Accolade adds mental health support through Ginger partnership, citing growing national crisis

Health benefits technology company Accolade says it will provide access to mental health support, including on-demand virtual therapy, in partnership with mental health service Ginger.

The partnership, announced Thursday morning, will include proactive outreach to participating Accolade members deemed at risk of mental health challenges, based on data analysis. Accolade says the new service recognizes the “growing emotional and mental health crisis” impacting people and families during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Accolade, with headquarters in Seattle and Philadelphia, has customers including Comcast Cable, American Airlines, Lowe’s, and State Farm. It offers a concierge service that helps employees of its customers and their families navigate their health benefits. The company, which has 1.7 million members, made its initial public offering in July.

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Sensoria Health unveils new band that monitors key COVID-19 indicators, including blood oxygenation

Sensoria Smart Band. (Sensoria Health Image)

Sensoria Health, makers of wearable technology designed to improve healthcare, has a new Smart Band that tracks key vitals and could help detect potential COVID-19 symptoms.

Redmond, Wash.-based Sensoria Health is a spinoff from Sensoria, the smart sports apparel startup whose garments track movements and measure how well users are running or walking. Sensoria was founded in 2011 by CEO Davide Vigano and his former Microsoft colleagues, and the health company launched three years ago in partnership with Genesis Healthcare.

The new $69 Smart Band measures body temperature, heart rate and blood oxygenation while also monitoring sleep quality and steps. It will be available later this month in the U.S. and Europe.

In a post on LinkedIn, Vigano writes about the importance of blood oxygenation specifically, and why some physicians believe measuring the oxygen level in blood is a critical step in preventing a serious progression of COVID-19 pneumonia.

Vigano references the findings of Dr. Richard Levitan, an emergency room doctor from New Hampshire who wrote about treating COVID pneumonia in the early days of the pandemic. Levitan is the brother of Seattle venture capitalist Dan Levitan and the two teamed on a project to help COVID patients breathe easier.

(Sensoria Health Images)

“Oxygen saturation in healthy individuals (SpO2) should range from 95-100%, so a healthy person could use the Sensoria Smart Band to regularly monitor trends on his or her own measurements conveniently at home and contact a health provider immediately should they notice a visible drop in oxygen saturation trends,” Vigano wrote.

Most traditional pulse oximeter devices work on the tip of the finger, but Sensoria wanted to use a different solution so that users’ would not have their daily routine interrupted. Vigano said Sensoria reached out to its research, sensor and manufacturing partners in the United States and Asia and worked with them to “create a minimalistic and comfortable form factor.”

He said the technology is not exclusive to Sensoria, “but we are going to be among the first to market, that’s for sure.”

The Smart Band can be paired via Bluetooth to a companion app that provides detailed analytics based on measurements collected over time. A cloud-based remote monitoring system can also feed information to an optional employer dashboard, so businesses or healthcare professionals can react quickly to updated information, while privacy is protected.

Last week Amazon released its own health band called Halo that measures body fat, voice tone, sleep quality, and activity.

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GeekWire Podcast: Amazon’s ambitious new health band; 4-day work week; Ex-Expedia CEO’s new gig

Here’s what we’re talking about on the GeekWire Podcast this week.

Amazon surprised everyone by unveiling a new health band, the Halo, this week. The device will not only track your steps but also measure your body fat and even analyze your voice to assess your degree of “energy and positivity.” But will it protect your private health info from prying eyes?

Seattle startup Volt has taken the pandemic-inspired work-from-home plan to a new level by going to a four-day work week. Are Volt employees as productive as they were when they worked five days a week? And what do they think about the change?

Mark Okerstrom, the former Expedia Group CEO, is joining Convoy, a ride-sharing-for-freight Seattle startup, as the fast-growing company’s new president and chief operating officer. He brings a lot of talent to Convoy … including some pretty wild dance moves.

Listen above, and subscribe in any podcast app.

With GeekWire’s Todd Bishop and Taylor Soper. Produced by Curt Milton. Theme music by Daniel L.K. Caldwell.

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Nevada Dept. of Health launches COVID Trace app developed by Seattle tech veterans

Three Seattle software engineers who set out to build a COVID-19 tracing app back in March are finally seeing the results of their hard work as the state of Nevada on Monday released COVID Trace.

Nevada’s Department of Health and Human Services launched the app for iOS and Android after customizing an open-source version of the app and working with Apple and Google and the team in Seattle.

COVID Trace was originally developed by Dudley Carr, Wes Carr and Josh Gummersall, three tech veterans with experience at Moz, Google, Uber, and elsewhere. The Carr brothers both do consulting work and Gummersall recently took a new job at Microsoft.

In the early days of the pandemic in the United States, the team set out to work on its digital tracing solution, but ran into a roadblock with Apple. The tech giant limited COVID-19 apps primarily to federal and state agencies or established health organizations.

