Jonah Comstock

By  Jonah Comstock 04:14 pm September 16, 2019
In the world of healthcare there are many stakeholders: hospitals and other providers, insurers and other payers, and, of course pharma and medical device companies. But one thing all these stakeholders have in common is that they’re increasingly moonlighting as investors. At the kickoff of Health 2.0’s Venture Connect event today in Santa Clara, California, three of these strategic investors —...
By  Jonah Comstock 03:05 pm September 12, 2019
Like a swimmer emerging from an impossibly long dive, swimming wearable maker Instabeat has resurfaced after a long, self-imposed stealth period. Long-term industry insiders might remember the Beirut, Lebanon, company (now partly based in San Francisco) that raised more than $50,000 on Indiegogo back in 2013 for a heart rate tracker and heads-up display that attaches to a swimmer’s goggles,...
By  Jonah Comstock 12:38 pm September 11, 2019
Livongo isn’t the first company in the digital health space to IPO — at least, depending on how you define “digital health” it isn’t. But even if your definition is broad, Livongo stands out as one of the first companies to go public that’s really focusing on delivering healthcare, not just wellness, using consumer digital technologies. “People expect us to represent this whole new industry that...
By  Jonah Comstock 03:34 pm September 6, 2019
Consumer healthcare businesses can describe their work a lot of ways: as wellness, as disease prevention or as healthcare outside the traditional health system. Or there's biohacking, a term that has emerged to describe all kinds of ways individuals can optimize their own health in the same way that tech-saavy folks optimize their computers.  At the annual Health 2.0 Fall Conference this month in...
By  Jonah Comstock 04:10 pm August 29, 2019
Connected fitness company Peloton released its IPO prospectus Tuesday, revealing grim financials, even by today's startup IPO standards: the company lost nearly $200 million in FY 2019, four times what it lost the previous year. The document also contains plenty of reminders of the company's ongoing legal struggles relating to its music licensing and alleged patent infringement. Yet, according to...
By  Jonah Comstock 02:27 pm August 26, 2019
Nine years ago, the University of California at Irvine Medical School became the first medical school in the country to equip each of its 104 incoming students with their own iPads. This month, at the same White Coat Ceremony where that announcement was made back in 2010, Dr. Michael J. Stamos, the school’s dean, surprised the class of 2023 with another gift: Butterfly handheld ultrasound devices...
By  Jonah Comstock 02:43 pm August 22, 2019
Thanks to some high-profile IPOs, 2019 has been something of a breakout year for digital health. Sector luminaries will be flocking to Santa Clara, Calif., next month for HIMSS’ annual Health 2.0 Fall Conference to look back on the year and, more importantly, look ahead to the future. The three-day conference kicks off Monday, September 16, with two all-day preconference events and two afternoon...
By  Jonah Comstock 03:20 pm August 20, 2019
A new survey from Harmony Healthcare IT shows that millennials in large numbers are going online rather than to the doctor when they need medical advice. While only 48% of those surveyed (2,013 Americans aged 23 to 38 years) said they trust online resources to accurately diagnose symptoms, 73% admitted to going online for medical advice rather than seeing a doctor. WebMD was the overwhelming...
By  Jonah Comstock 01:47 pm August 15, 2019
Online reproductive health portal Nurx has raised $52 million in new capital. Its Series C funding accounts for $32 million of that total with an additional $20 million coming from debt financing, according to TechCrunch.The round led by Kleiner Perkins Digital Growth Fund and Union Square Ventures with participation from the Reproductive Health Investors Alliance, Dreamers VC (actor Will Smith’s...
By  Jonah Comstock 03:04 pm August 9, 2019
In Dexcom’s latest earnings report, executives reported not only growing revenues and sales volume for the company, but a sense that the whole category of CGMs has arrived and is transforming diabetes care for the better, noting trends observed at the recent annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association. “We have been on record for years telling that the future is ‘CGM First’ and we believe...