The prevalence of mental and behavioral health conditions has been on the rise in recent decades, further aggravated by the pandemic in the last two years. Social isolation, grief from the loss of loved ones, fear of contracting the virus, and financial worries were all major stress factors that increasingly affected the mental wellbeing of the population, and the resulting statistics are startling: the average share of adults with symptoms of anxiety or depressive disorders jumped from 1
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Why a Focus on Behavioral Health is Key to Improving Quality Measures
Since the passage of the Medicare Improvements for Patients & Providers Act in 2008, the U.S. healthcare system has been moving towards value-based care (VBC) which encourages health providers to improve care quality by reimbursing them based on successful outcomes rather than individual medical services. The overarching goal of VBC is to improve the patient experience, improve population health, and reduce per capita health costs. As part of this VBC model, hospitals and health systems
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XRHealth Secures $10M to Expand Virtual Reality Treatment in the Metaverse
What You Should Know: - XRHealth, the gateway to the healthcare metaverse, announced today that they raised $10M in funding to expand virtual healthcare treatment in the Metaverse. The funding was backed by HTC, Bridges Israel impact investment fund, AARP, and crowdfunding on StartEngine.com and existing investors. - XRHealth’s platform is FDA and CE registered and provides an immersive experience for users, transporting them to a virtual world for comprehensive
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How NLP Can Uncover Social Determinants of Heart Disease
Heart disease is the leading cause of death for people of most racial and ethnic groups in the United States. Cardiovascular disease-related deaths—which occur every 36 seconds—cost our country about $219 billion each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). People with poor cardiovascular health are also at increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19, so the time to act is now. There’s no time like the present to look at major risk factors—from obesity and
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Evaluating COVID-19’s Behavioral Health Impact on the Economy
We’re now in a new year and new presidential administration. At least three companies are producing effective COVID-19 vaccines, which are being administered to healthcare workers, teachers, and the elderly. By summer, hopefully a large majority of the population in most countries will be vaccinated. From where the world now stands, we can see an end to prolonged isolation, trauma, fear, grief, and economic torpor. But out of the woods, we are not. The virus mutates, perhaps
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FCC Unveils 14 Initial Projects Selected for $100M Connected Care Pilot Program
What You Should Know: - FCC announces initial 14 pilot project selected for $100M Connected Care Pilot Program that will support connected care service across the country and focus on low-income and veteran patients. The Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) today announced an initial set of 14 pilot projects with
over 150 treatment sites in 11 states that have been selected for the Connected
Care Pilot Program. A total of $26.6 million will be awarded to these
applicants for
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SPAC Merges with 2 Telehealth Companies to Form Public Digital Health Company in $1.35B Deal
What You Should Know: - GigCapital2 Inc has agreed to merge with UpHealth Holdings Inc and Cloudbreak Health LLC to create a public digital healthcare company valued at $1.35 billion, including debt, the blankcheck acquisition company said on Monday. - The combined company will be named UpHealth, Inc. and
will continue to be listed on the NYSE under the new ticker symbol “UPH”. Blank check acquisition
company GigCapital2 agreed to merge
with Cloudbreak Health, LLC, a unified
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VA Taps Appriss for Drug Monitoring to Curb Substance Abuse
What You Should Know: - The Department of Veteran Affairs is working with
Appriss Health to tackle the veteran opioid epidemic via drug monitoring. - The tool will give VHA prescribers more complete clinical information, including controlled substance prescription histories, for patients, helping clinicians identify and prevent prescription drug misuse, resulting in better-informed care decision-making and improving patient safety. Appriss
Health, a provider delivering
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Ontrak Acquires Science-Backed, Behavior Change Platform LifeDojo
What You Should Know: - Ontrak acquires LifeDojo Inc, a San Francisco, CA-based
comprehensive, science-backed behavior change platform. - The acquisition broadens Ontrak’s addressable market
and footprint to lower acuity populations enabling new interventions and remote
patient monitoring. Ontrak, Inc., a
leading AI-powered
and telehealth-enabled,
virtualized healthcare company, today announced that it has acquired
LifeDojo Inc, a comprehensive, science-backed behavior change
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Were We Mentally Ready for COVID-19? Why It’s Time to Take Behavioral Health Seriously
As you read this, over 200,000 American deaths have been attributed to the virus. The influx of cases continues, while state and local economies are experiencing hardship, children are shuttered in their homes learning remotely, grown children are moving back home and the “new normal” disrupts nearly all of life’s plans. Yet, these issues don’t reveal all the traumas that Americans are experiencing 10 months into the pandemic. The pandemic's impact continues to be swift and brutal,
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