we also have some items down the pipeline that we are developing to improve that interface.”

Onduo’s various devices and algorithms together support the company’s human coaches and providers, who conduct virtual appointments with members to guide them toward healthier lifestyles. Washington said that this approach to Type 2 management has borne fruit for Onduo, but that the company has long been aware that members’ conditions aren’t defined by a single ailment.

“What our doctors were engaged in was not just the treatment of diabetes,” he said. “If a patient has problems with their medications around high blood pressure, for example, they were engaging with those members and trying to get them into a good state – when you hire a physician who’s taken a Hippocratic Oath and they can help, they tend to help.

“Early on, we found that 70% of our diabetic patients had high blood pressure. So in order to provide the best care for that individual, it became clear that we had to at least think about diseases in clusters, not just isolated entities, to bring people to their best health.”

The CEO said that this cluster approach led Onduo to prioritize the comorbidities that were most common among their members. Type 2 diabetes and older age are associated with high blood pressure. Chronic-disease diagnoses bring new challenges to emotional resiliency and mental wellbeing. He said the company had already been conducting pilots among members who had Type 2 diabetes, as well as hypertension or behavioral health concerns, with encouraging results.

Washington acknowledged that it isn’t hard to take this physiological progression of services a step further and wonder whether Onduo also has its eyes on expanding to additional conditions with heavy overlap.

One such example would be the increasingly crowded musculoskeletal (MSK) space, where other digital diabetes management platforms like Omada Health and Dario Health have recently made M&A-driven expansions. Extend that net to include other conditions stressing the system and you’ll land on COPD, women’s health and “other things we are certainly considering,” Washington said.

Still, Onduo is “very cognizant” that it’s a single virtual platform in a broader healthcare ecosystem. The company isn’t interested in providing physical services, or dipping into the decades-long relationships that define primary care, Washington said. If Onduo is going to expand into new areas of disease management down the road, it will be in areas that play to its strengths of behavior change, data-driven treatment plans and human coaching, he said.

“I don’t think many folks have taken that particular approach. I don’t think people have traditionally said ‘we need providers,'” he said. “We’re cutting a slightly different path in that space, but it does come down to convenience, not only for the individual, but for the health plan and the employer.”

Customers want comprehensive platforms, and patients need inclusive services

Of course, Onduo’s platform expansion is also a move meant to appeal to its clientele. To an employer or a health plan, having to coordinate a dozen different point solutions for different populations “is not particularly attractive,” Washington said. The company has heard “a lot of feedback” from stakeholders indicating single-condition approach wasn’t in especially high demand.

“I was the chief medical officer at Blue Cross Blue Shield Louisiana, so I was a target once upon a time for many disease management vendors,” he said. “At the end of the day, it was pretty clear when we talked to folks: If you could provide a digital service that was equivalent across a lot of different areas, that would have been more attractive. That’s the voice we’re listening to.”

Also on customers’ wishlist was the newly launched multi-language support. Pilots of the Spanish app and services began last fall, he said, and were prioritized over other languages due to the immediate needs of Onduo’s booked clients. Those will be added later on as the company identifies other communities among its membership for whom English is not their first language.

At the same time, Washington stressed the need for chronic disease services to design medicine “in a culturally competent way,” and keep in mind healthcare’s larger obligation to meet patients where they are.

“We have a mantra around doing more good as a company, and part of that includes our approach on product inclusivity. So not only is it a business imperative, it’s a moral imperative for us,” he said.

“And if you’re talking about chronic diseases and ignoring the fact that there are folks in our community who do not have English as a first language, you’re just not caring for a bunch of folks in the community that could receive services.”

The European Commission has presented its new SAMITA Action Plan which aims to ensure that radiological and nuclear technologies continue to benefit the health of EU citizens and contribute to the fight against cancer and other diseases.

The SAMIRA Action Plan – the Strategic Agenda for Medical Ionising Radiation Applications – will improve EU co-ordination and is the first follow-up to Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan. It will ensure that EU citizens have access to high-quality radiological and nuclear technologies in medicine with the highest safety standards.

Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson, said: “The current pandemic has reminded us all of the importance of health and the need to do everything we can to increase the wellbeing of our citizens. Safe medical use of radiological and nuclear technology is a highly useful tool in our arsenal and is already benefitting hundreds of millions of patients across Europe.

