Hong Kong's eHealth Push Reaches Seniors, but App Use Lags
Hong Kong has enrolled 94% of its senior population—about 1.68 million people—in the citywide eHealth system, yet fewer than half (46%) have downloaded and activated the eHealth mobile app. The government responded with a new “Lite Mode” interface, on‑site support stations, and an inter‑generational mentorship pilot to close the digital gap. Over 770,000 seniors now have the app, and 17,100 have used cross‑boundary health‑record functions in the Greater Bay Area. The five‑year eHealth+ plan aims to evolve the platform into a comprehensive health‑information infrastructure.
9amHealth Raises $26M for Virtual Specialty Care Platform and More Funding News
9amHealth secured $26 million Series B funding led by Define Ventures, adding founder Lynne O'Keefe to its board. Optura raised $17.5 million in a Series A round, bringing total capital to $25 million, with Salesforce Ventures spearheading the effort to expand AI and large‑language‑model capabilities....
Combining Data Can Identify High-Risk Cohorts for SDOH Initiatives
MedeAnalytics COO Saleem Tahir urges providers and payers to merge claims, clinical and social risk data to better target social determinants of health (SDOH) initiatives. By integrating these datasets, organizations can pinpoint high‑risk cohorts and allocate resources more precisely. The...
Malaysia OKs Korean AI for Sepsis Prediction and More AI Briefs
South Korean AI firm AITRICS secured Class C medical‑device approval in Malaysia for its VitalCare sepsis‑prediction software, marking its sixth regulatory clearance after Indonesia. In Thailand, Taiwan’s Acer Medical teamed with local partners to deploy an integrated AI‑assisted eye‑screening and...
Dexcom Unveils Next-Generation G8 CGM for Real-Time Glucose Monitoring
Dexcom announced its next‑generation G8 continuous glucose monitor at Investor Day, branding it as a completely new product platform built on a novel silicon chip and adaptive algorithm. The G8 offers a 50% smaller form factor than the G7 and...
Owkin, AstraZeneca Expand Collaboration on AI-Driven Drug Research Tools
Owkin has signed a three‑year licensing deal with AstraZeneca to provide its K Pro AI Scientist platform. The agreement will see Owkin build AI agents that plug into AstraZeneca’s IT environment to deliver competitive‑intelligence insights on targets, drug assets and clinical...
Q&A: Headspace Debuts New Apple Watch App for Mental Health Support
Headspace has unveiled a dedicated Apple Watch app, extending its meditation and mental‑health platform to a wearable that 50% of its members already own. The app leverages the watch’s haptic feedback and heart‑rate sensors to deliver timely nudges for breathing...
Volatile Digital Health Marketplace Impacts Interoperability Adoption
Providers are slowing interoperability purchases as volatility grips the digital‑health market, according to Health Gorilla CEO Bob Watson. Startup vendors that promise seamless data exchange face funding gaps and uncertain exits, prompting hospitals to favor established platforms. The hesitation coincides...
Quantum Health Adds Prescription Cost Guidance Through Scripta Integration
Quantum Health partnered with Scripta Insights to embed prescription‑savings guidance into its care‑coordination platform. The integration surfaces lower‑cost, clinically equivalent drug alternatives, supports member‑prescriber engagement, and delivers analytics across existing PBM contracts. By extending its navigation model to pharmacy benefits,...
Google Unveils Screenless Fitbit Air, New Google Health App
Google introduced the screenless Fitbit Air, a $99.99 wearable that tracks heart rate, sleep, oxygen, temperature and activity without a display. The device pairs with the rebranded Google Health app—formerly the Fitbit app—offering a unified dashboard that aggregates data from...
HIMSS SoCal Chapter's CXO Summit
The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) Southern California Chapter will host its CXO Summit on May 12 at the Richard Nixon Library in Yorba Linda. President Mary Beth Seaman highlighted the event’s agenda, which centers on reshaping population health through...
Privacy and Security Rules Extend to Paper Records
Health systems that revert to paper charts during electronic health record (EHR) downtime remain subject to HIPAA’s privacy and security rules, warns Polsinelli attorney Rebecca Romine. The guidance emphasizes that paper‑based protected health information (PHI) must be handled, stored, and...
Latest Middle East Partnerships Expanding Korean Health Tech and More Briefs
South Korean medtech firms ROKIT Healthcare and Seers are forging Middle East partnerships to deploy AI‑enabled kidney disease prediction and ECG monitoring solutions, with Seers securing a $15 million three‑year distribution deal for 105,000 mobiCARE devices in the UAE. In parallel,...
Dandelion Health Raises $14M for Precision Medicine Platform
Dandelion Health announced a $14 million Series A round led by Healthier Capital, with participation from Colle Capital and existing investors. The New York‑based startup’s multimodal precision‑medicine platform combines structured EMR and claims data with unstructured clinical text and raw biosignals such as...
Fewer EHR Choices Mean Higher Prices for Health Systems
EHR market consolidation is leaving health systems with fewer vendor options, according to Altera Digital Health’s Marcus Perez. As the industry narrows to a handful of dominant platforms, hospitals lose bargaining power and face higher contract prices. The trend threatens...
AMAM Helps Hospitals Advance Their Quintuple Aim Goals
Andrew Pearce, HIMSS vice‑president of analytics, highlighted the AMAM framework as a catalyst for advancing the health sector's Quintuple Aim. By elevating analytics maturity, hospitals can deliver smoother patient journeys and richer clinician experiences. The model also drives cost efficiencies...
Talkspace Expands U.S. Navy Mental Health Partnership to 13 Bases
Talkspace is extending its mental‑health partnership with the U.S. Navy to 13 installations, adding the Talkspace Go self‑paced app to the benefits of more than 40,000 sailors and their families. The service provides virtual therapy for a wide range of...
HealthVerity to Acquire Data Platform Symphony Health
HealthVerity announced it will acquire Symphony Health, a commercial healthcare data and analytics firm, in a deal slated to close this month. The merger will integrate Symphony's data aggregation and market‑intelligence tools with HealthVerity's patient‑identity and real‑world data platform. Both...
HIMSSCast: Ambient AI Scribes Pose Important Regulatory and Legal Questions
Ambient AI scribes promise to slash clinicians' charting time, driving rapid adoption across hospitals. Yet they are far from plug‑and‑play, requiring careful integration, data governance, and workflow redesign. Legal experts warn that these tools raise HIPAA, privacy, and liability concerns...
Patient-Facing Revenue Cycle Processes Improve Margins
Curae’s VP of operations, Matt Fisher, says that engaging patients at the first point of contact to address insurance coverage gaps can both improve care access and increase provider revenue. By deploying patient‑facing revenue cycle tools that verify eligibility and...
Exclusive: XCaliber Health Scores $6.5M for Workflow Platform
XCaliber Health announced a $6.5 million seed round to scale its agentic AI platform that automates healthcare administrative tasks. The system ships with pre‑built agents, analytics models and integrates with major EHRs such as Epic, Cerner and athenahealth. CEO Prakash Khot...
AI in Cancer Research Waits for Its Funding Moment
General‑purpose AI attracted $33.9 billion in 2024, while the AI‑in‑cancer market was valued at $2.45 billion, just 7 % of that total. Researchers at the University of Hong Kong unveiled MorphoGenie, an unsupervised deep‑learning tool that extracts subtle patterns from cell images, following...
Oura Unveils Menopause Insights, Birth Control Tools, US Open Partnership
Oura introduced two new hormonal health features for its Ring: a birth‑control support tool embedded in the Cycle Insights suite and a Menopause Insights module that uses a proprietary questionnaire and biometric data to assess symptoms. The company also sealed...
Q&A: AI Platform Targets Clinical Chart Insights Beyond LLM Limits
Dyania Health’s Synapsis AI platform tackles clinical chart review by answering precise, context‑driven questions rather than producing generic summaries. The system was built on roughly 25,000 physician‑annotated hours and is designed to surface nuanced signals for care decisions, trial eligibility, and...
Proactive Planning Can Mitigate Quantum Migration Failures
Healthcare IT leaders face an imminent shift to quantum computing that could overwhelm existing infrastructure and compromise patient data security. Mike Nelson, field CTO of digital trust at DigiCert, urges a coordinated migration timeline to avoid care disruptions as organizations...
Real-World Healthcare Data Drives Students' Research
NHIT’s Data Fusion Center supplied real‑world healthcare data that enabled NHIT INSPIRED interns Belina Sapkota and Sarah Zak to investigate the root causes of rural health gaps in the United States. Their research highlighted chronic provider shortages, limited broadband, and...
AI Success Depends on Engaging Multidisciplinary Champions
At HIMSS26, Dr. Jesse Ehrenfeld, global CMO of Aidoc, emphasized that clinician champions are essential for successful AI adoption in healthcare. While executive sponsorship and IT infrastructure lay the groundwork, frontline physicians drive testing, workflow integration, and real‑world validation. Aidoc’s...
Aidoc Secures $150M to Scale AI Imaging Tools
Aidoc, a New York‑based AI imaging firm, announced a $150 million Series E round that lifts its cumulative capital to over $500 million. The round was led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives with participation from General Catalyst, SoftBank Investment Advisors and NVIDIA’s venture arm....
HIMSS Chapter Advocacy Leader Issues Call to Action
Lawrence Voyten, chair of the HIMSS Chapter Advocacy Task Force, issued a public appeal urging healthcare professionals to become active members of their local HIMSS chapters. The call emphasizes the need for coordinated advocacy on pressing industry issues such as...
Utah Medical Board Pushes to Stop AI Prescription Renewals
The Utah Medical Licensing Board has formally requested the suspension of the state’s AI‑driven prescription renewal pilot, arguing that the program was launched without proper board input and poses patient‑safety risks. Launched in January, the Doctronic platform allows an autonomous...
Diaceutics, Experian Partner to Push Diagnostic Data Into Pharma Ad Targeting
Diaceutics and Experian have teamed up to embed AI‑driven diagnostic audiences into Experian Marketing Services, letting pharma marketers tap real‑time clinical data within their existing media‑buying platforms. The integration delivers daily‑updated lab and biomarker signals, enabling clinicians to be reached...
Ambient AI Tools Improve the Patient-Clinician Connection
Ambient AI, championed by Abridge, captures entire patient visits and drafts clinical notes in real time, allowing clinicians to stay fully present during encounters. Matt Troup, Abridge’s clinical strategy principal, says the technology eases cognitive burden and helps patients feel...
Healthcare AI Policy Must Keep Humans at the Center
Florida Senator Gayle Harrell, recipient of the HIMSS26 Policy Influencer Changemaker Award, called for AI regulations that keep clinicians in the decision loop. She warned that unchecked AI could erode clinician authority and patient safety. The remarks came amid rapid...
HIMSSCast: Medicaid as a Health IT Innovation Engine
Dr. Christopher R. Cogle argues that Medicaid, covering over 80 million Americans, functions as a powerful health‑IT innovation engine. Designing systems for the most complex, vulnerable populations has spurred advances in data infrastructure, managed‑care oversight, and population‑health analytics. The HIMSSCast episode...
Interoperability Governance Gaps Put Pressure on Nationwide Exchange Networks
Health Gorilla CEO Bob Watson warns that nationwide health‑information exchange networks are being asked to govern data at a scale they were never designed for. He recommends a federally overseen, industry‑funded credentialing authority to standardize onboarding, reduce fraud risk, and...
Courier Health Scores $50M to Scale CRM Technology
Courier Health, a New York‑based health‑tech firm serving life‑sciences manufacturers, announced a $50 million Series B round led by Oak HC/FT, with existing backers Norwest and Work‑Bench participating. The capital follows a $16.5 million Series A raised earlier in 2024 and will fund product...
How Small Teams Can Implement Effective Cyber Defenses
Cyderes SVP Daniel Spitzer advises that rural health systems can strengthen cyber defenses by first mapping attack vectors and then leveraging a trusted security partner to scale protection. Small IT teams, often limited to a handful of staff, can focus...
Jeremy Renner Backs RapidSOS Emergency Platform to Advance AI
Actor Jeremy Renner has invested in and partnered with emergency‑response platform RapidSOS, aiming to accelerate AI‑driven data sharing for first responders. RapidSOS pulls real‑time health, location and sensor data from smartphones, wearables, vehicles and surveillance to deliver richer information before...
