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Ailing MCI OneHealth divests five clinics in Calgary to Well Health for $2 million (BETAKIT)
In order to support its short-to-medium term operations, Toronto-based healthtech company MCI OneHealth is selling five of its multidisciplinary primary care clinics in Calgary to Well Health for $2 million CAD.
FTC signals tougher rules for health companies' use of data (AXIOS)
The Federal Trade Commission issued a warning Thursday about companies' use of consumers’ biometric information such as facial recognition technology, saying it raises "significant consumer privacy and data security concerns."
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Mayor Tory's departure, competing bids, and financial pressure on province and feds place Collision's future in Canada in doubt (BETAKIT)
CEO of Collision Paddy Cosgrave has directly communicated that Collision 2024 will take place in Toronto, four seperate sources told Betakit. However, no official agreement has been reached and it appears it will be more difficult to reach than in previous years.
With an asking price of over $40 million and the loss of John Tory in the Toronto mayor's office, Collision's Canadian future is in limbo.
Insiders say Oracle is crushing morale at $28 billion acquisition Cerner by cutting over 3,000 workers, banning raises, and sidelining its former CEO (INSIDER)
Since buying health IT giant Cerner for about $28 billion, Oracle has halted raises and promotions and laid off thousands of employees in the unit, four current and former employees told Insider.
Between the cuts, wage freezes, and Oracle selling Cerner's buildings in Kansas City — where Cerner has historically been a major employer — morale within the Cerner workforce is "terrible," a former Cerner executive told Insider.
Pfizer Canada partners with Communitech to launch health-focused accelerator program (BETAKIT)
Pfizer Canada has launched the Healthcare Hub, an accelerator program delivered in partnership with Kitchener-Waterloo based Communitech. The hub is specialized in the areas of vaccination tracking, drug shortage planning, women’s health, oncology diagnostics, as well as patient drug coverage and access.
LRVHealth raises $200M to fund the 'second wave' of digital health innovation (FIERCE HEALTHCARE)
Venture capital firm LRVHealth raised $200 million to invest in healthcare startups with a focus on connecting industry incumbents with digital health entrepreneurs.
The fund’s initial investments include Greater Good Health, a company that developed a primary care model centered around nurse practitioners, and KeyCare, a virtual-first care platform built with Epic.
How Inkbox CFO Louise Hucal handled the process of being acquired by a global corporation (BETAKIT)
Louise Hucal has worked in Fortune 500 companies and been involved in multiple M&A deals as an employee. However, pen maker Bic’s acquisition of temporary tattoo startup Inkbox felt more personal.
“We were not in the ‘be acquired’ head space at all at that point in time and were still comfortably funded by our venture partners," Hucal said.
UK court tosses class-action style health data misuse claim against Google DeepMind (TECHCRUNCH)
Google has prevailed against another U.K. class-action style privacy lawsuit after a London court dismissed a lawsuit filed last year against the tech giant and its AI division, DeepMind, which had sought compensation for misuse of NHS patients’ medical records.
The complainant had sought to bring a representative claim on behalf of the approximately 1.6 million individuals whose medical records were — starting in 2015 — passed to DeepMind without their knowledge or consent.
CVCA: Canadian venture capital continues to fall back to pre-pandemic levels (BETAKIT)
While Canadian venture capital investment fell quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year, the amount invested is a return to pre-pandemic levels and sets the time period of 2021 to early 2022 as a potential outlier for Canadian venture capital.
Former Facedrive execs to pay fines after misleading news releases (THE GLOBE AND MAIL)
Executives with the startup formerly known as Facedrive Inc. will be banned from serving as public company directors and will pay financial penalties after issuing misleading news releases, the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) ruled.
The OSC released a statement of allegations earlier this month stating that Facedrive put out contradictory and misleading news releases about TraceSCAN, a COVID-19 contact tracing technology, overstating its capabilities.
Québec attracted more venture funding than any other Canadian region in Q1 2023 (BETAKIT)
Despite seeing a decline in venture funding both quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year, Québec attracted more investment than any other Canadian region in the first quarter of 2023.
Hippocratic is building a large language model for healthcare (TECHCRUNCH)
Hippocratic AI emerged from stealth with a whopping $50 million in seed financing behind it and a valuation in the “triple-digit millions” to build generative AI focused on health care.
Hippocratic isn’t focused on diagnosing, rather the consumer-facing tech is aimed at explaining benefits, providing dietary advice, answering pre-op questions, and other use cases.
Alberta’s tech sector remained resilient in first quarter of 2023 (BETAKIT)
According to briefed.in’s latest report, startups in Alberta raised $225.5 million in the first quarter of 2023. This represents a 30 percent increase in investment from the previous quarter and a 10 percent increase year-over-year.
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