Carrum Health extended the reach of its bundled cancer care through an alliance with City of Hope, one of the largest cancer research and treatment organizations in the United States. First launched on the East Coast last year, Carrum Health is now offering its fixed price comprehensive bundle for first-time, non-metastatic breast cancer treatment, including a two-year warranty on care, at City of Hope facilities throughout Southern California. This includes more than 35 convenient locations including its newly opened City of Hope Orange County Lennar Foundation Cancer Center.

“Cancer treatments haven’t historically been included in bundled payments because of their length of treatment and complexity of cases. But we know that they are top of mind for self-insured employers trying to tackle rising healthcare costs and access the best quality of care for their employees,” said Sach Jain, CEO and founder of Carrum Health. “Carrum Health eases these concerns with the only value-based bundled payment programs for oncology. Since launching the industry’s first comprehensive cancer care bundle last year, we’ve seen great demand from employers looking to offer their employees access to top cancer specialists closer to home. We are proud to work with City of Hope to make this a reality.”

With Carrum Health’s bundled cancer care package patients with non-metastatic breast cancer may be eligible to receive up to two years of treatment at City of Hope, including excision surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, care for treatment-related complications, and interdisciplinary check-ins and follow-ups.

What’s a super app? Rather than being built to do one thing well, a super app can fire up many offerings in a stand-alone environment. A recent The Wall Street Journal article titled What the Heck Is a ‘Super App’ and Why Are Elon Musk, Evan Spiegel and Jack Dorsey So Interested? offers this description of WeChat, a Chinese internet company’s super app:

“It started as a cross between a messaging app and a social medium but has grown to encompass everything from ride hailing and e-commerce to mobile payments and government services. Today it has nearly 1.3 billion users.”

In a recent blog post, Beth Strohbusch, Equiva’s head of marketing, asked, “What could a healthcare super app look like?”

Strohbusch acknowledged that digital health innovation has brought value to consumers and clinicians, Yet “there are simply too many options available today,” she stated.

According to the IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science’s 2021 Trends Report, more than 90,000 digital health applications were added to app stores in 2020—an average of 250+ per day. Apps focused on managing specific diseases or health conditions rather than wellness management make up 47% of apps, compared with 28% in 2015.

In healthcare, widespread adoption of one-off apps and devices is not realistic or sustainable. Equiva provides a fresh “super app-type” approach with its point solution aggregation and software delivery environment that securely powers any number of education and engagement solutions via mobile devices, kiosks, digital signage and more.

Read the blog here.

Carefeed, a company that offers secure, cloud-based and HIPAA-compliant digital communication solutions, closed a $3 million financing round led by Reformation Partners. Existing investors Allos Ventures and M25 also took part in the round. The investment enables Carefeed to accelerate adoption of its platform by skilled nursing and senior living communities across the U.S. and Canada, broaden its suite of solutions, and expand into other patient care settings.

To read more, click here.

BrainCheck Inc., developer of an innovative digital cognitive assessment and care platform, has announced an Investigator Initiated Research grant program to help fund research for evaluation, diagnosis, treatment and care for brain-related disease. Among the conditions of interest are: Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, post-operative delirium, stroke, traumatic brain injury, and post-acute Covid “brain fog”. Awardees will be provided one-year research funding and free access to the BrainCheck platform.

To read more, click here.

Immunis Inc., a biotech startup developing a novel treatment for age and disease-related immune decline, has raised $10 million as part of a Series A round. Remiges Ventures led the funding round with participation by several other healthcare investment firms. Proceeds will be used to support clinical assessment of Immunis’ immunomodulatory secretome product in a Phase 1/2a clinical trial targeting muscle atrophy, which is an age, disuse and disease-associated condition.

To read more, click here.

Atropos Health, which gives physicians research-grade, real-world evidence at the point of care, has announced the completion of a $14 million Series A funding round. The company will use the funding to expand its commercial team and continue to develop its oncology product. Breyer Capital led the round with participation from Emerson Collective and Boston Millennia Partners.

As part of the funding round, Atropos has appointed Emerson Collective’s Matt Bettonville to the Atropos Health board of directors. Breyer Capital has also gained seats on the board.

To read more, click here.

Picture: akindo, Getty Images