What does Ubuntu mean for health equity? Equivalent CEO Neil Altman thought about this in a recent blog post, citing an article titled Ubuntu Healthcare Ideas Recently published on KevinMD.com, a well-known platform where physicians, advanced practitioners and patients share insights and tell stories.
From the Nguni language spoken in southern Africa, “Ubuntu” is often translated as “humanity to others”.
“I grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa, and the term struck me in the context of social justice, kindness, and other human-centric topics,” Altman wrote.
The word Ubuntu is part of the Zulu phrase “Umuntu ngumuntu ngabatu”, which means: a person becomes a person through other people. According to the authors of KevinMD, “It transcends color and race barriers, geographic barriers, political barriers, religious barriers, gender barriers, and more.”
In his blog, Altman compares health equity to health equity.
The healthcare industry faces enormous health equity challenges.according to a Learning in 2018 According to research by the WK Kellogg Foundation and the nonprofit Altarum, health disparities account for $42 billion in lost productivity and $93 billion in excess medical costs each year.
“Perhaps when we evaluate ways to address health inequalities, we see Ubuntu as part of our framework for taking action, using it to help us focus on our shared humanity and oneness,” Altman wrote.
Read the blog post here.
Canvas Medical, an electronic medical record that enables clinicians and developers to power the future of care, has raised $24 million in a Series B round led by M13. Haystack and previous investors also participated in the round, including Inspired Capital, IA Ventures, Upfront Ventures and Irongrey.
Canvas also achieved federal certification through the Office of the National Health IT Coordinator, a major product milestone for the company.
This certification qualifies Canvas customers to use value-based payment models across Medicare and Medicaid, as well as many value-based business plans.
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particle healthAn API platform for advanced healthcare data exchange has closed a $25 million Series B funding round. This new investment will accelerate the growth of Particle’s analytics products, facilitate the launch of its partner platform, and help serve a growing customer base by expanding its customer service and engineering teams.
“With this latest funding round, our team looks forward to further developing the capabilities of our API platform to provide our users with more meaningful and actionable data,” said Troy Bannister, co-founder and CEO of Particle Health.
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Fold healthPrimary care-focused health tech company reportedly closes $6 million seed round Aixun NewsJonathan Bush, founder and CEO of Zus Health and former CEO of athenahealth, is one of the company’s investors.
Fold CEO Abhi Gupta is also an investor in Zus Health.
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nuclear genomicsa consumer genetic testing and analysis company, raised $14 million in a new funding round led by seven seven six.
The New York City-based company founded by Kian Sadeghi is developing a direct-to-consumer genetic testing platform that leverages whole-genome sequencing for genetic risk and disposition score analysis for a wide range of diseases and traits. The company also offers its users complete autonomy over their genetic data.
Investors in the company include: Founders Fund, Adrian Aoun (CEO of Forward Health), Brent Saunders (former CEO of Allergan), Patrick Hsu (Professor of Bioengineering at UC Berkeley), Shrug Capital and more.
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