Although it was a shorter work week there was plenty of activity in the way of healthcare developments. 5AM Ventures’ latest fund has raised $285 million and will start making investments in companies spanning areas such as biotech and diagnostics later this year, with similar goals as 5AM Ventures IV. In the world of electronic health records, unhappiness abounds from interoperability shortcomings to the lack of access by patients to their digital health records.
1. 5AM Ventures has raised $285M for fifth fund (Updated)
In a phone interview with 5AM Founder and Managing Partner Andrew Schwab he confirmed that 5AM Ventures V would be similar to 5 AM Ventures IV. Its investment targets would have a similar breakdown, too: 50 percent to 60 percent therapeutics; 20 percent to 25 percent drug delivery, with the rest falling across diagnostics and reagents.
2. Everyone has EHRs, many are interoperable. Is anyone happy?
…just 26 percent of hospitals were able to find, send, receive and actually use patient summary-of-care records with outside sources in 2015. Less than 40 percent could use or integrate external data into their EHRs without manual entry, ONC said.
3. Computer algorithms managing insulin dosages result in better glycemic control
In the first study, the research team of Dr. Joseph A. Aloi, professor of endocrinology and metabolism at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, analyzed nearly 60,000 patient health records from four health systems. They determined that patients whose subcutaneous insulin dosages were calculated by an electronic glycemic management system embedded into electronic health records were less likely to develop hypoglycemia than patients whose insulin dosages were calculated without the algorithm.
4. How prevalent are diagnostic errors? Check out this infographic
Clinical decision support technology vendor VisualDx also said that healthcare providers in the U.S. make 18 million diagnostic errors annually. These errors account for 74,000 deaths per year, according to the Rochester, New York-based company.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
5. EarlySense raises $25M in expansion of remote patient monitoring sensors from hospital to home
CEO Avner Halperin said in response to emailed questions: “The funding will be used to accelerate our commercial growth in the hospital/ nursing home market. We plan to enlarge our sales team as well as the team that supports our strategic marketing partners. In addition the funds will be used to complete development our Consumer Digital Health offering for the home market which we plan to launch in the second half of this year as well as continue to closely support our partners: Samsung, Beurer and Icon Health and Fitness.”