Apple and Google have since teamed up on an Exposure Notifications System to help public health authorities develop apps to trace the virus while preserving the privacy of those who download the technology.

“The process of getting this app out there and trying to partner with health departments was a real challenge in the beginning,” Dudley Carr told GeekWire ahead of the launch of Nevada’s app. “What we found, for example, in Washington state, it was just really unclear who would even make the decision to evaluate these types of solutions.”

Virginia was the first state to roll out an app using the Apple-Google tech. Vox reported that adoption of the apps is tough for a couple reasons: users may not want to give up any type of their private health information and the federal government’s failure to create a national app has left the decision and execution up to the states.

Carr’s app ended up two states away because of interest shown by Andrew Pascal, an entrepreneur who runs a gaming company called Playstudios. He reached out to Carr after reading about COVID Trace in GeekWire in April while looking for a solution to help his state. Pascal, who has covered some of the development costs, connected the team with Jim Murren, chair of the Nevada COVID-19 Response, Relief and Recovery Task Force.

“Our resort industry has always been open to addressing complex challenges with innovative solutions,” Murren said in a news release Monday. “The adoption of COVID Trace is no different, and I’m proud of the way our business community has stepped up to participate in this important effort. The broad adoption of COVID Trace would be a game changer for Nevada, in terms of both public health and economic stability.”

Screen shots of the COVID Trace app. (App Store Images)

To use the free, Bluetooth-based app, users must opt-in to the Exposure Notifications System. That system will generate a random ID for each user’s device. To help ensure those IDs can’t be used to identify a person or location, they change every 10-20 minutes. The user’s phone and surrounding phones will work in the background to exchange these random IDs via Bluetooth, a passive process which begins once the user opts-in, and functions without the app open.

The user’s phone periodically checks all the random IDs associated with positive COVID-19 cases against its own list. If there is a match, the app will notify the user with further instructions from DHHS on what to do next to stay safe and keep others safe.

Dudley Carr. LnkedIn Photo)

“It’s pretty much like all of the other exposure notification apps,” Carr said. “It is incredibly straightforward. It doesn’t do any symptom checking. Its sole focus is to get someone onboarded with exposure notification and point them at resources if necessary. They can put it in their pocket and never worry about it again until they get an exposure.”

Nevada employers have agreed to encourage their employees to use COVID Trace and the state’s resort industry has embraced the tool as a way to keep employees and guests safe.

“Andrew and Jim realized that it is critical that the rollout has to be an incredibly successful one,” Carr said. “So they contacted all of the resorts and unions and other organizations to participate and endorse and get behind it. So I think Nevada is actually in a really unique position to make sure that the launch goes successfully.”

Carr said he and his team are not currently working on customizing the app for any other states. It’s been a time-consuming process, especially over the past few weeks.

“It is certainly far more work than we thought,” Carr said. “I do kid with my brother. It’s like, ‘I’m not sure we would have done this had we known how much work it would have been.’”

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Microsoft cloud vets raise $26M for drug prescription data platform Prescryptive Health

Prescryptive CEO Chris-Blackley. (Prescryptive Photo)

Seattle startup Prescryptive Health raised $26 million for its prescription data platform software.

Founded in 2017 by Microsoft commercial cloud vets Chris Blackley and Kevin Young, the company works with employers to help inform employees about prescription drug prices and other related information. It has direct connection to more than 50,000 pharmacies in its national network. The platform integrates in real-time with benefit plans and providers at the point of care.

“Our platform reduces benefit costs without reducing benefits — that’s good for both employers and employees, especially during this time,” Blackley said.

Morningside Ventures led the round, which included participation from SeaChange Fund and Pallasite Ventures. Morningside co-founder Dr. Gerald Chan joined the board.

Total funding to date for the 30-person company is $35 million.

Prescryptive is one of many digital health startups attracting investor interest this year. Venture funding for the U.S. digital health sector is expected to break a new record in 2020; companies already raised $5.4 billion through June, according to RockHealth.

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Seattle startup Xealth lands investment from Cerner as COVID-19 accelerates digital health adoption

Xealth CEO Mike McSherry. (Xealth Photo)

The COVID-19 pandemic is forcing hospital systems to adopt digital tools at record pace. They are getting help from startups such as Xealth, a Seattle-based company that just announced a key partnership with Cerner and an investment from the publicly-traded healthcare giant.

Xealth will team up with Cerner, a leading electronic health record (EHR) tech company, to help hospitals incorporate digital health programs. Cerner also made a $6 million investment in the startup, along with LRVHealth, a health-focused VC firm based in Boston.

Founded in 2017 by two Seattle startup veterans and spun out of Providence Health & Services, Xealth uses patient data to recommend services from a variety of vendors for possible prescription. The company lets doctors and nurses issue digital prescriptions such as apps and digital media. It also routes the flow of data from services back into the hospital’s EHR.

