Today on Health in 2 Point 00, there is so much to talk about between the election, the Affordable Care Act, and Pfizer’s COVID vaccine news. On Episode 165, we talk about how this is impacting the markets and cover more deals. ACA darling Centene has acquired Apixio, Koa Health spins out from Telefónica and gets $16.5M in initial funding, Eko raises $65 million in a Series C for their connected stethoscope and ECG, and Medically Home raises $40 million in another continuous clinic play, bringing their total to $65 million. —Matthew Holt
THCB Gang Episode 31 11/5
Episode 30 of “The THCB Gang” was live-streamed on Thursday, November 5th. Watch it below!
Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) was joined by regulars, CEO of Day Health Strategies Rosemarie Day (@Rosemarie_Day1), medical historian & health economist Mike Magee MD (@drmikemagee), fierce patient activist Casey Quinlan (@MightyCasey), writer Kim Bellard (@kimbbellard), and patient & entrepreneur Robin Farmanfarmaian (@Robinff3). The conversation revolved around the underlying value structures in America, what a Republican Senate looks like for the ACA, and how will the (at the time likely but not certain) Democratic Administration change the narrative around health policy.
If you’d rather listen to the episode, the audio is preserved as a weekly podcast available on our iTunes & Spotify channels — Zoya Khan
#Healthin2Point00, Episode 164 | Election Day Edition
Today on Health in 2 Point 00, Jess is wondering which European countries let Americans in without a quarantine. On Episode 164, we’ve got more deals for you. Human API gets $20 million seeking to make the world interoperable, Curve Health raises $6 million for its skilled nursing tech platform which has seen a bump in COVID times, 7Wire spends more of their Livongo money with $18 million going into Homethrive which does navigation for seniors, KēlaHealth raises $12.9 million in a seed round which applies AI to surgical outcomes, and Ontrak acquires behavior change platform LifeDojo. I’ll leave you with my forecast for the election and for the Senate, so we’ll see what goes down tonight. —Matthew Holt
Rehash: The Health Assurance SPAC
Not so long ago (August) Jessica DaMassa and I ran a THCB Bookclub interview with Hemant Teneja & Stephen Klasko about their new book UnHealthcare. And, just because, their friend Glen Tullman sat in…..
Fast forward to this week and the three of them plus a cast of characters from General Catalyst & Livongo (Jenny Schneider, Lee Shapiro) have put $500m of their Livongo winnings into a SPAC. The book is based on the idea of Health Assurance and so is the SPAC. So if you are interested in figuring out what they are up to and what they might do or buy, here’s the interview–Matthew Holt
#Healthin2Point00, Episode 162 | Whoop, Honor, Sidekick Health & more
Today on Health in 2 Point 00, Jess is dismayed at her rising premiums. On Episode 162, Jess and I have more deals to cover. Whoop, which makes a wearable, raises $100 million (including SoftBank money!), bringing their valuation to $1.2 billion. Next, Honor raises $140 million in a Series D and I weigh in on how this tech-enabled home care startup has evolved since it started out. DTx company Sidekick Health raises $20 million for its gamified medication management platform,, and SaaS telehealth platform eVisit gets $14 million—is this any different? Finally, Cricket Health which manages complex kidney diseases early names new CEO Robert Sepucha and raises $15 million. —Matthew Holt
#Healthin2Point00, Episode 161 | Partnerships galore & a new SPAC
Today on Health in 2 Point 00, we have some hot gossip re: Glen Tullman starting his own SPAC. On Episode 161, Jess and I discuss Bind Benefits raising $105 million, BridgeHealth merging with Transcarent and raising $40 million in a Series A, and Loyal raising $12.5 million in a Series A. Jess also asks for my take on a slew of new partnerships between Lyra and Calm, Cigna and MDLive, and Doctor on Demand and CareLinx. —Matthew Holt
THCB Gang Episode 29 10/22
Episode 29 of “The THCB Gang” was live-streamed on Thursday, October 22nd. You can see it below!
Matthew Holt (@boltyboy) was joined by regulars: patient safety expert Michael Millenson (@MLMillenson), MD turned leadership coach Maggi Cary (@MargaretCaryMD). Guests were Fard Johnmar (@fardj), Founder of Enspektos, and Denise Pines, who is also the current President of the Medical Board of California. The conversation got in depth about medical boards, their impact and, the future of medical licensing. There was also a lot of disccussion about health care and life for women as they age. Fard & Denise will be hosting a session about #FemAging on Thurs Oct 29. You can sign up for that here.
If you’d rather listen to the episode, the audio is preserved as a weekly podcast available on our iTunes & Spotify channels — Zoya Khan, producer
THCB Book Club, October: Mike Magee, Code Blue
Dr. Mike Magee has spent his life inside the medical-industrial complex, eventually working at Pennsylvania Hospital and later becoming the doctor who sold Viagra to the world at Pfizer. He’s also an award winning medical broadcaster and historian who appears regularly on THCB these days. For the October THCB Book Club Jessica DaMassa and Matthew Holt had Mike on to discuss Code Blue — his magnum opus on how the American system become the medical-industrial complex that it is, the part he played, and what we might do to fix it! A fascinating and rich discussion.
#Healthin2Point00, Episode 160 | Lawsuits galore, and a faux IPO
The thing to do in health tech this week? Trademark infringement. Today on Health in 2 Point 00, we try to make sense of all the lawsuits right now with Teladoc suing Amwell, Allscripts suing CarePortMD, and whose side are we on for Zocdoc suing Zocdoc? On Episode 160, Jess asks me to make sense of Augmedix’s faux IPO in a reverse merger and publicly traded company Newtopia arising $7 million. Twentyeight Health raises $5.1 million in a Series C and TestCard raises $5.8 million for at-home mobile urine testing. —Matthew Holt
THCB Spotlights: Jon Bloom, Podimetrics
By MATTHEW HOLT
This is a fun conversation with Jon Bloom, the CEO of Podimetrics. It’s one of a number of competitors trying to help prevent foot ulcers among people with diabetes. Some use socks, others use insoles, but Podimetrics’ approach is to use a SmartMat which looks like a weight scale and can tell whether a patient might be developing a foot ulcer and is therefore at risk for amputation. Last week Podimetrics and Kaiser Permanente released a study that showed SmartMat and wraparound/care management service showed great success in reducing hospitalization, ER visits and foot amputations. But Bloom thinks that there’s much more to the care of very sick & underprivileged people with diabetes, and we had a great discussion about that that might look like.
