Boston Scientific's Connected Patient Challenge Attracts Inventive Digital Health Solutions from Innovators Worldwide

Boston Scientific launched its fifth annual Connected Patient Challenge, the company has seen a record-breaking number of submissions compared to previous years, and there’s still time for healthcare innovators to submit their ideas. The challenge, which calls on innovators to submit digital health solutions that improve care at home and help patients better manage chronic conditions, already has submissions from participants across the world. Entries have come from the U.S., Taiwan, Israel and Thailand, among other countries. Some submissions leverage artificial intelligence and the internet of things to help aging patients achieve better quality of life. Others seek to help patients manage asthma or chronic obtrusive pulmonary disease via blood pressure monitoring.

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ShiftKey Extends Its Tech Solutions to Embrace Acute Care Facilities

ShiftKey | September 15, 2023

ShiftKey, a leading technological enterprise at the forefront of reshaping the future of workforce engagement, has officially announced its expansion into acute healthcare facilities. ShiftKey's technology, data resources, and talent marketplace are set to be accessible to acute care facilities in Kansas, Missouri, Tennessee, and Texas. This expansion addresses workforce-related challenges and enhances patients' access to top-tier healthcare services. Furthermore, the technology has already undergone beta testing at acute care facilities in Alabama, Louisiana, Nebraska, New Mexico, South Carolina, and West Virginia. CEO of ShiftKey, Mike Vitek, characterized the company's foray into the acute care sector as a pivotal step in its platform and business development. He emphasized the organization's vantage point on healthcare staffing challenges and expressed optimism regarding the potential alleviation of strain on acute care facilities and healthcare professionals. Meanwhile, Brandon Tappan, Chief Revenue Officer at ShiftKey, added that the escalating workforce challenges confronting healthcare facilities have become an annual trend. The departure of nurses from acute care facilities in large numbers underscores the imperative for a novel approach to address staffing needs within institutions serving vulnerable populations. Integrating ShiftKey's technology into acute care facilities represents establishing an independent healthcare staffing solution. This initiative aims to reinvigorate and safeguard this vital industry by enabling individuals to rejoin the workforce on their terms. About ShiftKey ShiftKey is a technological enterprise dedicated to transforming workforce access and integrity. Employing data and a marketplace model, the company facilitates connections between independent licensed professionals and facilities with workforce requirements. It is pivotal in advancing empowered labor, stability, and solutions for professionals, institutions, and beneficiaries. With a platform encompassing 10,000 healthcare facilities and myriad independently licensed professionals, ShiftKey is one of the foremost leaders in strategic workforce solutions, catalyzing a more sustainable, inclusive, and prosperous workforce economy for the years ahead.

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Health Technology

Absolute Software New Application Health Monitoring Extends Cyber Resilience to Leading Endpoint Security and Productivity Applications

Business Wire | November 02, 2023

Absolute Software™, the leading provider of self-healing, intelligent security solutions, today announced the launch of Absolute Application Health. This new feature empowers digital enterprises to strengthen cyber resilience and boost end user productivity with the industry’s most resilient application health monitoring capabilities. With this latest innovation to the company’s Secure Endpoint product line, customers can monitor the health of more than 2,000 commonly used Windows and Mac applications – including security controls, business, and productivity tools – to ensure they are installed, running, and properly configured on all devices. “Organizations deploy millions of endpoint devices to support growing remote workforces around the world, and they invest billions of dollars into security controls needed to protect their networks against advanced threats and costly compliance violations,” said Sarah Pavlak, Industry Principal, Frost & Sullivan. “Despite all these efforts and money spent, organizations continue to experience increasing attacks and complexity challenges that severely disrupt business operations. This is leading to a continual need for innovations that can mitigate software failures and close security gaps.” Absolute’s 2023 Resilience Index reveals that on average, enterprise endpoint devices have 67 applications deployed, with 10 percent of these having more than 100 applications installed. In analyzing 10 of the most widely deployed security tools, the report also shows seven of those 10 apps were installed and healthy on less than 80 percent of deployed devices, on average. In some cases, apps were only functioning correctly 47 percent of the time. said John Herrema, Chief Product Officer, Absolute Software. Today’s digital enterprises are investing billions of dollars in mission-critical security and business tools, and we believe those applications should deliver their intended value. The complexity and fragility of endpoint applications, however, means that all too often they are failing. And if the tool you use to monitor your other applications is subject to those same failures, then you’re really in trouble, because it’s impossible to fix what you can’t reliably see or diagnose. This latest innovation builds on Absolute’s unique Persistence technology to provide the industry’s most resilient visibility and monitoring capabilities. This allows our customers to achieve maximum security, productivity, and return on their software investments. [Source:Business Wire] With Absolute Application Health, IT and security practitioners gain the deep visibility needed to ensure applications are installed, running, up-to-date, and properly configured across their entire device fleet. They also have access to detailed, interactive reports and widgets that enable them to swiftly diagnose why an application is failing and then take remedial action. Embedded in the firmware of more than 600 million devices, Absolute’s patented Persistence® technology provides a secure, always-on connection between the Absolute Platform and the endpoint. The new Application Health feature leverages this digital tether to ensure health monitoring and reporting remains uninterrupted. Absolute Application Health is available now to Absolute Secure Endpoint customers subscribed to eligible Absolute Resilience licenses. For more information, including how to access and activate this new feature, visit our latest blog. About Absolute Software Absolute Software makes security work. We empower mission-critical performance with advanced cyber resilience. Embedded in more than 600 million devices, our cyber resilience platform delivers endpoint-to-network access security coverage, ensures automated security compliance, and enables operational continuity. Nearly 21,000 global customers trust Absolute to protect enterprise assets, fortify security and business applications, and provide a frictionless, always-on user experience.

