News

Do you know how many people died worldwide last year?

According to the Ecology Global Network, 55.3 million people died which, one might say, compares “favorably” to the 131.4 million who were born (~250 births every minute) globally. The causes of death, while numerous, provide a somewhat morbid roadmap as to where one might expect future innovation. Venture investors look for technologies that will have the greatest impact on the largest number of people (“big market syndome”).

Aetion, the software platform company delivering the real-world analytics and evidence needed for biopharma and payers to engage in value-based care, announced it has raised $36.4 million in Series B funding. The round was led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and included, as a new investor, Amgen Ventures, alongside existing investors Flare Capital Partners, Lakestar, and Oxeon Ventures. Mohamad Makhzoumi of NEA will join the Aetion board of directors.

Somatus, an innovative care delivery and management company delivering Kidney Care solutions to Health System and Payer customers, today announced it has secured $11 million in Series B funding in a round led by Flare Capital Partners and joined by BlueCross BlueShield Venture Partners, Inova Health System, and a new innovation firm founded by Andy Slavitt.

For a year, according to a CNBC report, Facebook developed a plan to work with hospitals to scrape an individual's social interactions from their profile to identify whether they lack social supports or have other needs when they get discharged from the hospital.

As I recently wrote in Harvard Business Review, failing to take consumer data into account is to ignore the most powerful change-agents in healthcare – consumers themselves.