After record-setting 2018, digital health venture funding levels off

After hitting record levels in 2018, venture funding for digital health companies leveled off in the first quarter of 2019, dropping 19% compared to the first quarter of 2018, according to a new report.

In the first quarter of 2019, $2 billion was raised in 149 deals compared to nearly $2.5 billion in 187 deals raised in the same quarter of 2018, according to the report from Austin, Texas-based Mercom Capital Group, a communications and research firm. Venture funding was up compared to in the fourth quarter of 2018, which brought in $1.4 billion in 142 deals.

“Funding levels were down compared to last year in digital health in the absence of larger deals. M&A activity was also flat,” Raj Prabhu, CEO of Mercom Capital Group, said in a statement. “However, digital health public equities experienced a turnaround in the first quarter of 2019 with 66% of them beating the S&P 500 compared to the last quarter of 2018 when 63% of the equities we tracked performed below the S&P 500. Favorable market conditions have prompted several companies to announce IPO plans."

First-year doctors spend three times more hours on EHRs than patient care

First-year residents, or interns, spend 87 percent of their work time away from patients, half of which is spent interacting with electronic health records and documentation, according to a new study.

Posted Apr 17, 2019healthcare it