Carrum Health announced a partnership with Novant Health to deliver orthopedic and bariatric care to Carrum Health members in North Carolina.

As an innovative leader in providing patient-centered care, Novant Health is the first Carrum Health COE partner in North Carolina, offering significant value, personalized care navigation and the latest in high-quality treatment options for both patients and their employers. Initially, this partnership will provide convenient access to care at Novant Health Charlotte Orthopedic Hospital and Novant Health Presbyterian Medical Center, with potential to add additional services and evaluate expansion into other regions of the Novant Health footprint.

“The clinical strength of Novant Health’s programs is exceptional and will give our employers in the region access to top-quality care,” said Sach Jain, CEO and founder of Carrum Health. “We are excited to expand our COE offering into North Carolina with Novant Health, which shares our commitment to providing patients with access to the region’s best doctors and the most appropriate treatments for their individual needs.”

Carrum Health brings the promise of value-based care to those who require surgery with its COE model, which enables self-insured employers to reduce healthcare expenditures, according to a RAND Corporation study. Patients typically face no out-of-pocket costs related to their care, with no deductibles, no co-pays and no unexpected bills. There is a 30-day warranty on each procedure, including any costs associated with the care.

A quick Google search of the term “digital health hub” yields top results with links to several government, association and/or nonprofit organizations. Some hubs serve as work and meeting spaces. Some are virtual communities. Some act as innovation accelerators.

In an article published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization (August 1, 2020,) researchers at the University of Adelaide describe the concept of a web-based personal digital health “hub” for integrated patient care. They highlight the implementation of such a hub around a cohort of patients with hip fractures.

“This is a far different use of the term ‘hub,’ than the aforementioned – and an exciting concept to consider,” said Equiva CEO Nir Altman.

The research team designed their hub model to improve education, service integration, data exchange and engagement of all stakeholders including patients and healthcare providers.

“A health hub approach can bring significant value in these areas,” Altman wrote in a recently published blog post titled Why Healthcare Needs a Digital Health Hub. ”More robust capture and analysis of patient- and caregiver-reported data, especially from home environments, will fuel advances in these areas,” he added.

Read Altman’s blog post here.

Digital health solutions company imaware is collaborating with Elo, a “smart nutrition” company turning food from the leading cause of disease to medicine using at-home testing, AI, and nutritional coaching. As part of the collaboration, imaware’s at-home diagnostics tests will provide Elo patients with deep clinical insights into specific biomarkers and health data, which will be used to create a personalized supplement regimen with specific nutrients hand-selected for each patient’s health outcomes.

To read more, click here.

Abridge, a Pittsburgh-based health tech startup focused on medical conversation AI, raised $12.5 million as part of a Series A round. Led by Wittington Ventures, the round also had participation from existing investors including Union Square Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Pillar Venture Capital, and UPMC Enterprises. New investors who took part in the round included Turing Award winner Yoshua Bengio, and Whistler Capital.

Abridge’s enterprise-focused documentation solutions seeks to structure and summarize information from medical conversation, making it easier for systems to reduce provider burnout and increase patient satisfaction.

To read more, click here.

UNC Health, a not-for-profit integrated health care system owned by the state of North Carolina and based in Chapel Hill, is releasing new features within its mobile platform. In a partnership with Gozio Health and WELL Health, UNC Health is integrating Gozio-powered wayfinding with the WELL Health patient communications platform to create a more integrated digital experience for patients. The result is a 443% increase in mobile downloads and interactions with a consumer-facing digital front door.

To read more, click here.

Paige, a clinical AI applications developer for pathology, has partnered with Sonora Quest Laboratories, a clinical diagnostics  business. The goal of the digital transformation project is to improve existing diagnostic workflows and accelerate precision diagnoses for patients across Arizona.

“The implementation of Paige products at Sonora Quest further validates our ability to scale and deploy our technology to meet the demands of a high-volume commercial laboratory,” said Andy Moye, Paige CEO, in a press release. “AI software like Paige Prostate Detect can serve as a built-in second opinion to promote diagnostic confidence and help reduce diagnostic errors. We believe that our integrated solution can ultimately streamline and improve patient care.”

To read more, click here.

Picture: akindo, Getty Images