By Life365 CEO, Kent Dicks
It’s difficult to top Life365’s achievements in 2023, considering it was the year we were one of four prime contractors included in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA’s) new eight-year, $1.03-billion remote patient monitoring program, led by Valor Healthcare.
However, thanks to the VA program and virtual care’s continued growth in the healthcare market, 2024 was another momentous year of growth and innovation. In 2024, Life365 expanded and strengthened the next-generation capabilities of our Virtual First healthcare solutions platform with our 10th U.S. patent application and exciting new strategic acquisitions and partnerships, including the addition of powerful, clinically validated AI-enabled solutions.
Acquisitions Driving Proactive Care
At the beginning of the year, we welcomed two new companies to our LifeConnect division– AffirmXH, renowned for its advanced AI-driven biometric data analysis and no-code digital treatment platforms; and PillDrill, an award-winning intelligent medication tracking system.
Both acquisitions helped advance Life365's mission of transforming healthcare from its traditional reactive model toward a data-driven, less costly, predictive, and proactive strategy. AffirmXH enables our provider clients to better gather, analyze and respond to biometric data through its innovative biosensors, drag-and-drop treatment builder and intuitive algorithm developer.
Similarly, PillDrill tackles the critical issue of patient engagement with its medication adherence tracking system. Through a simple digital hub in the home, PillDrill reminds patients to take their prescribed medications, effortlessly scans the medication, and notifies relevant caregivers and family members when scanned.
AI Expertise Bolstered with Canary Speech
LifeConnect’s predictive powers were further enhanced in 2024 when Life365 forged a partnership with Canary Speech. A developer of patented vocal biomarker technologies, Canary Speech’s solution can identify behavioral and cognitive irregularities based on voice patterns before symptoms emerge.
Canary Speech’s voice biomarker data, combined with additional information from our other newly incorporated solutions, enable Life365 to cost-effectively scale proactive care programs for the VA and other healthcare organizations to even larger populations. Our ability to scale rapidly is further enhanced by our previously announced integration into the Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare platform and inclusion in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace, an online store providing applications and services for use on Azure.
Industry Recognition
Our leading-edge technology was one reason Life365 was recognized in 2024 as a Top Company in Remote Patient Monitoring by AVIA Marketplace, the leading digital health marketplace, and included in its annual report. The report is based on an aggregation and analysis of client ratings and reviews as well as health system implementation data across the country.
One such client was White Plains Hospital, a nonprofit community hospital in Westchester County, New York. The hospital also published a study in The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, highlighting how we helped them forge a new approach to reducing hospital readmission rates in heart failure (HF) patients. The study reported that White Plains Hospital patients with HF who were equipped with our solution experienced a readmission rate of only 2.6%, a significant reduction for the organization and significantly lower than the national 30-day readmission rate of 23%.
Protecting Intellectual Property
Another achievement for Life365 in 2024 was the filing of our 10th U.S. Patent application related to our technology. If approved, it will join our other patents for technology related to wearables connected to medical devices, sensors, implantable devices and rapid diagnostics. Our intellectual property (IP) portfolio also includes AI-driven edge processing technology developed for lean operating systems to enable cost-effective care for large populations of patients at home.
Fortunately, protection for our IP was strengthened earlier in the year thanks to the federal government’s decision to uphold an import ban by the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) in a healthcare patent infringement case brought by a fellow digital health company. The decision not to intervene in the ITC ban was a huge validation and victory for entrepreneurial companies like Life365 and for me personally, as a named inventor on over 75 U.S. patents related to digital health.
Looking Ahead to 2025
In 2025, we will continue pursuing new growth and IP expansion opportunities as we work with the VA, Valor Healthcare, and affiliated provider organizations to expand care access to Veterans in their homes, especially in underserved rural locations, and improve clinical outcomes and quality.
