The Roundup: The 5 Stories Driving Health-Tech in August plus a conversation with the CCO at Teletracking

I’ve got a raft of news to cover this week, but before we jump into the news, I wanted to surface our upcoming live events for paid and free subscribers. We will keep adding events in the coming months.

In theory, August should be a slow month. But it has been feeling like anything but for the health-tech industry. On the personal front, I will be publishing my first book six weeks from now on September 23. The topic is on the power of storytelling in business, drawing upon my experience as both a journalism and venture capital investor. If you’d like to get involved in co-hosting a book party, let us know! If you’d like to pre-order a copy of the book, which is a VERY BIG DEAL for authors, you can do so here with the discount code Farr20.

Back to healthcare. I have a lot of friends in the industry grappling with the question of the impact of the Medicaid cuts, particularly on health systems. Meanwhile, there are tailwinds for both AI and telehealth, which may bolster access to lower acuity, primary care. And yet, it remains very concerning to hear that many health systems are considering closing their emergency rooms. That will put even more pressure on those that remain. 

There continues to be a lot of enthusiasm about the longevity space, but also big questions swirling about whether health optimization has gone too far. All the fascinating public health research around the Blue Zones, which are the parts of the world where people tend to live longer, point to the importance of social activities and community. Are we moving into a lonelier version of life where we communicate with chatbots and avoid all foods and beverages that might lead to a less than perfect night of sleep? Or will we all be setting timers to remind us to eat because of GLP-1s? There may be some benefits to that but we have seen examples of late of over-optimization, so much so that life becomes far less fun. 

Lastly, Epic Systems’ User Group Meeting (UGM) is around the corner, and there’s lots of rumors about what to expect from the EHR giant. No one in our networks would be surprised to see Epic move into the ambient scribing space after partnering with companies like Abridge. The big question with ambient scribing is: If this technology becomes a commodity, what’s next? We’re personally fascinated by the opportunity to support providers with inbox management. Another area that continues to attract big dollars is revenue cycle management. But how do we avoid more upcoding and ensure that we’re investing in tools that can improve efficiency and reduce waste? These are some topics that I want to dig into over the next several weeks. 

A quick message from a sponsor, the awesome team at Academy Health who has an upcoming conference in DC.

And onto the news…

What’s been reported: Only weeks after leaving her post as CEO of X, Linda Yaccarino is making a pivot to healthcare, becoming the CEO of eMed. The company is working on a platform to deliver GLP-1 drugs. 

The resume: Yaccarino has no experience in health care or pharma, but was chosen for her ability to “forge game-changing partnerships and navigate complex markets.” Having spent the past few years working at X, we can’t deny that she’s been through some ups and downs. 

What Yaccarino said: The healthcare and pharmaceutical industry have been careful to highlight that GLP-1s are medications, not a lifestyle choice, but eMed’s new CEO is saying the quiet part out loud. “There is an opportunity to combine technology, lifestyle, and data,” she said in a statement of what she sees as the potential for eMed, saying a healthcare leader has the opportunity to redefine the industry.

Expert POV: There’s a whole lot of competition when it comes to companies selling GLP-1s online, so it’ll really be a question of whether companies can throw sufficient marketing dollars at the problem. Where it gets interesting, in our opinion, is where these GLP-1s are part of metabolic health programs that payers are willing to subsidize. We may see more of that in the future as the ROI gets more clear and cost savings more immediate. According to one opinion column this week in WSJ, pharmaceutical industry expert Stephen Buck argued that these drugs may even start to pay for themselves. 

Leaking: Period tracking and fertility app Flo Health shared its users’ reproductive health data with several companies, including Google and Meta, which in turn used it to deliver targeted ads. The other companies involved, including Flo Health, settled the class action, which was brought on by 38 million women, while Meta went to court and was found guilty of using the data.

The fine: Meta may have to pay up to $190 billion in damages, up to $5,000 per violation.

The message: “This verdict sends a clear message about the protection of digital health data and the responsibilities of Big Tech,” said the trial attorneys.

Beyond tech: This is a sensitive subject for women who may worry that this information will get into the wrong hands, particularly given state-by-state differences in access to reproductive health.

