What You Should Know: - Today, Southern Illinois Healthcare (SIH) announced that it’s using Xealth’s digital health platform system-wide to automate digital programs, starting with smoking cessation. SIH plans to add additional digital health programs to deliver operational efficiencies while enhancing the patient experience. - The Xealth digital health platform is designed to help clinicians integrate, prescribe and monitor digital health tools for patients from one
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Smoking Cessation
Why It’s Time for Healthcare Organizations to Start Treating Patients Like Consumers
When the pandemic disrupted routine procedures and primary care across healthcare, many care delivery organizations believed patients would eventually return to in-person care as they always have once the pandemic was over and restrictions were lifted. Pent-up patient demand for non-emergency, preventative services–everything from cancer screenings to mental health support to birth control to smoking cessation–would eventually draw patients back into the healthcare system. Patients with common
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Qnovia Secures $17M to Advance Inhalable Therapeutics Pipeline
What You Should Know: - Qnovia (formerly Respira Technologies)—a pharma company developing inhaled therapeutics with an initial focus on nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) and cardiopulmonary diseases—has raised $17M in Series A funding led by Blue Ledge Capital and included DG Ventures, Evolution VC Partners, Gaingels, TL Capital, and Vice Ventures. - Qnovia will use the Series A proceeds to advance its NRT drug candidate through an IND submission with the FDA and begin human
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AWS Names 10 Startups for 2022 AWS Healthcare Accelerator Cohort
What You Should Know: - AWS names the ten digital health startups selected for its AWS Healthcare Accelerator cohort, focused on health equity. - With the aim of reducing health disparities, these startups are increasing access to health services, addressing social determinants of health, and leveraging data to promote equitable and inclusive systems of care. 2022 AWS Healthcare Accelerator Program Details Over the course of the four-week program, these 10 startups will receive
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Challenges and Opportunities for At-Home COPD Management
There are an estimated 16 million Americans who suffer from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Patients with COPD are frequently prescribed respiratory medication and given at-home treatment strategies designed to improve general wellness and improve airflow. These strategies may include smoking cessation, air quality control, exercise, and stress management. Unfortunately, despite the use of medication and widespread adoption of lifestyle strategies, COPD continues to represent a
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Raising Clinical Outcomes and Engagement Through Healthcare Equity: What Health Plans Need to Know
Structural racism and poverty are correlated with a higher incidence of obesity among Black Americans (49%). Social drivers of health, which impact a disproportionate number of non-white Americans who live below the poverty line, account for as much as 90% of individuals’ health outcomes. These are just two examples of data that highlight the need for equity. Health plans are well-aware that shifting this dynamic and boosting clinical outcomes is possible through better,
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Highmark Taps Lark Health for AI-Driven Chronic Disease Management/Prevention
What
You Should Know: -
Highmark, one of the largest Blues plans, has chosen Lark Health for its
chronic disease prevention and management platform. -
Members will have access to Lark’s 24/7 AI-based coaching and programs to
manage diabetes, hypertension, and prevent chronic conditions. Highmark Inc., America's fourth-largest overall Blue Cross Blue Shield-affiliated organization, announced a growing collaboration with Lark Health, virtual chronic disease prevention and management
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Blue Cross NC Launches No-Cost Virtual Programs to Quit Smoking and Reverse Diabetes
What You Should Know: - Today, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina partners
with Carrot Inc. and Virta Health to help address two of the largest ongoing
health issues facing Americans today - smoking and type 2 diabetes. - Virta and Carrot’s programs will be available to
individual under-65 members and fully insured group members beginning November
2020. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (Blue Cross NC), today announced it is teaming up with Carrot Inc. and Virta
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Sharecare Acquires Evidence-Based Behavior Change Apps MindSciences
What You Should Know: - Sharecare announced the acquisition of Boston-based MindSciences, an evidence-based behavior change suite of apps focused on mental health (anxiety, stress management), smoking cessation, and weight loss/binge eating, and more. - The acquisition rounds out Sharecare’s portfolio of mHealth-based therapeutic programs improving chronic disease risk and overall health outcomes by targeting varying aspects of well-being. - Based on the work of Dr. Judson Brewer, now
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Sharecare Integrates App-Based Tobacco Cessation Program into Digital Health Platform
- Sharecare integrates MindSciences’ mindfulness-based smoking cessation program called Craving to Quit into their digital health platform. - The Craving to Quit program targets the neurological function that enables habit formation to instead lead the user to curb tobacco use. Sharecare, the digital health
company that helps people manage all their health in one place, and MindSciences, the leader in
evidence-based behavior change apps, today announced a partnership to
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