Clinical

The vendor will add cloud computing services for evidence-based medicine to its portfolio.

Total corporate funding for healthcare technology companies climbed to $8.2 billion (including debt and public market financing) in 2017 – a whopping 47 percent increase from the $5.6 billion raised in 2016, according to the latest report from Mercom Capital Group. It was a record-breaking year, with worldwide venture funding for digital health startups posting similarly impressive numbers: $7.2 billion raised across 778 deals, representing a 42 percent uptick from the previous banner year of $5.1 billion in 2016.  In a sign of continuing maturity as providers make more use of their growing troves of health data, analytics technology was the top funded category, according to the report, with the biggest focus area being artificial intelligence. [Also: Value-based care will reinvigorate EHRs, boost AI, advance home telehealth] “Artificial intelligence and data analytics companies had a breakout year with over a billion dollars raised," said Mercom CEO Raj Prabhu.  Other tech categories that saw substantial year-over-year growth were patient engagement, clinical decision support and telehealth. Analytics posted $1.1 billion in funding, followed by mobile health apps ($759 million), patient engagement ($708 million), telemedicine ($624 million), appointment booking ($516 million) and clinical decision support with ($514 million). Within the analytics category specifically, AI saw strong growth, with $419 million in funding. Together, AI and predictive analytics represented almost $500 million, according to Mercom. Interestingly, mobile health apps and wearable sensors saw steep declines in funding levels year-over-year, according to the report. That said, consumer-facing companies still outpaced provider-focused tools, according to the report, bring in in $4.2 billion over 514 deals in 2017, compared to $3 billion in 264 deals in 2017 (which was nonetheless nearly double the $1.6 billion raised in 185 deals in 2016). As for mergers and acquisitions, there were 203 deals struck in 2017, including 13 companies that participated in multiple transactions. Four of the mergers involved public companies;  Again, data analytics companies were involved in the most M&A transactions (21 of them), followed by practice management companies (19), mobile app developers (17) and telemedicine vendors. Among the biggest deals of the year: Optum’s $1.3 billion acquisition of the Advisory Board Company, McKesson’s purchase of CoverMyMeds for $1.1 billion, Konica Minolta’s acquisition of Ambry Genetics Corporation for $1 billion and Navicure’s acquisition of ZirMed for $750 million. Still, M&A "has been declining slightly over the last few years," said Prabhu. "Investors do not want to miss out on the sheer size and potential of this growing market, but the exit path for many companies remains elusive." .jumbotron{ background-image: url("http://www.healthcareitnews.com/sites/default/files/u2231/AIforjumbotron.jpg"); background-size: cover; color: white; } .jumbotron h2{ color: white; } Future-proofing AI How AI is driving forward-looking healthcare orgs. Twitter: @MikeMiliardHITN Email the writer: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com

The Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center CMIO earned the award by applying IT at the point of care to optimize engagements and improve outcomes, the associations said.

John Kennedy, MD, an endocrinologist and longtime innovator in diabetes treatment, will also serve as president of the AMGA Foundation.

Working with skilled nursing facilities, the ACO also lowered the average length of stay by 27 percent.

With copy and paste rampant, UW Health chief medical information officer Shannon Dean says toolkits and vendors can help, but physicians need to take responsibility for proper clinical documentation.

The companies will help healthcare clients improve quality and lower costs by using natural language processing and AI-based systems.

At HIMSS18, CMIO and nursing informaticist from UI Health Care show how bedside technology – and the love of a Big 10 football team – have boosted patient experience scores in a big way.

GV contributed to a $40 million round of funding to build out the startup’s platform for connecting physical and mental health care services.

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust will invest in developing its EHR solution, with a roadmap to be published towards the end of January.