The Plaid Of Healthcare | Outbreak At The Gym | Roblox Billionaire

Plus: Are People Who Curse A Lot Actually More Honest?

Investors are pouring money into startups tackling one of healthcare’s biggest challenges: data exchange. Health systems store vast amounts of data that could offer great insights into improving health outcomes, but it often gets trapped in software systems that can’t talk to each other.  Redox, which announced a $45 million funding round this week, aims to do for healthcare what Plaid did for the financial services industry: liberate data by enabling hospitals (and ultimately patients) to connect with software developers building the latest healthcare applications.

Big data startup Innovacer, which applies machine learning to troves of healthcare data from health records, insurers and lab companies, hit unicorn status after its latest funding round valued the company at $1.3 billion. Its algorithms help predict and stop health problems before they become chronic. A combination of artificial intelligence and sensors is also driving a movement to treat patients inside their homes, instead of a hospital or doctor’s office.

Any questions? Send me an email at kjennings@forbes.com.

The cofounders of startup Eden Health are betting that hybrid care—a combination of both telemedicine and in-person visits—is the path forward for medicine in the post-Covid world. But instead of focusing on selling services to individuals, like most concierge practices, the company targets small and midsize employers. The company says it helps its clients lower overall healthcare costs by up to $801 per employee each year.

Noteworthy

CVS Health invested more than $114 million in affordable housing last year to address social determinants of health as the company looks to reduce costs and improve outcomes.

The first-ever human cases of a H5N8 avian influenza have been documented in Russia, where it afflicted 7 poultry farmers. 

Virtual reality is giving a boost to healthcare worker training during the pandemic.

Coronavirus Updates

Deaths from Covid-19 worldwide fell by an incredible 20% last week, says the World Health Organization. While new variants of Covid-19 are still a concern, this may be the ideal window of opportunity to get as many people vaccinated as possible. Vaccine efforts are underway globally, with Ghana becoming the first country to receive vaccines from the WHO-backed Covax program. And in the U.S., the FDA released documents today confirming  that the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine is safe and effective. A committee will meet this Friday to discuss the vaccine, and the FDA could issue an Emergency Use Authorization as soon as this weekend. 

In other coronavirus news:

Studies show that surprisingly, people with asthma  are not at increased risk of severe Covid-19. 

More than 150 CEOs have rallied behind President Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus plan, and many are impatient to get employees back to work. 

CVS announced that it plans to expand Covid-19 vaccinations to pharmacies in 17 new states. 

The White House will distribute more than 25 million cloth face masks to disadvantaged communities.

Across Forbes

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• 3D Printing Firm Markforged To Go Public In $2.1 Billion SPAC Deal

What Else We Are Reading

• The U.S. Is Making It Harder for the Rest of the World to Get COVID Vaccines (Slate)

• Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, Biden’s pick to oversee Medicare and Medicaid, would be first Black woman in the role (The 19th News)

• OpenBiome to wind down stool bank operations (STAT)