“This action plan will ensure that the EU continues to be the global leader in supplying medical radioisotopes and developing radiological diagnostics and treatments, while applying the highest quality and safety standards.”
Nuclear and radiation technologies

Several nuclear and radiation technologies are vital for dealing with cancer management, such as mammography, computed tomography, and other forms of radiological imaging, and radiotherapy is among the most effective and widely used cancer treatments. Nuclear medicine is also routinely used for cancer diagnosis and follow-up.

The plan will focus on three key areas including: securing the supply of medical radioisotopes; improving radiation quality and safety in medicine; and facilitating innovation and the technological development of medical ionising radiation applications.

Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Stella Kyriakides, said: “With Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan, we will take action to ensure that we screen more, and that we screen better. And to do so, we need to have radiation technology that is safe and of high quality. Radiological imaging is indispensable for early cancer detection and diagnosis, and more than half of cancer patients will undergo radiotherapy.

“It is an ever-present element in the life of a cancer patient. The SAMIRA Action Plan is our first deliverable under Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan, and it is an excellent example of collaboration between the energy, health and research communities.”

A European Radioisotope Valley Initiative (ERVI) will be established by the Commission to maintain Europe’s global leadership in the supply of medical radioisotopes and help accelerate the development and introduction of new radioisotopes and production methods.

It will also launch a European Initiative on Quality and Safety of medical applications of ionising radiation and will create synergies between the Euratom Research and Training Programme and the ‘Health’ cluster of the EU research programme Horizon Europe through the development and implementation of a Research Roadmap for medical applications of nuclear and radiation technology.

HealthTensor, an artificial intelligence company that is creating software to help augment medical decision making, announced that it has raised a $5 million seed round of financing led by Calibrate Ventures, TenOneTen Ventures, and Susa Ventures. The round also includes top-rated hospitals and physicians, including a Medical Officer at Amazon Health. Funds will be used to scale the company’s software engineering and implementation team to keep up with demand from major health systems.

HealthTensor’s software acts as a layer of intelligence between physicians and the troves of raw medical data from any given patient, which is often more than any individual doctor can handle. HealthTensor uses advanced algorithms to do AI-enabled diagnosis, ensuring no medical condition is overlooked. It was designed from the ground up with the physician workflow in mind, enabling frictionless adoption of the product by users.

“HealthTensor makes me a better doctor because it allows me to spend less time in front of the computer and more time in front of the patient,” said Dr. Tasneem Bholat, an early user of HealthTensor’s software. “HealthTensor synthesizes all the data from the patient’s chart, saving me from doing chart biopsy and surfacing diagnoses I might have otherwise missed.”

To date, HealthTensor has helped physicians write more than 2,000 notes and has identified overlooked medical conditions in 95% of cases. HealthTensor’s software is currently integrated within several hospitals and will expand to many more in the coming months.

“We think of HealthTensor as an AI-powered medical resident that is focused specifically on the tedious, data-driven aspects of medicine, which is what computers do best,” said Eli Ben-Joseph, co-founder and CEO of HealthTensor. “Many doctors are forced to spend a majority of their day focused on data aggregation from medical records, which leads to missed diagnoses, patient dissatisfaction, and physician burnout. HealthTensor frees up the physician to focus on the conceptual and emotional aspects of medicine, which is what humans do best.”

“HealthTensor makes doctors’ lives easier and helps provide better patient care ultimately generating revenue for hospitals, making it one of the rare startups that has massive global potential for both patients and healthcare providers,” said Jason Schoettler, general partner at Calibrate Ventures.

It’s rare to see a tool that benefits multiple constituencies within a hospital or medical system, but HealthTensor has done just that,” said David Waxman, partner at TenOneTen Ventures. “HealthTensor’s software leads to improved clinical outcomes, benefiting patients, doctors, and hospitals alike, and we see great potential for the company as it expands into more exam rooms.”

About HealthTensor
HealthTensor is building AI-powered healthcare, starting with diagnostic algorithms. HealthTensor’s product analyzes doctors’ notes and lab results to accurately diagnose patients, and writes diagnoses, including required billing data, back into the medical record. It is the only product on the market that saves doctors time, improves patient outcomes, and increases revenue. HealthTensor is carving a path to bring top tier medicine to every physician and patient worldwide.

A new Artificial Intelligence (AI) smartphone app that can help detect kidney disease earlier is set to benefit hundreds of patients in the UK.

