News & Updates

Independa, a technology company that offers independent living tools for the elderly, closed a Series A funding round at $5 million. Part of the funding came from Independa’s strategic partner LG Electronics USA.

The Employee Benefit Research Institute released the results of its 2012 Consumer Engagement in Health Care Survey, which reported a number of findings about the 10 percent of the population currently enrolled in a consumer-driven health plan (CDHP). Reported in the paper was that about one-third of people in a CDHP use an application for health-related purposes.

Noom, Inc. raised $2.6 million in pre-Series A funding, a round led by UK-based venture capital firm m8 Capital. Noom is the creator of a mobile weight loss app that builds a customized program based on a user’s daily eating and exercise habits.

At the start of this year Google Health officially discontinued its service. Electronic health record company drchrono launched onpatient as a replacement. Onpatient is a personal health record manager that lets patients schedule appointments, integrate data from their health monitoring devices, and view lab results and appointment summaries.

The Detroit Free Press reported that The University of Michigan Health System (UMHS) will notify about 4,000 patients that some of their health information might have been stolen. UMHS’ vendor Omnicell said that electronic equipment that stored patient data was taken from an Omnicell employee’s car in November.

With help from new investor Qualcomm Life Fund, goBalto raised $12 million in Series B financing, bringing its total financing to $21 million. GoBalto is a developer of software for conducting clinical research in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries.

Lexmark acquired Acuo Technologies for approximately $45 million. Acuo, a developer of software for clinical content management, will become a part of a Lexmark company called Perceptive Software.

The nonprofit organization Economic Cycle Research Institute released a new report, “The Top 10 Health Technology Hazards for 2013.” Among the hazards listed are medication administration errors, patient-data mismatches in electronic health records, and interoperability failures with medical devices and health IT systems.