From product launches to new partnerships to investments, here's the latest roundup of stories about health IT companies, including Google, Amazon and Meditech.
- Amazon made its new wearable health tracking device Halo available to the general public. The company launched the device in August, but they were available on an invitation-only basis.
- Cerner invested in clinical trial research organization Elligo Health Research to expand the data and tools available through its Cerner Learning Health Network to community and rural hospitals and physician practices.
- Microsoft partnered with a team of Durham, N.C.-based Duke University researchers to create a ventilator splitting system to help COVID-19 patients in the wake of hospital surges and potential supply shortages.
- Optum CEO Sir Andrew Witty returned to the company after spending more than seven months helping the World Health Organization's COVID-19 vaccine initiative.
- Meditech rolled out a cloud-based tool that lets organizations using its web-based EHR platform continue using the system during network downtime resulting from cyberattacks and other unplanned events.
- Google rolled out the Google Health Studies app, which connects individuals to clinical studies.
- Amazon Web Services launched a new service for healthcare and life sciences organizations that aggregates information into a data lake and automatically normalizes it for machine learning.
- Meditech tapped Google Cloud to deploy its new cloud-based, subscription model EHR platform.
- Google began piloting a new tool developed with HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality that aims to help people remember important questions they want to ask their physician during their healthcare visits.
- Microsoft began deploying its InnerEye project, which uses artificial intelligence models to detect cancerous tumors in CT scans, at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, England.