Today on Health in 2 Point 00, Jess is in Berlin for the Bayer G4A Signing Day where they’re announcing which startups are going to get deals and Glen Tullman is doing a fireside chat with Eugene Borukhovich. In Episode 97, Jess and I talk about Walmart and fertility. Fertility benefits startup Progyny files for IPO and I’m blown away by this relatively new company. Another startup—Halle Tecco’s Natalist—raises $5M to send care boxes to help women get pregnant. Finally, Jess has a conspiracy theory, noticing that Walmart is sneaking into all aspects of health tech… Walmart is expanding Grand Rounds, partnering with Doctor On Demand and HealthSCOPE to offer telehealth to their employees, Sam’s Club is offering $1 telehealth visits to members, and they just announced a partnership with Embold Health for employees in the southeast. Finally, I’ll be at Society for Participatory Medicine next week in Boston—see you all there. —Matthew Holt
Apply to Pilot your Tech and Transform Mental Health Services in California!

SPONSORED POST
By CATALYST @ HEALTH 2.0

According to the California Health Care Foundation, from 2012-2014, nearly 20% of Californian adults who sought mental health treatment did not receive it. It is believed that these figures may even be understated, as The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has cited that nearly 60% of American adults with mental illness do not receive any treatment. Unmet mental health needs in California are attributed to a lack of access to appropriate services and providers, as well as the cost of care, a factor that is often exacerbated by a lack of health insurance.
While traditional mental health services play an important role in supporting those in need, novel technologies can complement standard care delivery and provide individuals and communities with more accessible and optimized mental health services that focus on prevention, early intervention, family support, and social connectedness.
Continue reading…Health in 2 Point 00, Episode 96 | Amazon Care, Echo, OneDrop & more
Today on Health in 2 Point 00, Jess and I catch up on loads of news in health tech. In this episode, Jess asks me about Amazon Care, doing telehealth, house calls, urgent care, drug delivery for their employees—could it change health delivery? Also, Eko raises $20 million for their smart stethoscope; Bayer leads a $40 million round for OneDrop’s blood glucose meter; GoodRx buys telehealth company HeyDoctor; Rock Health investing $10M in InsideRx, and an undisclosed amount to Arine; and Peloton IPO’s today and everyone’s looking at it as a healthcare company (but no, it’s not). We end on some gossip, so tune in. —Matthew Holt
Announcing Winners for the RWJF Innovation Challenges
SPONSORED POST
By CATALYST @ HEALTH 2.0