The news: Several pharmaceutical companies are turning to direct-to-consumer sales, bypassing expensive middlemen, Axios reports. Among the first who began selling their products online are Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer. Soon, Roche could follow. 

Why DTC: The Trump administration’s focus to lower drug prices also includes the request that companies make some of their products available for direct purchase. Plus, big pharma is sizing the opportunity to sell — surprise! — in-demand GLP-1 drugs to patients who can’t get insurance coverage, at a discount.

The left hand: Who may not like this twist is RFK Jr, who has been critical of DTC advertising for prescription drugs — a practice only allowed in the US (and, with more restrictions, in New Zealand). 

What’s not to like: Among the concerns with pushing DTC sales from pharma is that patients may end up getting drugs they don’t necessarily need. Unsurprisingly, this development also isn’t welcomed by pharma benefit managers either.

Our POV: This gives the manufacturers power that they haven’t previously had, which is why it fascinates us. We’ll be paying particularly close attention to whether this model spills over to other drugs. Stephen Buck, the veteran pharmaceutical supply chain exec who wrote a piece in WSJ, arguing the ROI case for these medicines, shared with us that it “changes the dynamic between pharma and PBMs.”

The news: CVS will invest $20 billion over the next decade to develop a system that allows all aspects of the health care experience to talk to each other. The platform would be accessible by other health care players, Yahoo! Finance reports. 

Just imagine: One place for visit, prescriptions, test results, insurance coverage — irrespective of the provider. It sounds complex-but-doable enough, yet so far many have attempted and failed.

What CVS said: According to the CVS’ Health’s chief experience and technology officer Tilak Mandadi, the reason previous attempts at interoperability have failed is that it can only be done by “the people that have the scope, size, reach, and a customer platform, and trust — that are willing to disrupt themselves.”

Our POV: This fascinates us, particularly with the Trump Administration now resolved to solving the so-called “clipboard” problem. We have seen various stakeholders in the industry raise their hands to fix the interoperability challenge, including Blue Shield of California. But it’ll require an all in effort, particularly with several of the largest EHR vendors still more committed to “intra” operability, versus “inter” – meaning sharing between their own systems, but not to other vendors.

Axonius buys Cynerio for $109 million: Axonius, a cybersecurity firm, has acquired Cynerio, a company focused on medical device security, for $109 million. Axonius CEO Dean Sysman, said that the medical devices are particularly vulnerable to cyberattacks because “[t]hey’re fundamentally alien to traditional security approaches, yet are often connected on the same network,” and praised Cyneiro for focusing on this security gap. 

Carlyle Group is buying Psychiatric Medical Care: Investment firm Carlyle Group is buying the behavioral health company for 20 times EBITDA, Axios reports. The firm, which previously invested in Newport Academy and Odyssey Behavioral Healthcare but doesn’t currently have other behavioral health companies in its portfolio, manages more than $450 billion in assets. 

Positive Development raises $51.5 million: The leading provider of developmental therapy for autistic children announced the closing of its Series C Funding, which was co-led by new investor aMoon and B Capital and Flare Capital Partners. Digitalis Ventures, Healthworx, and others participated, too. 

Elion Health raises $9.3 million: The company is focused on helping health systems diligence tools to suit their needs, particularly with AI vendor procurement. Venture firms including NEA, TMV, Alumni Ventures, Cedars Sinai, and Scrub Capital (our own Chrissy Farr is a GP) invested. 

MS: “Mission-critical" has a very specific meaning for health systems: ensuring they have the capacity to treat patients in need. That can be physical capacity or human capacity. They need solutions that directly impact daily operations and improve the outcomes for their patients.

Operational visibility - particularly solutions that turn real-time data into coordinated action - is a core requirement. Without these tools, hospital leaders are making multi-million dollar decisions in the dark. More importantly, patient access suffers as they are not able to see, in real time, where the capacity exists to treat the next patient. That’s why platforms that enable centralized, coordinated decision making around bed placement, discharge readiness, and load balancing are no longer “nice to have” - they’re foundational. These are the systems that keep the ED from backing up, that accelerate time to treatment, and that prevent missed revenue opportunities.

