This week in Barcelona, Spain at Mobile World Congress, the GSMA launched the “Big Data for Social Good” initiative.

The effort, we’re told, will leverage mobile operators’ big data capabilities to address humanitarian crises, including epidemics and natural disasters.

According to the official word on the initiative, the program is being launched with 16 of the world’s leading mobile operators – Bharti Airtel, Deutsche Telekom, Hutchison, KDDI, KT Corporation, Millicom, MTS, NTT DOCOMO, INC., Orange, SK Telecom, Telefónica, Telenor, Telia, Turkcell, Vodafone and Zain – which collectively account for over 2 billion connections across more than 100 countries.

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Sensely, a virtual medical assistant application for patient engagement and chronic disease monitoring, announced Tuesday the completion of an $8 million Series B financing led by Chengwei Capital with participation from Bioveda Ventures, Fenox Venture Capital, Mayo Clinic, and Stanford StartX.

“This funding will accelerate Sensely’s mission to provide efficient and affordable care to people around the world utilizing artificial intelligence and machine learning tools,” said Sensely’s founder and CEO Adam Odessky. “Supporting over 20 conditions and protocols, our healthcare solutions have achieved remarkable results regarding patient compliance, reduction of readmissions, and lowering of costs. The capital raised will allow us to serve our clinicians and patients much better as well as expand our presence in the US, UK, and international markets.”

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Mercom Capital Group, a global research and communications firm, released its annual report on funding and mergers and acquisition (M&A) activity for the Healthcare Information Technology (HIT) / Digital Health sector.

Mercom’s comprehensive report covers Healthcare IT deals of all sizes across the globe.

Venture capital (VC) funding, including private equity and corporate VC, in the Healthcare IT totaled $5.1B (billion) in 622 deals in 2016, a new record for the sector.

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Press Release: In an effort to reduce the high death rate from liver disease among the local Hispanic population, The El Paso Times, The Hospitals of Providence and gamification software company OfferCraft have partnered to create an interactive game to educate people about how to prevent the illness.

The game, which comes in English and Spanish versions, is a trivia quiz that features short embedded educational videos, links to a podcast, and infographics on liver disease and its prevention. It has already been played more than 3,000 times on mobile phones, computers and tablets.

“While this game deals with liver disease, in the future we aim to release new games to provide important information about many other diseases,” said Aron Ezra, CEO of OfferCraft. “Making education about a tough subject less intimidating and more memorable can help improve health and save lives.”

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The following is a guest contributed post from David Reis, SVP and CIO of Lahey Health.

Across the country, health care organizations are re-envisioning how to deliver care. Major health systems like Lahey Health are seeking out new solutions that allow us to transition from episodic care to wellness – minimizing the impact of disease and managing the health of populations more effectively. At the same time, patients continue to demand more from their care providers. We now must bring care to patients at the time and location of their choosing, and this is the beginning of the consumerization of healthcare. These shifts require technology that can provide more comprehensive and context-aware views of patients’ data, support for collaborative care across the continuum, and allow health systems to scale their delivery of care in new ways. Consequently, CIOs face constant challenges to seek out the most effective technologies that will ensure an organization’s vision can come to fruition.

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PRESS RELEASE: International Data Corporation (IDC) has published two 2016 IDC MarketScape reports evaluating the enterprise mobile app development platform (MADP) capabilities and strategies of the largest, enterprise-focused, integrated platform vendors. IDC MarketScape vendor analysis reports utilize a rigorous scoring methodology that produces a definitive assessment of each vendor’s current market capabilities and strategies for competing in the future.

The IDC report, IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Enterprise Mobile Application Development Platform 2016 Vendor Assessment — B2CApps Alignment (IDC #US41915916), assessed and profiled ten vendors, naming IBM, Kony, Salesforce, and SAP as Leaders.

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This morning, Main Street Alliance — a national network of small business coalitions working to build a new voice for small businesses on important public policy issues — issued a statement seeking clarity on what the incoming Trump administration plans to do with healthcare.

As for the announcement, it is as follows:

The health care industry, our nation’s largest private sector industry and employer, makes up more than 17 percent of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The US health care industry has grown accustomed to the post-Affordable Care Act (ACA) business climate and faces uncertainty heading into a Trump Administration–one that has vowed to repeal the ACA as early as day one and provide a replacement at a later date. That uncertainty is shared by the small business owners on Main Street and could have a wide-ranging impact on the economy as a whole.
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