Three finalists for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Home and Community Based Care and Social Determinants of Health Innovation Challenges competed live at the Health 2.0 Conference on Monday, September 16th! They demoed their technology in front of a captivated audience of health care professionals, investors, provider organizations, and members of the media. Catalyst is proud to announce the first, second and third place winners.
Home and Community Based Care Innovation Challenge Winners
First Place: Ooney
Second Place: Wizeview
Third Place: Heal
Continue reading…WTF are Digital Therapeutics? | Digital Therapeutics Alliance Executive Director, Megan Coder
By JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF HEALTH
Digital therapeutics has exploded as the new hot buzzword in digital health. But how are digital therapeutics different from digital health applications, applied health signals, or m-health technologies? The Digital Therapeutics Alliance was formed to answer that exact question. DTA Executive Director Megan Coder sets the record straight, hint: it involves software algorithms.
Filmed at JP Morgan Healthcare in San Francisco, CA, January 2019.
Jessica DaMassa is the host of the WTF Health show & stars in Health in 2 Point 00 with Matthew Holt.
Get a glimpse of the future of healthcare by meeting the people who are going to change it. Find more WTF Health interviews here or check out www.wtf.health.
Health in 2 Point 00, Episode 95 | Health 2.0 Wrap-Up Edition
Jess and I are at Health 2.0 for Episode 95 of Health in 2 Point 00! To wrap up the conference, Jess and I talk about Jonathan Bush’s reappearance in health care on the stage at Health 2.0, with Firefly Health, with echoes of this direction in primary care by Tony Miller on the insurance panel. We talk about all the winners at Health 2.0, including the RWJF Challenge winners, Ooney with Prehab Pal and Social AI Impact Lab, and Omny who won Launch. My favorites from the conference were Indu Subaiya’s Unacceptables panel with two amazing speakers, Melissa Hanna, CEO of Mahmee & Joia Crear Perry, Founder and President of the National Birth Equity Collaborative. Catch highlights from Jess’s panel on social movements in health care as well! —Matthew Holt
Health in 2 Point 00, Episode 94 | Healthy.io, Smile Direct Club, and Period Tracking?
On Episode 94 of Health in 2 Point 00, Jess asks me about Healthy.io’s $60 million raise for at-home urine testing for kidney diseases, with the NHS on the hook & coming to the US, and Smile Direct Club going public with a $9 billion valuation—but quickly tanked (although to $7 billion). In other news, there’s a period tracker scandal with Maya and MIA Fem apps sharing sensitive data about women’s cycles and sexual activity with Facebook. Find out what Jess & I are looking forward to at Health 2.0 this week as well. See you there! —Matthew Holt
Health Innovation in Seattle & the Pacific Northwest | Maura Little of Cambia Grove
By JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF HEALTH
In the Pacific Northwest, “accelerator-slash-think tank” Cambia Grove is quickly expanding as the region’s go-to healthcare innovation hub. Fully funded by Cambia Health Solutions, the organization is functioning as a neutral party to bring startups and healthcare system incumbents together to identify innovation priorities. What else is happening in health tech in Seattle, especially with a few of those famous big consumer tech companies headquartered up there? Tune in to find out!
Filmed at the Together.Health Spring Summit at HIMSS 2019 in Orlando, Florida, February 2019.
Can Rah-Rah, Blah-Blah and Meh Accelerate Digital Health Innovation?

By MICHAEL MILLENSON
Can combining health tech “rah-rah,” health policy “blah-blah” and the “meh” of academic research accelerate the uptake of digital health innovation?
AcademyHealth, the health services research policy group, is co-locating its Health Datapalooza meeting, rooted in cheerleading for “Data Liberación,” with the National Health Policy Conference, rooted in endless debate about policy detail.
Sharing a hotel room, however, does not a marriage make. In order to get better digital health interventions to market faster, we need what I’m calling a Partnership for Innovators, Policymakers and Evidence-generators (PIPE). As someone who functions variously in the policy, tech and academic worlds, I believe PIPE needn’t be a dream.
The potential of digital health is obvious. Venture funding of digital health companies soared to $8.1 billion in 2018, up 40 percent from 2017, according to Rock Health, with another $4.2 billion invested during the first half of this year. Meanwhile, MedCityNews proclaimed 2019 “the year of the digital health IPO,” such as HealthCatalyst and Livongo.
Separately, Congress has sought to speed digital health innovation through bipartisan efforts such as the 21stCentury Cures Act and the formation last year of the Bipartisan Health Care Innovation Caucus. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is also pursuing innovator and advocacy group input on regulatory relief.
Continue reading…What’s Hitting “Escape Velocity” in Health Innovation & Technology? | Todd Park, Devoted Health
By JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF HEALTH
Todd Park is known for being excited, but THIS TIME the co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Devoted Health is excited that it’s the 10th Anniversary of Health Datapalooza, a gathering and initiative he had a hand in creating when he served Barack Obama as the Chief Technology Officer of the United States. What else is energizing Todd? How about value-based payment finally taking hold and the opportunities that’s opening up for payment model innovation and that will allow the disruption of healthcare to achieve ‘escape velocity.’
Filmed at Health Datapalooza in Washington DC, March 2019.
Jessica DaMassa is the host of the WTF Health show & stars in Health in 2 Point 00 with Matthew Holt.
Get a glimpse of the future of healthcare by meeting the people who are going to change it. Find more WTF Health interviews here or check out www.wtf.health.