Developed by Healthy.io, the pioneering AI app turns a smartphone camera into a clinical-grade tool to detect early kidney disease then allows patients to transmit their results to their GP in minutes, without any need to leave their home.

Chronic kidney disease affects around 1 in 10 people in the UK. This new testing and technology is designed to reduce unnecessary trips to the GP and hospital, as well as to encourage more people to seek an early diagnosis.

Healthy.io will be supported by NHSX, the digital transformation arm of the NHS, to offer 500,000 patients technology-supported home-testing kits over the next three years, with more than 3,500 patients having already received one.
Revolutionising kidney disease detection

The technology is one of 42 innovations that are being supported by the first round of the AI in Health and Care Award programme, which is managed by the Accelerated Access Collaborative in partnership with NHSX and the National Institute for Health Research.

Patients will receive a test kit, which includes a standard urine dipstick, a urine collection pot and a patented colour board. The smartphone app guides the user through the test, which includes scanning the dipstick on the colour board using a standard smartphone camera. Using AI and colourmetric analysis, the app is able to read the dipstick results equivalent to a lab-based device. The app tests for results by analysing testing images and producing results regardless of lighting conditions, setting, or camera type.

Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock said: “This is another brilliant example of how innovative technologies are transforming healthcare and improving lives. Patients are able to receive a diagnosis sooner, saving time for clinicians so they can spend more time on treatment, and ultimately saving more lives through earlier diagnosis. This innovation is another step forward in making high-quality healthcare more accessible – in some cases without leaving the comfort of your own home.”

Matthew Gould, Chief Executive of NHSX, said: “Artificial intelligence holds enormous potential for the NHS and in many areas is already providing radical benefits for patients and clinicians.

“The use of this latest testing technology is another huge step forward enabling us to provide earlier diagnosis of disease and improve patient care and treatment outcomes while also freeing up NHS staff.”

According to an independent evaluation by the York Health Economics Consortium, if rolled out nationally Healthy.io’s solution has the potential to save more than 11,000 lives and save the NHS at least £660m over five years.

Zulekha Hospital in the UAE and the Israel-based Health Plus have signed an agreement to cooperate in the field of medical tourism and strengthen both healthcare systems by sharing medical expertise and best practices.

By way of this agreement, patients from Israel who are undergoing dialysis will be able to receive treatment while in the UAE.

Under the programme ‘Holiday Dialysis’, patients who previously could not travel due to ongoing dialysis treatment will now be able to travel to Dubai once travel restrictions ease and continue their dialysis – combining their holidays with ongoing health treatments.

Other services facilitated by the agreement include health checks, advanced oncology, neurosurgery, neurology, and telemedicine too.

“We consider this to be a great collaborative opportunity between two healthcare entities and regions which will further support the socio-economic progress across borders. We are happy to create this joint progressive opportunity for Israeli and UAE healthcare professionals,” said Taher Shams, managing director of Zulekha Healthcare Group.

Health Plus, the international marketing arm of Hadassah University Hospital of Jerusalem, offers treatments at medical institutions across the world. Since 2008, Health Plus has been an approved representative of Hadassah University Hospital authorised to refer patients from Cyprus, Russia, Greece and other countries, while over the past year, it has been cooperating with hospitals across Israel as well as distinguished medical institutions in Cyprus, Paris, Greece and Germany.

“Dubai and Israeli medicine are very well known for their major achievements. When two renowned healthcare service providers become one, then the outcome can only be a commendable one. That is exactly what we aim at,” said David Berezin, CEO of Health Plus.

Royal Philips, a global leader in health technology, and the Dutch SAZ (Association of Collaborating General Hospitals) group of 28 hospitals have signed a strategic partnership agreement for a minimum of 5 years in the field of connected care. The partnership will encompass the monitoring, observation and self-management of patients throughout the entire care journey, both inside and outside the hospitals, supported by Philips advanced patient monitoring and population health management solutions.

“The SAZ unites 28 regional hospitals, which are together making the move from being hospitals to a health organization,” says Bert Kleinlugtenbeld, President of the SAZ. “In doing so, the strength of the SAZ is that we act together and learn from each other. Our strategic direction is to move care to the patient’s home wherever possible. We also see an important role for prevention. In making this move, removing the burden from the patient and the care provider is central. With Philips, we will do this by using the latest technological innovations in the field of patient monitoring and population health management, strengthening our cooperation in patient-centric care.”

