Consumer virtual health and wellness brand Ro highlighted a new partnership with healthcare API company Ribbon Health that will help users and their virtual providers seek out in-person primary and specialty care services in their area. Accessible within the telehealth platform, the new capability is available across the U.S., and includes information on the types of insurance accepted at each location.

"By integrating Ribbon’s provider directory technology into our telehealth platform, Ro-affiliated providers can help patients find providers in their area, when needed, by easily pre-filling the specialty of the physician they should see and using the patient’s zip code on file," the company wrote in a medium.com post. "Patients can then further filter results by insurance coverage, languages spoken and provider gender."
 

Health data organization and analysis platform MDClone has been tapped by the National Institutes of Health to aggregate clinical COVID-19 data from across the U.S. for use in research. The data from this "network of academic healthcare sites" will be employed to better understand which patients would most benefit from COVID-19 testing as part of their clinical management, develop predictive models anticipating disease severity, and craft clinical best practices.

"In order to develop these approaches and models, massive volumes of longitudinal patient data, including treatments and outcomes, are needed in amounts that exceed the volume available at an individual hospital," MDClone wrote in a press release announcing the project. "Even if data is compiled across numerous sites, patient privacy regulations generally restrict access to such data. This partnership and the use of synthetic data will create a platform where data can be shared across sites, increasing both the depth and breadth of data that is accessible to researchers."

Internet of things solutions vendor Kore and Dexcom have struck a deal that will help deploy the latter's G6 continuous glucose monitor (CGM) system within hospitals as a remote patient-monitoring technology. Specifically, the new partners stressed new capabilities that will help providers keep tabs on COVID-19 patients with diabetes, but also limit their exposure to the virus.

“Kore Health was able to procure fully certified and ISO-compliant devices, complete engineering testing and approval, identify connectivity solutions and deploy the first wave of equipped devices in just over a week – ensuring rapid speed-to-market for this critical solution,” Bryan Lubel, EVP of IoT managed services at Kore, said in a statement.

Last week telehealth platform Tyto Care and Swiss health insurer SWICA revealed a partnership that will integrate the TytoHome device into SWICA's santé24 phone-based telehealth service. The merged resource was already successful when piloted among 200 SWICA employees last year, according to the companies, and the new partnership will mark TytoHome's widest European deployment yet.

“The information the [TytoHome] device collects enables doctors to safely check, treat, and diagnose more patients and conditions without the patient entering the clinic, allowing them to remain at home and avoid exposure to germs, which has proven especially important during the COVID-19 crisis," Dr. Silke Schmitt Oggier, medical director for santé24, said in a statement. "Particularly for families with children, TytoHome offers a convenient solution, giving parents the ability to carry out examinations in the familiar home environment. This saves parents and children the unnecessary stress of a doctor’s visit, which also makes diagnosis easier.”

Retail chain Target has announced new benefits for its employees that include free telehealth visits through CirrusMD. The virtual-care service can be accessed 24/7, and will be available through the end of the year, regardless of whether or not employees are subscribed to a Target healthcare plan.

"These investments help ensure that team members can build meaningful careers, take care of themselves and their families, and contribute to building our communities through their work inside and outside of Target," Melissa Kremer, chief human resources officer at Target, said in a statement.