Webinar - Stop Leaving VBC Revenue on the Table: Fix Your Identity Data Presented by Verato

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Featured Story   CereVasc Rakes In $85M to Challenge Traditional Brain Shunt Surgery The moolah A medical device company seeking to commercialize a less invasive treatment for hydrocephalus — a condition caused by excess fluid buildup in the brain — secured $85 million in Series C financing on Thursday. Boston-based CereVasc has now raised more than $200 million in capital since its founding 12 years ago. Its Series C round was led by Piper Sandler Merchant Banking, with participation from Medtronic, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, Bain Capital and Perceptive Xontogeny Venture Funds. A noninvasive alternative Hydrocephalus affects more than a million Americans, but most patients go untreated because the standard surgical treatment — called a shunt procedure — is quite invasive, pointed out CereVasc CEO Dan Levangie. “The current treatment for hydrocephalus is about 60 years old. It's an invasive neurosurgical procedure that requires drilling a burr hole in the skull, placing a tube through that hole down into the brain, and then connecting that tube to a long catheter that gets tunneled under the skin all the way down to the abdomen. So the patient has cerebrospinal fluid from the brain flowing through this long catheter system being reabsorbed into the peritoneum, where the catheter ends — and the rate of complication following that surgery is among the highest in all of neurosurgery,” he explained. He said 30-40% of patients require additional surgeries within the first one to two years because of infections, drainage issues or device failures. Many patients are apprehensive about this procedure — but if hydrocephalus is left untreated, it can cause symptoms ranging from chronic headaches and cognitive impairment to severe neurological complications, Levangie noted. CereVasc's eShunt system is designed to provide a less invasive alternative. Rather than requiring open brain surgery, the company’s device is delivered through a catheter inserted in a vein in the groin and guided to the base of the brain. There, a small implant creates a pathway that allows excess cerebrospinal fluid to drain into the body's venous system, mimicking the brain's natural fluid reabsorption process. A new treatment could be coming soon The company is using its new influx of capital to complete its pivotal clinical trial. Levangie noted that CereVasc expects to submit its application for FDA premarket approval in 2027, and if approved, begin bringing the product to market in 2028. — By Katie Adams Sponsored   Webinar - Stop Leaving VBC Revenue on the Table: Fix Your Identity Data Presented by Verato Value-based care (VBC) promises better patient outcomes and sustainable reimbursement—but only if you can actually connect the dots between your patients, providers, and encounters. True interoperability requires extending identity resolution far beyond your internal systems. Join us on June 17th at 1p ET where we’ll dive into how a unified identity strategy can secure your revenue and scale your VBC programs. Top Stories   A Startup’s Innovation to Tackle Drug-Resistant Tumors The startup Ona Therapeutics raised $86.6 million in Series B financing to bring its lead program into the clinic. The Barcelona-based startup develops antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) for cancers that have developed resistance to other therapies. The drug Ona’s lead drug, ONA-255, is in development for HR-positive, HER-2 negative breast cancer, which is the most common type of breast cancer. The specific antigen that this ADC targets remains undisclosed. But Ona’s drug’s come from a platform technology that discovers novel antigens intended to enable an ADC to overcome drug resistance. Why this matters Even when a cancer therapy works, drug resistance looms. When cancers find a ways to get around a drug’s mechanism of action, patients need alternative treatment options. ADCs have become one of the hottest areas for cancer drug research and dealmaking. By linking a powerful drug payload to a targeting antibody, an ADC is intended to offer a targeted strike to tumors that spares healthy tissue. Ona aims to bring patients a new targeted option that can work even when a cancer has become resistant to other drugs, including other ADCs. Soundbite “The oversubscribed Series B marks an important step to advancing ONA-255 toward clinical proof of concept in breast cancer, while progressing early clinical development activities for ONA-389 in colorectal cancer,” said Ona CEO Valerie Vanhooren. —By Frank Vinluan What the ‘One Nation, Overcharged’ Campaign Aims to Achieve The skinny About half of adults in the U.S. say it's difficult to afford healthcare, leading to many putting off care, according to KFF. That’s why a new grassroots campaign aims to bring awareness to the unaffordability of healthcare. The campaign Last week, a group of healthcare advocates launched the One Nation, Overcharged campaign, which is fighting to lower healthcare costs and demanding that the healthcare system put people over profits. It is supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in partnership with 12 national partners: American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum, Black Voters Matter, Black Women's Health Imperative, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Community Catalyst, Families USA, NAACP, National Immigration Law Center, National Urban League, New Disabled South and UnidosUS. The campaign is a threefold initiative, according to Tony Price, senior fellow within the Center for Health Equity at the NAACP. The Sign Up phase: Mobilizing and encouraging people to join the campaign The Speak Up phase: Calling on people to add their voice to the campaign. The initiative has been doing a video series of people sharing how healthcare costs have impacted them The Show Up phase: Encouraging people to plan an event in their local communities to raise awareness of the high cost of healthcare Soundbite “Healthcare is a right, and people should not have to sacrifice their finances to get healthcare. I think most people, whether they realize it or not, are one accident away from financial ruin,” Price said in an interview. “If anybody, for example, has an unplanned medical event, that should not take them out of a certain socioeconomic status. We want to bring awareness that healthcare is too expensive, healthcare is a right [and] people should have access to this.” — By Marissa Plescia The Celiac Care Gap Begins After Diagnosis A diagnosis … but then what? As gastroenterologists, we can explain the disease. We can talk through wheat, rye, barley, cross-contact, label reading, kitchen habits, and the need for a strict gluten-free diet. We can recommend a dietitian. We can follow symptoms, order blood work, and, when needed, reassess healing. But then the patient has to live with the diagnosis every day, in places we do not control: restaurants, schools, college dining halls, airports, family gatherings, and friends’ homes. That is where celiac care has a real gap. Is it gluten-free? A gluten-detection device may help the patient and family look for patterns. Is there a particular restaurant? A certain packaged product? A meal prepared outside the home? I tell patients to use the tool where they are questioning a food or household product they suspect might be contributing to symptoms. Then bring that information back into the clinical conversation. Immediacy is the value In the clinic, we are often working after the fact. We review symptoms, check antibodies and talk through what might have happened. At the table, the patient has to decide right then: eat it or do not eat it. Trust the label, the server, the menu, the friend, the kitchen, or do not. A tool that provides objective feedback in the moment can reduce guesswork, support adherence, and ultimately help patients feel better. Gluten-detection devices are one more tool in the bucket, and especially useful for patients who are already doing the right things and still need help managing uncertainty. — By MedCity Influencer Dr. Jignesh Shah  Video   Video: Interoperability with CEO of Particle Health In this episode, Arundhati Parmar sits down with Jason Prestinario, CEO of Particle Health, to dig into where the U.S. really stands on healthcare interoperability and why it matters so much more than most people realize.

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