Further, support staff, such as transport and EVS, are another area where the distinction between “important” and “mission-critical” is becoming clearer. Today, we know that delays in transport or room turnover can cascade through the entire care experience, creating bottlenecks that affect everything from ED boarding to OR scheduling. We can now use AI to orchestrate those tasks in real time - automatically assigning the right person to the right task based on urgency, location, and availability, unlocking efficiency without adding headcount. That’s not just operational improvement. That’s capacity expansion, without new buildings or beds.

Ultimately, health systems that succeed will be those that treat operations not as back-office support, but as a strategic driver of quality, safety, and growth. And they’re looking to partner with companies that understand that difference.

MS: COVID fundamentally changed how patients interact with the healthcare system. Deferred elective procedures, overcrowded hospitals, and limited communication all contributed to a decline in patient confidence - and that trust hasn't been fully rebuilt. So now, more than ever, the way health systems operate behind the scenes matters just as much as the care they provide at the bedside.

One of the most powerful ways to restore trust is by delivering on the promise of reliability. When patients see seamless coordination - reduced boarding in the ER, discharges that aren’t delayed for hours, appointments that start on time - they internalize that the system is working for them, not against them. Operational performance is a proxy for compassion. Patients don’t always know what’s happening clinically, but they know when they’re waiting, confused, or passed between departments.

Health systems should also emphasize how technology is being used to support - not replace - human care. Patients are rightfully wary of being treated like data points in a system. That’s why it’s critical to position AI and automation as tools that allow clinicians to spend more time at the bedside, not to replace them. When nurses aren’t chasing beds or searching for equipment, when care teams aren’t manually coordinating discharges, that time flows directly back to patient interaction.

And perhaps most importantly, communication should be transparent. If a hospital is leveraging new technology, patients should know that it’s making care safer, more coordinated, and more personal. The message is simple but powerful: we’re not just adding tools for the sake of adding tools.

MS: Over the next few years, the most realistic - and most impactful - AI advancements will focus on operational decision making and workflow orchestration. These aren’t speculative “moonshots.” They’re practical, scalable uses of AI that are already starting to take hold in leading health systems.

We’ll see AI help command centers and hospital leaders move from reactive problem solving to proactive planning. For example, predictive modeling will allow hospitals to anticipate patient surges, forecast bed demand, and identify staffing gaps before they cause bottlenecks. This level of coordination is critical to not only maintaining capacity but also helping health systems grow.

AI will also radically improve how hospitals manage support services. Instead of tasking transport or EVS teams through manual dispatching, AI will dynamically route tasks based on urgency, location, and workflow dependencies. This is how we eliminate wasted motion and optimize every minute of our limited workforce.

Discharge planning is another near-term use case with high potential. Today, it’s a complex, often fragmented process. But AI can analyze dozens of variables in real –time - from test results to predicted length of stay to downstream availability - and help care teams focus on the next best patient to discharge. This not only frees up capacity, it improves continuity of care.

The common thread across all of these applications is actionability. We don’t need more alerts or reports. We need AI that turns data into execution - automatically, intelligently, and at scale. That’s not five years away. That’s beginning now.

MS: The long-term vision is bold, but within reach: a health system where AI doesn’t just inform decisions - it autonomously orchestrates operations across departments, facilities, and even entire regions.

Imagine agentic AI - intelligent digital assistants that operate like invisible members of the care team. These agents wouldn’t just recommend a course of action, they’d carry it out. They’d schedule transport, locate equipment, update records, route a bed assignment - all based on evolving real-time variables like census, acuity, and staffing. A nurse could ask for a room to be prepped and it would just happen. A discharge planner could see all barriers resolved without picking up a phone.

In this world, hospital operations are continuously self-optimizing. The system knows who’s coming in, who’s ready to leave, and how to match supply and demand across units, facilities, or even the entire health system - no more bottlenecks based on missed communication or delayed decisions.

Clinicians are freed from cognitive overload. They can focus on care, while being supported by AI that works in the background like a silent partner triaging alerts, escalating issues, even assisting with documentation. And this doesn’t replace human judgment - it elevates it.

A decade from now, the most resilient health systems will be those that embraced this shift early. They won’t just be using AI - they’ll be built around it, with agility, efficiency, and capacity baked into their operating DNA. It won’t just feel like hospitals are better run; they’ll feel more human - because clinicians will finally be able to focus on the people, not the process.