Your guide to how tech is transforming health care and the life sciences | February 22, 2024 Check out STAT+ | | --- | | | | --- | | Sponsored By   | | --- | | By Mario Aguilar Health Tech Correspondent | | --- | | Good morning health tech readers! With earnings season for health technology companies now in full swing, I'm reminded of one of my favorite one-liners from a classic 90s TV show: "I'm angry at numbers." Reach me: mario.aguilar@statnews.com | | --- | | Earnings: Just in: Talkspace earnings Virtual mental health company Talkspace this morning reported its fourth quarter and full year 2023 results, highlighting, once again, that transitioning to a strategy of selling to health plans, employers, and other enterprise customers, versus directly to consumers, has paid off. In 2023, it posted $150 million in revenue, a 25%  increase over 2022, while trimming its adjusted loss from $58 million to $13 million. The company has said it will breakeven on an adjusted basis early this year — and it very nearly did so in the fourth quarter with an adjusted loss of $.3 million.  Looking to the future, Talkspace projected adjusted earnings of $4 to $8 million in 2024. Artificial intelligence Hospitals race to embrace generative AI tools The potential benefits of generative AI tools to help doctors write notes and respond to emails is tremendous — but so are the potential harms of rapidly adopting technologies in clinical settings without rigorous testing. A STAT review of how hospitals are using generative AI technologies reveals that their use is increasingly widespread, even as regulators and independent advisory groups wrestle with what safeguards are necessary. STAT's Casey Ross and Katie Palmer provide fresh details about how the tools are being used in a new story, and they've updated our Generative AI Tracker with a more comprehensive rundown of what's being used across large health care systems in the U.S., including probably at a hospital near you. Read more here Virtual care Teladoc forecasts growth slowdown, Amwell eyes break-even Old-school telehealth mainstays Teladoc and Amwell just provided updates on the future of their businesses and the forecasts underscore just how challenging it is to make money on virtual care.  Earlier this week, Teladoc reported earnings that disappointed investors, but maybe more alarming was the company's long-term outlook confirming that growth will slow dramatically from the stratospheric numbers seen during the pandemic. Teladoc projected that the company's direct-to-consumer mental health offering BetterHelp, and its integrated care business sold to health plans and employers, will both see single digital growth over the next three years. The company's goal remains to optimize its margins in the hopes of getting to overall profitability. On BetterHelp, the company said that it has seen a drag on the effectiveness of its marketing efforts recently. It seems this business may not have room to grow much without spending recklessly on advertising. Teladoc's integrated care business, meanwhile, has an impressive 90 million people eligible for its services. Teladoc is now trying to squeeze more money out of that foundation both by getting members to use more services and by upselling clients using the company's virtual urgent care services to one of its chronic care offerings.  On its earnings call last week, Amwell offered a glimmer of good news. The company been in a long cycle of converting its customers — health plans and providers — to a newer technology platform. With that work nearing completion, and a big contract with the Defense Health Agency kicking off, Amwell projected a narrowing loss in 2025 and that it will break even, on an adjusted basis, in 2026. It's been a long road: American Well was originally founded in 2006. Amwell Deals Bring on the digital health consolidation In a sign of what may be much more consolidation to come in a crowded digital health market with many similar solutions, DarioHealth, maker of apps for chronic disease management, acquired digital mental health company Twill. Twill's shareholders and creditors will share in $10 million in cash plus 10 million shares of stock, which are valued, at the time of writing, at about $20 million.  In a new story, I unpack how Dario claims the acquisition will help get the company to profitability a year or more ahead of schedule.  Read more here | | --- | --- | | | --- | --- | regulation FDA warnings about bogus device data and unauthorized devices On Tuesday, the Food and Drug Administration issued a warning to device manufacturers that they should carefully vet third-party partners because the agency has seen an uptick in fabricated data. Read more from STAT's Lizzy Lawrence here. The FDA must be on some kind of warning quota because on Tuesday it warned consumers at large not to use smartwatches or rings that claim to non-invasively monitor blood glucose. A simple Google search turns up lots of devices that claim that can help people with diabetes keep tabs on their blood sugar, and the agency wants to be absolutely clear it hasn't cleared any of them.  Industry news Fundraising galore Given the ongoing slump in private investment in health tech and medical device companies, it's been a while since we had enough deals to highlight in its own section in the newsletter. Maybe it's the upcoming trade shows. Or, are things looking up? Fabric, which makes tools to automate clinical and administrative health care tasks, raised a $60 million Series A round led by General Catalyst.  Blackbird Health, a tech-enabled youth mental health provider, raised a $17 million Series A led by Define Ventures.  Siftwell Analytics raised  $5.8 million in seed funding to develop its analytics solution for community health plans. Investors include AlleyCorp, Arkin Digital Health, and Tau Ventures. Hospital analytics startup UnityAI raised $4 million in seed funding led by Max Ventures. Medical device company BiVACOR raised $13 Million to conduct clinical trials of its Total Artificial Heart. Reprieve Cardiovascular, which is developing an "automated diuretic and fluid management approach for acute decompensated heart failure" announced a $42 million Series A round co-led by Lightstone Ventures and Sante Ventures.   MMI, a surgical robotics company, raised $110 million in Series C funding to commercialize its system. The funding was led by Fidelity Management & Research Company.   | | --- | --- | More around STAT | | --- | | | | --- | | | | --- | | | | --- | | Check out more exclusive coverage with a STAT+ subscription Read premium in-depth biotech, pharma, policy, and life science coverage and analysis with all of our STAT+ articles. | | --- | --- | What we're reading Accelerometer-measured physical activity, sedentary time, and heart failure risk in women aged 63 to 99 years, JAMA Cardiology Google DeepMind’s CEO says its next algorithm will eclipse ChatGPT, Wired I went for a walk with Gary Marcus, AI’s loudest critic, MIT Technology Review Virtual second opinions are popular but wariness persists on AI diagnosis tools, MobiHealthNews | | --- | --- | # Thanks for reading! More on Tuesday - Mario Mario Aguilar covers how technology is transforming health care. He is based in New York. | | --- | | ![](https://marketing.statnews.com/hs-fs/hubfs/email-templates/signatures/signature-mario-aguilar.png?noresize&upscale=true&width=230&upscale=true&name=signature-mario-aguilar.png) | | --- | | @mariojoze | | --- | | mario.aguilar@statnews.com | | --- | --- | Enjoying STAT Health Tech? Tell us about your experience Continue reading the latest health & science news with the STAT app Download on the App Store or get it on Google Play | | --- | | | | --- | |              STAT, 1 Exchange Place, Boston, MA ©2024, All Rights Reserved. I no longer wish to receive STAT emails | | --- | | Update Newsletter Preferences     •    Contact Us     •    Advertise with Us     •    View in Browser | | --- |