Prevent ICU re-admissions
During the course of 2021 about ten SAZ hospitals will start the collaboration focused either on hospital care or care in the community. In-hospital applications will include early detection of patient deterioration on nursing wards using Philips’ IntelliVue Guardian Solution, which the Bravis hospital in Bergen op Zoom and Roosendaal, the Netherlands, already has experience of using. The Bravis hospital is also already using Philips’ wearable biosensor and will use it to make a better connection between patient monitoring in the hospital’s ICU and its nursing wards, reducing the length of stay in the ICU and helping to prevent ICU re-admissions. In addition, the solution will help a patient to return to a long term care setting or their own home. By creating an automatic link between the Philips biosensor, the Philips IntelliVue Guardian software and the hospital’s EMR system, the organization aims to reduce the time nurses spend on administration.

The SAZ has experience with multiparty collaborations to improve healthcare. In 2017 the 28 hospitals started the company BeterDichtbij BV. BeterDichtbij is now used by 35 hospitals in the Netherlands. As part of the strategic collaboration between SAZ a connection will be realized between BeterDichtbij and the Philips Engage platform.

Blessing Health System has launched a new virtual care program allowing patients diagnosed with COVID-19 to recover safely from home under the watchful eye of the Blessing care team. The Blessing Enhanced COVID Recovery Program uses a combination of remote patient monitoring and telehealth technology from digital health provider Cloud DX.

Under the Blessing Enhanced COVID Recovery Program, patients discharged from one of Blessing Health System’s hospitals with mild to low-risk COVID-19 symptoms are sent home with the Cloud DX Connected Health Kit including easy-to-use FDA cleared devices to remotely self-monitor their critical vitals, such as pulse oxygen saturation, blood pressure and temperature, with vitals data flowing in real-time to a clinical dashboard overseen by Blessing’s care team. Patients and family members also receive an included tablet computer and the Cloud DX mobile app and survey to track daily symptoms. Patients receive care from a Blessing hospitalist, care coordination nurse or home health nurse depending on the individual and their care needs.

If vitals or symptoms change indicating a deterioration in a patient’s condition, the Cloud DX system sends a notification to the Blessing care team, triggering a telehealth follow up video visit.

“Our first objective is always better care for our patients and better patient outcomes,” says Dr. Irshad Siddiqui, MD, Executive Vice President and Chief of IT/Innovation for the Blessing Health System. “It’s imperative that we ensure capacity within our hospitals for the most critically-ill patients, while maintaining a watchful eye on those patients who are recovering at home.

Dr. Irshad Siddiqui continued, “This is a time of great urgency for the entire US healthcare system. In mere weeks, my team, alongside the Cloud DX team, were able to stand up a solution that provides us with an innovative way to effectively and efficiently deliver scalable, 24/7 remote monitoring for COVID-19 patients under our care, allowing them to safely leave the hospital and recover in the comfort and security of their own homes. And when this pandemic resides, we have a remote patient monitoring solution that can easily be applied to other areas of patient care, for instance, chronic disease management.”

“Virtual care, including remote patient monitoring and telehealth, is rapidly becoming a way for healthcare providers to affordably deliver an enhanced level of quality patient care through the pandemic and beyond,” said Robert Kaul, CEO of Cloud DX. “From COVID-19 patient management, to post-surgical follow-up, to ongoing care management for patients with chronic illness, hospital systems can leverage modern, clinical-grade technology to provide quality of care safely and at scale. We are delighted to support Dr. Siddiqui, his team at Blessing and their patients, as they strive to overcome the very pressing care challenges that have arisen because of this global pandemic, with a highly cost-effective solution for COVID-19 remote patient monitoring. At an average cost of just $175 per patient — a fraction of the cost of hospitalization — our solution offers dramatic financial savings to hospitals without compromising patient care.”

Blessing Health System
Blessing Health System is an integrated health system, based in Quincy, IL, consisting of two award-winning hospitals, two physician group practices, an accredited college of nursing and health sciences, a network of medical specialty businesses and a charitable foundation. Serving a primary market area of west central Illinois, northeast Missouri and southeast Iowa, Blessing Corporate Services, Inc., is the parent company of the System providing support and direction to Blessing Hospital; Illini Community Hospital; Blessing Physician Services; Hannibal Clinic; Denman Services, Inc.; Blessing-Rieman College of Nursing & Health Sciences and The Blessing Foundation. The Mission of Blessing Health System is to improve the health of our communities. Blessing Health System employs more than 3,500 people.