“Clinicians easily find and order the right digital tools and programs from within their current EHR workflows, send these digital health orders to the patient’s smartphone or computer, and then monitor patient engagement, analyzing the effects of the tools on patient care,” said Xealth CEO Mike McSherry.

Xealth is already integrated with Epic, and the deal with Cerner means Xealth is now working with the two largest hospital EHR vendors in the U.S.

“Cerner’s investment is a realization and commitment that digital health, telehealth/remote monitoring is now part of care delivery going forward,” McSherry said.

McSherry said the pandemic has “really turned digital tools into must-haves” as hospitals aim to treat patients safely without risking exposure to COVID-19.

“We worked practically around the clock to help our customers, including Providence, stand up COVID-19 specific workflows and automation in just days around telehealth visits, remote patient monitoring, behavioral health and supporting in-patient visits,” he said.

Xealth customers include Providence, Duke Health, UPMC, Atrium Health, Partners and The Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin health network.

The startup makes money by licensing its platform to healthcare providers. Competitors include Redox and Sansoro Health, both of which integrate third-party applications into EHRs.

(Xealth Image)

Xealth is one of many digital health startups that have seen demand rise this year. Venture funding for the U.S. digital health sector is expected to break a new record in 2020; companies already raised $5.4 billion through June, according to RockHealth.

“While the pandemic appears to have stoked investors’ appetite for digital health companies in particular, their focus could shift in a longer term economic downturn,” RockHealth said in a recent report. “On the other hand, there’s never been a greater need — or demand — for technology-enabled healthcare, a viewpoint the digital health investor community has so far this year resoundingly affirmed.”

Tech giants including Apple, Amazon, Google and Microsoft are also investing heavily in digital health products and services.

McSherry started Xealth with co-founder Aaron Sheedy. The pair have been working together for more than two decades, tracing their roots back to a shared office at Microsoft in the 90s. They worked together at Swype, the popular texting keyboard maker that raised investment from Nokia and Samsung and sold to Nuance Communications in 2011. McSherry was CEO at Swype and became Nuance’s VP of advertising and content and Sheedy its VP of mobile product.

They took the plunge into healthcare after McSherry was invited by Providence CEO Rod Hochman to be an entrepreneur-in-residence at Providence Ventures in 2015.

The company received a $1-to-$2 million loan from the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program. It had a small number of layoffs to help manage costs, given that its customers have lost billions of dollars in revenue due to the pandemic with cancelled or delayed procedures, surgeries, and doctor visits, McSherry said.

Xealth now employs 58 people. Total funding to date is $28.5 million. Other backers include Atrium Health, Cleveland Clinic, Froedtert and the Medical College of Wisconsin, MemorialCare Innovation Fund, Providence Ventures, and UPMC, as well as McKesson, Novartis, Philips, and ResMed.

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Inspired by son’s health issues, Seattle entrepreneur launches at-home ear-nose-throat monitor

Jane Zhang. (Remmie Health Photos)

Jane Zhang knew there had to be a better way.

Despite extra attention on hygiene and eating healthy, Zhang’s 2-year-old son was constantly getting ear infections and catching the common cold after starting childcare. He was forced to go through multiple rounds of antibiotics, several misdiagnoses, and many hours inside various doctor’s offices.

With a background in biomedical engineering and healthcare product R&D, Zhang began tinkering away in her garage. She wanted access to an ear-nose-throat (ENT) tool, similar to a otoscope used in doctor’s offices for decades, but one that could be used by parents inside their own home.

Fast forward to today and Zhang is now heading up a new Seattle startup called Remmie Health. The company is gearing up to launch its ENT monitor for families to assess symptoms such as an earache and communicate with health professionals via telemedicine.

The device can take images and videos of ENT-related issues, with that info sent to Remmie’s digital platform that can be accessed by doctors and nurses during a virtual visit. The idea is to get professional advice without needing to leave the home.

“We intend to become the go-to household brand for ENT ailment self-care,” Zhang said.

Zhang said ear infections are the most common reason for sick child visits, and said 30% of children between ages 0-6 have at least three or more infections per year, according to the National Institute of Health.

Remmie plans to make money by selling the device and sharing profit with telemedicine partners for recurring revenue.

The Seattle startup has landed more than $100,000 in initial funding, including capital from Silicon Valley firm Plug and Play Ventures.

Remmie is one of many telemedicine startups aiming to ride the trend of virtual healthcare that has accelerated amid the pandemic, as it enables treatment without forcing patients to come inside a physical office and risk exposure to COVID-19.

Zhang was previously a senior manager at Amgen and a healthcare consultant at ZS. She earned an MBA from UCLA and a PhD in biomedical engineering from Boston University. Zhang is currently an affiliate assistant professor at the University of Washington.

Other employees at Remmie Health include Zhan Wang, a Groupon and Concur veteran, and Zaris Shen, a former designer with Seattle startup AdaptiLab.

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