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Digital Healthcare

ClosedLoop Introduces Data Science Products for Value-Based Healthcare

ClosedLoop | September 20, 2023

ClosedLoop, a prominent healthcare data science platform, has formally introduced two novel data science solutions. These solutions, namely, ACO-Predict and Evaluate, are crafted to assist healthcare organizations in the comprehensive analysis, assessment, ongoing surveillance, and enhancement of their programs, with the objectives of minimizing adverse events, enhancing health outcomes, and curtailing expenditures. ClosedLoop's offering, ACO-Predict, marks the healthcare sector's inaugural no-cost AI-powered solution for population health risk stratification. It harnesses the same algorithms that propelled ClosedLoop to garner fame in the 2021 CMS AI Challenge and earned the Best in KLAS Healthcare AI ranking for 2022 and 2023. When integrated with the updated Beneficiary Claims Data API data feeds from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the product furnishes Medicare Accountable Care Organizations with a turnkey risk stratification tool for Complex Care Management programs, all free of charge. Meanwhile, the company's second product, ClosedLoop Evaluate, is a SaaS solution designed to evaluate and continuously monitor the efficacy of intricate population health initiatives over extended durations. Quantifying the impact and ROI of Population Health programs has presented significant challenges. Organizations often need to resort to imprecise pre- and post-assessments or enlist costly consulting firms for one-off outcome research studies to understand the actual effects of their programs. ClosedLoop’s solutions aim to improve healthcare organizations' outcomes and offer essential patient support. Jennifer Zbell, VP of Clinical Analytics at Healthfirst, stated, ClosedLoop provided the quantitative evidence we needed to increase investment in successful programs." She added, "Evaluate gives us the confidence to examine our programs across the board so we can better see what's working, when it's working, and who it's working for. [Source – Business Wire] ClosedLoop Evaluate represents a pioneering industry solution that not only supplants these studies with software-driven evaluations but also facilitates the ongoing assessment of program impact amid evolving programs and populations. Andrew Eye, Co-Founder and CEO of ClosedLoop concluded that success in value-based care hinges on two key aspects: accurate prediction and effective intervention. ACO-Predict delivers AI-powered prediction capabilities to all medicare patients nationwide at no cost, ensuring access to necessary assistance regardless of location or ACO resources. About ClosedLoop ClosedLoop is a dedicated data science platform tailored to the healthcare sector, simplifying the integration of AI technology to enhance outcomes and curtail expenses. Uniquely designed for the healthcare domain, the company merges an intuitive, all-encompassing ML platform with an extensive repository of healthcare-specific functionalities and model templates. Customers leverage ClosedLoop's Explainable AI capabilities to facilitate clinical excellence, streamline operational processes, navigate value-based contracts, and bolster revenue generation in the healthcare industry.

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Healthcare Analytics

AirLife Completes Acquisition of Avanos Medical’s Respiratory Health Business

Business Wire | October 04, 2023

AirLife, a leading North American manufacturer and distributor of consumable medical devices for anesthesia and respiratory care formerly known as SunMed, today announced the completion of its acquisition of Avanos Medical, Inc.’s (NYSE: AVNS) (“Avanos”) respiratory health business, including the BALLARD*, MICROCUFF* and endOclear® product lines. The acquisition adds three complementary brands, the R&D expertise behind them and two manufacturing facilities into AirLife’s growing platform. The transaction advances AirLife’s strategy to enhance its leading portfolio of the most trusted products in anesthesia and respiratory care and serve even more customers as a one-stop source for the highest-quality consumable breathing solutions that support the best patient outcomes. “We’re thrilled to complete this exciting milestone in AirLife’s evolution as we strengthen our leadership as a premier, completely dedicated consumable breathing products company,” said Hank Struik, AirLife CEO. We are especially pleased to welcome the exceptional team that has driven the success of these market leading brands to our company. As some of the most trusted closed suction and endotracheal consumables used to treat patients in critical care, this addition to AirLife unlocks new opportunities to accelerate our growth, serve more healthcare practitioners and drive innovation across our comprehensive portfolio of leading brands. [Source – Business Wire] Goodwin Procter LLP is acting as legal counsel to AirLife. About AirLife AirLife, formerly known as SunMed and headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan with manufacturing and distribution sites in the United States, Mexico, China and Europe, is a leading medical device manufacturer, offering one of the most comprehensive portfolios of consumable anesthesia and respiratory care products. AirLife’s product portfolio spans the continuum of care from first responders to hospitals and home care, with safety, patient comfort and clinical performance in mind. AirLife’s comprehensive portfolio of trusted anesthesia products and respiratory care include premier brands such as Salter Labs®, Ethox Medical™, Ventlab™, Westmed™, AirLife™ and Vital Signs™. Currently, AirLife has over 1 million square feet of manufacturing space, providing comprehensive expertise in all plastics materials and conversion—supported by a world-class Quality Management System. Frazier Healthcare Partners, a leading healthcare investment firm, acquired a majority ownership stake in AirLife in 2021.

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