New Patient Chatbot Tackles AI's Failing Triage Accuracy
Japanese startup Ubie launched Ubie Consult, a free AI‑driven chatbot that guides patients on whether to self‑manage or seek professional care. Built on a large language model trained with peer‑reviewed medical literature and clinical guidelines, the tool flags high‑risk symptoms like...
Creating Smart Hospital Rooms with Computer Vision
Artisight is deploying computer‑vision technology to turn hospital rooms into smart, sensor‑rich environments. The system continuously watches patient movement and vital signs, instantly alerting nurses to falls, wandering or medication mismatches. Early pilots show a 30% faster response to critical...
AI Companions Developed for Lonely Students in Australia
Researchers at the University of New South Wales have built two prototype AI companions, Tom and Mia, to help university students cope with loneliness. The chatbots, designed in English and Mandarin, were co‑created with Chinese student input and incorporate safeguards...
Cala Health Secures $50M to Scale Wearable Neuromodulation Therapy
Cala Health, a California bioelectronic‑medicine firm, announced a $50 million growth‑capital infusion from Trinity Capital. The funding will accelerate commercial rollout of its wearable TAPS (transcutaneous afferent patterned stimulation) device, which delivers personalized nerve stimulation to reduce tremors in Parkinson’s disease...
Temasek-Backed Startup Bags $1M to Develop Contactless Health Monitoring
Singapore‑based injewelme, a South Korean‑founded health‑tech startup, secured $1.2 million in a round led by Temasek Trust’s Catalytic Capital for Climate and Health, with participation from Richardson Family. The company’s flagship DeepHealthVision uses camera‑based remote photoplethysmography to capture more than 20...
HIMSSCast: Expanding Behavioral Healthcare in the Tech Age
NeuroFlow’s chief operating officer Robert Capobianco highlighted the company’s behavioral health infrastructure platform as a technology‑driven solution to close the mental‑health access gap. He emphasized that digital tools can identify undiagnosed patients, deliver care beyond traditional settings, and support data‑driven...
Click Therapeutics Raises $50M and More Funding News
Digital‑therapeutics firm Click Therapeutics secured $50 million Series D funding from Boehringer Ingelheim to commercialize its FDA Breakthrough Device‑designated prescription therapeutic CT‑155 for schizophrenia. AI‑focused finance infrastructure startup Joyful Health closed a $17 million Series A to expand its revenue‑cycle analytics platform for healthcare providers....
HIMSS Advocates for Consistent Nationwide AI Regulation
HIMSS is urging the U.S. government to adopt a single set of AI guardrails that ensure safety and trust across the healthcare sector. The organization’s public‑policy principles, outlined by Jonathan French, call for nationwide standards to eliminate a patchwork of...
NTU's AI Chip Detects Disease Biomarkers in 20 Minutes and More Briefs
Researchers at Singapore’s NTU unveiled an AI‑enabled nanophotonic chip that detects microRNA disease biomarkers in about 20 minutes, bypassing traditional PCR methods. South Korea’s Neurophet raised $21.6 million to expand its AI brain‑imaging platform for Alzheimer’s and other neuro‑conditions, targeting the...
'Self-Regulating' Wound Patch Developed in South Korea
Researchers at KAIST unveiled a self‑regulating wound‑healing patch that merges a 630‑nm organic LED with a ROS‑triggered drug delivery system. The OLED emits uniform light to stimulate cell regeneration while nanocarriers release Centella asiatica extract in proportion to the generated...
BodySpec Partners with Longevity Telehealth Clinic on DEXA Scans
Hone Health, an AI‑enabled telehealth clinic focused on longevity, has integrated BodySpec’s clinical‑grade DEXA body composition scans into its patient app. The partnership lets users purchase scans directly, view detailed metrics such as lean muscle, visceral fat, bone density and...
Keebler Health Raises $16M for AI Risk Adjustment Platform
Keebler Health, a North Carolina AI‑enabled risk adjustment startup, announced a $16 million Series A round, bringing its total capital raised to $23 million. The round was led by Flare Capital Partners with participation from a slate of venture firms including Sands Capital...