From fresh collaborations to tool launches to new studies, here are the latest stories about health IT companies, including Amazon, Apple and Google.
- Verily, Google's sister company, inked a six-year collaboration with Highmark Health, the parent company of Pittsburgh-based Allegheny Health Network.
- Apple partnered with the University of Michigan School of Public Health to test hearing health and noise exposure using Apple's Noise app, which measures noise levels and alerts users when a noise may be dangerous to their hearing.
- Best Buy Health partnered with Apple to launch remote monitoring services on the Apple Watch.
- Amazon debuted a new feature for its Halo health-tracking device: an integration with Amazon Alexa that lets users call up information on their health data via voice command.
- Change Healthcare and Amazon Web Services announced they are launching a new data science as a service offering that provides de-identified claims data integrated with social determinants of health for more robust data analytics and research on vulnerable patient populations.
- IBM teamed up with Moderna to develop artificial intelligence, blockchain and hybrid cloud technologies to improve COVID-19 vaccine management.
- Zocdoc founder and former CEO Cyrus Massoumi launched Dr. B, a platform that matches Americans seeking COVID-19 vaccines with leftover doses so they don't go to waste.
- Walgreens tapped Nuance's artificial intelligence-powered digital assistant to expand scheduling COVID-19 vaccine appointments for consumers beyond the retail giant's web-based portal.
- Google Cloud made its new healthcare consent management application programming interface generally available for health tech developers and clinical researchers who work with patients' health data.
- Apple and the University of Washington teamed up to develop a contactless way to screen for irregular heartbeats using Amazon's smart speaker Alexa.
- Amazon Care, Ascension and Intermountain Healthcare are founding members of a new healthcare coalition aimed at expanding home-based clinical care.
- Meditech launched a new EHR-based genomics tool for its Expanse EHR system that lets users receive and store genetic data at the point of care.
- Apple and Harvard University teamed up to conduct a large-scale study on menstruation symptoms with the goal of advancing science around and destigmatizing menstruation.
- Abbott launched a pandemic defense coalition dedicated to studying coronavirus variants and developing rapid response plans for future viral outbreaks.
- New York began a pilot program testing IBM's digital health pass during events in New York CIty's Madison Square Garden and Barclays Center.