A Week of Big Health-Tech Deals: Our Top 5 Stories

Thanks to a stream of high-impact business deals and partnerships, the Healthcare Analytics News™ audience had plenty to read and discuss last week. Some of health tech’s greatest players, from Google’s sister company Verily to Sangamo Therapeutics and IBM, announced striking moves involving a great deal of money and top-notch tech.

But, of course, our audience wasn’t only interested in play-by-play accounts of the business side of healthcare. Readers flocked here for another reason: a rational, tempered look at the technological innovations that could forever change healthcare. And we covered plenty of that last week.

>> READ: In the Digital World, Health Insurance Cards Remain Analog

If you’re new here, know that HCA News is your guide to the digital transformation. Every week, our editors dig into the analytics dashboard to see which stories performed the best. Then we round them up in one convenient spot — and that’s this article. Consider the list below your passport to the most exciting and interesting news and actionable insights in health tech.

Think we missed something? Did your fellow audience members not show your favorite article the right amount of love? Or do you have a story that we need to cover? Don’t be shy. Reach out to the editors on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

1. Smart Bandage Can Sense Wound Healing, Administer Drugs

What makes this smart bandage special? It’s a two-for-one tech breakthrough that’s capable of both monitoring wounds as they heal and automatically providing medication to a patient. “Never have we achieved a closed loop operation where sensors were used to monitor and then control drug deliver,” says the developer of the prototype.

But here’s the catch: This smart bandage has yet to be clinically validated. So while the tech could help the 25 million U.S. patients who suffer from chronic wounds, it’s unlikely that most of them will access the bandage anytime soon.

2. Sangamo Treats First Patient in Hurler Syndrome Study, Buys TxCell

With its gene-editing technologies, Sangamo Therapeutics has taken high-tech medicine by storm. (And no, it doesn’t use CRISPR or TALEN, as you likely know.) But Sangamo’s work doesn’t end there.

Last week, it announced the purchase of TxCell, a French startup working on a groundbreaking kind of T-cell immunotherapy. (And no, it’s not a chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy). The move puts Sangamo at the forefront of yet another burgeoning treatment market.

And did we mention that the company’s gene-editing work is still raging on? Read to learn how.

3. IBM-Anthem Deal Is All About the Digital Transformation

Eventually, there will be a week when IBM doesn’t unveil some blue-chip partnership or business expansion. Last week, however, was not that week. That’s because IBM, continuing its spree of health-tech agreements with major companies and government agencies, inked a deal to further its partnership with the health plan company Anthem. It’s all about big data, artificial intelligence and bots. Here’s what you need to know.

4. Physician Credentialing Poses Problems. Can Blockchain Help?

Key opinion leader Janae Sharp published her latest piece for HCA News, a reported column on the troubles plaguing providing credentialing. It’s a critical but flawed process, she writes, and it’s in dire need of a makeover. Blockchain might be the solution. But is the technology primed to bring results that can curb physician burnout, cost effectiveness, patient outcomes and more?

5. Verily Jumps into Vast Sleep Apnea Market

If you don’t know Verily by now, you’re behind the curve. Owned by Alphabet, this company is a sibling of Google, but it’s bent on the high-tech disruption of the life sciences industry. In teaming up with a company called ResMed, Verily might do just that. Here’s how.

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