Digital Health

Nashville, Tenn.-based data analytics firm Change Healthcare will combine with UnitedHealth Group subsidiary Optum in a deal amounting to about $13 billion, Bloomberg reports. 

The Oklahoma State Department of Health teamed up with Microsoft to build a mobile app that informs people when they are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine and helps them sign up for an appointment, ABC affiliate KOCO reports.

Clearwater, Fla.-based BayCare Health System is deploying Amazon Alexa devices in 2,500 rooms across its 14 hospitals.

Color, a Burlingame, Calif.-based population genomics and healthcare technology company, achieved unicorn status Jan. 4 when it closed a $167 million series D funding round.

Digital transformation accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic has carved a new role for CIOs in corporate boardrooms as decision makers, a shift that IT leaders expect to be permanent, according to a Jan. 5 Wall Street Journal report.

Here are five recent health IT vendor contracts and go-lives accelerating digital transformation efforts at healthcare organizations.

CIOs across all industries hustled to develop digital capabilities for virtual operations and workplace communication tools this year. These efforts, advanced by the COVID-19 pandemic, will help determine the pace of business for 2021, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Royal Philips, University of Colorado and BioIntellisense received a $2.8 million grant from the Department of Defense to validate the remote patient monitoring startup's wearable device's ability to early detect COVID-19. 

Direct-to-consumer DNA testing company 23andMe has raised almost $85 million this month, according to a Dec. 28 Silicon Valley Business Journal report. 

Here are the five most popular digital transformation stories published by Becker's Hospital Review in 2020: