According to the report, Amazon built up the internal team working on the device over the past year. Further, it could use machine learning and cloud connections to deliver additional sleep health insights.
Clover's SPAC deal is finalized. Medicare Advantage insurtech company Clover Health's merger with Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings II – a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC – has been approved by shareholders and formally closed. The newly combined company will be called Clover Health Investments, and will begin trading on Nasdaq under CLOV tomorrow.
Word of the merger first came in early October. The deal rates Clover at an enterprise value of about $3.7 billion and was expected to bring in $1.2 billion in gross proceeds.
Grandchildren on-demand, countrywide. Papa, a Miami-based startup that uses technology to arrange in-home senior companionship and assistance, announced this week that it's expanding its reach across all 50 U.S. states.
As of last fall, the service was only active in 17 states. It's available through a number of plans from major payers, including Aetna, Humana and Florida Blue Medicare.
In addition, the company is also releasing a new version of its coordination app for members and the "Papa Pals" employed by the company. Among the added features are a personalized dashboard for Papa Pals, map support, customized browsing filters and single-tap video calls for virtual visits between members and Papa Pals.
“The current climate of social isolation has exacerbated the health challenges already facing aging Americans,” said Andrew Parker, founder and CEO of Papa. “Our Papa Pals provide companionship and work as boots on the ground to support closing gaps in care and drastically improve health outcomes of older adults and their families.”
Take your Watch for a walk. New fitness features look to be on the horizon for Apple Watch users with the 14.4 iOS. Settings in a beta version of the operating system spotted by a user on Twitter and beta source code investigated by 9to5Mac suggest something called "Time to Walk," which the outlet speculates will take the form of guided audio workouts with reminders and goals similar to the Apple's prior "Time to Stand" reminders.
FallCall unveils smartwatch-based PERS. FallCall Solutions announced that it is rolling out its new tech that can detect if a person falls with a connected personal emergency response system (PERS). Dubbed FallCall Detect, the tool was designed to be able to tell if a fall was high-impact. If this kind of fall is detected, the system can automatically connect to emergency services. When a lower-impact fall happens, the tech can connect to community links.
The tech is first going to go live on the Apple Watch app.
"Several older adults I've treated for falls owned a medical alert device but didn't use it. They said it was too bulky, stigmatizing or inconvenient, and they've experienced embarrassing false alarms," FallCall Solutions cofounder Dr. Shea Gregg said in a statement. "By offering simple, safe and smart technology, combined with PERS capabilities on an Apple Watch they already wear, we believe we will have much greater adoption, daily usage and earlier treatment of fall injuries."
Golf claps all around. The PGA has tapped Boston-based Whoop as its official fitness wearable for the PGA tour and PGA tour champions. As part of the deal, the organizations will work together to create a new program called WHOOP Live for Charity, which lets players see their biometric data over the course of a season. As part of the initiative, players compete to receive $10,000 for the charity of their choice on behalf of the partners.
“We are excited to grow our partnership with WHOOP and utilize their health technology to optimize the way our athletes train, recover and sleep,” Brian Oliver, PGA Tour EVP of corporate partnerships, said in a statement.
“Our athletes understand the importance of maintaining their health to ensure peak competitive performance, career longevity and overall wellbeing. The WHOOP Strap will help our athletes unlock actionable insights via physiological data to help them understand and prepare their bodies for competition. We’re eager to begin a first-of-its-kind activation at the Tour that will incorporate player biometric data with defining moments from the golf course to create fascinating content for fans.”