Cloud DX
Cloud DX is a leader in virtual healthcare and digital medicine. Our complete remote patient monitoring platform incorporates proprietary medical devices, mobile apps, clinical dashboards, artificial intelligence and EMR integration. Cloud DX now provides products and services to hospitals, healthcare providers and provincial health departments across North America. In 2020, Cloud DX was a co-recipient of the Roche COVID Challenge award and is widely recognized for their ground-breaking med tech innovations, including winning the Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE Bold Epic Innovator Award, Fast Company magazine “World Changing Idea” and most recently a 2021 Edison Award nomination.

Medisafe, a leading digital therapeutics company, named Best Medication Reminder App by OnlineDoctor.com while AVA Digital Awards named Medisafe a Platinum Award Winner in the ‘App for Medical’ category. These recognitions highlight the company’s contributions in improving medication management and advancing innovation in digital health.

OnlineDoctor.com, a trusted source for content and information about online medical and healthcare services, examined digital health platforms based on several key criteria and customer feedback. The high-ranking platforms must deliver optimal platform accessibility, service availability, and communication methods to gain recognition. Medisafe fared well due to its unique uses of dynamic persona profiles, patient journey maps, and behavioral science to create a unique experience for every patient.

Separately, AVA Digital awarded Medisafe with its highest honor, the Platinum Award – App for Medical. AVA Digital recognizes outstanding achievement for creative concepts, direction, design, and production that supports digital communication channels. Out of more than 200,000 entries, the Medisafe platform was selected for its ability to digitally support patients throughout their medication journey with medication-specific, branded educational content, videos, measurement reporting and even patient outreaches.

“It is a great honor to receive recognition for our engaging and interactive patient experience, becoming a trusted resource for patients managing a medical condition and medications to support their overall health,” said Medisafe Chief Medical Officer Daniel Sands, MD. “We know our platform provides a solution for the global health crisis of medication mismanagement, and it is always rewarding to see others recognizing the strides we have made in achieving better outcomes by supporting patients throughout their entire journey.”

Medisafe is a leading digital therapeutic platform with more than 7MM users who utilize the system to help manage their medication therapy, stay engaged on their medication therapy, and engage with other users to create a virtual support system in living healthier lives, while managing acute and chronic conditions.

Weave, the complete business toolbox for service-based businesses and one of the fastest-growing companies in tech, announced Weave Unify, a sophisticated patient engagement and communication platform created specifically for multi-location service businesses.

Weave Unify empowers healthcare businesses with multiple locations to leverage each others’ patient bases, schedules, and call-handling staff to streamline operations, improve communications, increase revenue, and provide a modernized and personalized patient experience across the entire practice.

“It’s complex for healthcare practices to efficiently communicate, attract, and engage with their patients, and this becomes even more complicated when a business operates multiple practices across various office locations,” said Roy Banks, CEO at Weave. “Weave Unify enables multi-location businesses to leverage each other’s staff and strengths to help grow the organization more quickly and efficiently, provide better brand experiences, all while reducing operational costs.”

According to a recent survey of more than 300 multi-location healthcare business owners and operators, multi-location practices that frequently cross-schedule patients are 63% more likely to always have a full schedule, helping to maximize each healthcare professional’s time.

Weave is hosting a webinar on February 11 with Dr. Eric Roman, a practicing dentist who built and sold two multi-location dental service organizations (DSOs), on the ways healthcare businesses should be rethinking their growth and communication strategy in 2021.

Weave Unify is the latest addition to Weave’s growing set of solutions for healthcare businesses, which includes solutions for payment processing, email marketing, and patient experience and communications to make healthcare practices more efficient and profitable.

About Weave: Weave is the complete business toolbox for service-based businesses. From the first phone call to the final invoice, Weave’s unique integration of hardware and software solutions helps streamline and simplify business growth, retention and communication across the entire customer journey. With approximately 20,000 customers, Weave was the first Utah company to join Y Combinator and has received several renowned awards, including the Fortune 100 Best Companies 2019, Forbes 2020 and 2019 Cloud 100, the 2019 Inc. 5000 fastest-growing companies in America and Forbes 2020 Next Billion-Dollar Startup.