Monday, March 9, 2026

< + > The Hidden Complexity of Nutrition + Meals and How Illumia is Fixing It

Healthcare is full of complex workflows, but we overlook one of the most operationally intense areas of any hospital: nutrition and dining service. Just think of all the allergies, dietary restrictions, and nutritional requirements that go into making a single patient’s meal. Then, factor in the logistics of managing a restaurant at scale for visitors and staff. The reality? Food service and retail management in healthcare is a massive, complex engine. And when it’s not running smoothly, it impacts everything from patient safety to staff burnout.

To get the inside scoop on how technology is solving these operational headaches, I headed down to the user conference for Illumia (the new name for the merged company formerly called CBORD and Transact). I wanted to find out exactly how they are helping health systems manage everything from patient meals to retail outlets. In the video below, I sit down with Jenna Sampson, Nutrition Systems Coordinator from UC Health, Tony Boggs, Senior Director of Support Services at Corwell Health, executives from Illumia, and a few fascinating partners to unpack the surprising complexities of this space.

The Financial Power of a Single Dining Service Foundation

One of the biggest takeaways for me was the sheer scale and financial impact of consolidating nutrition technology. Boggs shared how their newly formed health organization was grappling with three separate instances of their CBORD platform. By moving to a single foundation with Illumia’s net menu product, they didn’t just standardize recipes and ordering across 24 hospitals—they paved the way for a single, seamless connection into their Epic EHR. It has allowed them to have more consistent pricing, manage suppliers better, and ultimately save money through reduced food waste.

The Impact of Food Services for Staff

The other aspect that stood out was how deeply food service technology impacts the daily lives of clinical staff.

Nurses are stretched thin, often getting only 30 minutes to grab their food, eat, and get back to work. They do not have time to stand in a long line. Solutions like online ordering, self-serve checkouts, and kiosks are moving the needle on staff satisfaction by making the lunch process incredibly swift. On the patient side, Sampson explained how they use iPhones with the CBORD patient app, empowering nurses to input dietary-compliant meal orders right in the room. This ensures safety protocols—like specialized safety trays—are strictly followed while making the entire ordering process friction-free.

The Bottom Line

I have to admit, my eyes were completely opened to how complex this world really is. When you leverage the right technology in the cafeteria and the kitchen, it really does make a massive difference for the patient and staff experience.

What My Time at Illumia’s User Conference Revealed

  • System Consolidation: Managing multiple disconnected databases for nutrition creates costly inefficiencies and operational risks. The process: Migrating to a single Illumia net menu platform connected directly to the Epic EHR. The outcome: Standardized recipes, better supplier negotiations, and reduced food waste that saves the healthcare system real money.
  • Staff Burnout: Nurses only get 30 minutes for lunch and simply cannot afford to waste time standing in long cafeteria lines. The process: Implementing online ordering, self-serve checkouts, and swift order-entry kiosks. The outcome: A frictionless lunch experience that respects staff time, reduces stress, and gets them back to their patients faster.
  • Patient Safety: Juggling complex dietary restrictions, severe allergies, and physical safety requirements for patient meals is incredibly complex. The process: Equipping nurses with iPhones loaded with the CBORD/Illumia patient app to input orders right at the bedside. The outcome: Guaranteed compliance with safety tray protocols and a highly accurate, personalized patient meal experience



< + > What “Positive Distractions” Can Do to Reshape the Pediatric Hospital Experience

The following is a guest article by Brandon Kuzara, Corporate & Healthcare Account Director at Dimensional Innovations

Being hospitalized is difficult at any age, but for children, the experience can feel especially isolating. Pediatric patients can face long stays, repeated procedures, and separation from friends, school, and the everyday routines that bring them comfort. Some studies have shown that a significant portion of the millions of children hospitalized each year experience anxiety as a result of their stay, making it clear something needs to be done to allay those concerns.

The clinical burdens are enough for any patient, but saddling the emotional toll on children, as a result of stress, anxiety, boredom, and loneliness, can bring even more elements that require healing.

As a result, hospital managers across the country are increasingly recognizing that supporting pediatric patients requires more than medical treatment alone. Emotional well-being, social connection, and comfort play critical roles in recovery. One emerging approach is the use of technology and shared digital experiences to help children feel less alone during care, resulting in what the experience design field calls ‘positive distractions’.

These sorts of immersive experiences can reduce anxiety, bring the focus away from medical treatments, and in some cases, even forge new connections between other patients going through the same experiences.

Addressing the Emotional Side of Pediatric Hospitalization

For children, hospitals can feel overwhelming. The unfamiliar environment, constant interruptions, and uncertainty of treatment create stress that extends beyond the physical illness. While pediatric units are designed to be more child-friendly than adult wards, many patients still spend long hours confined to rooms, often with limited opportunities for peer interaction.

Social connection is a powerful factor in pediatric well-being. Children are naturally wired for play, imagination, and shared experiences. Yet hospital stays can remove those outlets at the moment they are needed most.

This is where immersive and collaborative engagements can become even more important than just traditional entertainment. Interactive experiences can provide positive distractions from pain, reduce anxiety, and create moments of normalcy. Importantly, shared experiences can also help patients feel part of a community rather than alone in their journey.

Positive Distractions in Action

One such example of this positive distraction being put into practice is CreatureVerse, an immersive gaming experience designed and built specifically for children in pediatric care units, such as infusion centers, hematology/oncology departments, and more. Centralized screens are installed in the departments for patients to interact with, with the experience also able to be extended to patient/treatment room TVs. It also gives players a chance to work and interact with others just like them.

The games are controlled via smartphone and have worlds where young patients can explore and accomplish different goals with fun characters, such as customizable dinosaurs, moose, or owls. It was also designed with the setting in mind, hoping for it to remain fun and engaging for patients who engage with it over a long period of time, or repeat visitors who may need the distraction more than once.

Distractions have the ability to help pediatric patients cope with fear, fatigue, and even limited mobility. With that in mind, those same experiences need to be accessible, intuitive, and supportive, rather than overstimulating and stress-inducing. The nature of shared play, especially with other patients who can relate to the player’s situation, is underutilized in this sort of approach and will be a growing trend moving forward.

As immersive platforms continue to evolve, healthcare leaders will need to consider how such tools can integrate into pediatric care strategies alongside child life services, mental health support, and family-centered programming.

What Positive Distractions Can Mean for the Future of Pediatric Care

These sorts of positive distractions are more than simple games. Instead, they represent a shift in how hospitals are thinking about the pediatric patient experience. Technology offers a lot of promise in a number of areas, especially in clinical care. It’s imperative for health facilities managers to envision their most vulnerable populations and everything they may need. By combining immersive technology with shared play and thoughtful design, positive distractions can offer children moments of connection, imagination, and relief during some of the most stressful periods of their lives. For health facilities, embracing positive distractions as a critical part of providing complete care to pediatric patients can help them create a more holistic impact.

About Brandon Kuzara

Brandon Kuzara is the Corporate & Healthcare Account Director at Dimensional Innovations, bringing more than seven years of experience in client success, account management, and business development, partnering with organizations across a range of industries. He approaches each engagement with a focus on trust, clarity, and long-term partnership, aligning stakeholder priorities with practical solutions that drive measurable value.



< + > Synthpop Raises $15 Million Series A | Solace Raises $130 Million Series C

Check out today’s featured companies who have recently raised a round of funding, and be sure to check out the full list of past healthcare IT fundings.


Synthpop Raises $15 Million Series A to Scale AI that Makes Healthcare More Human

Synthpop, Inc., a healthcare AI company building agentic automation to eliminate administrative bottlenecks in payer, provider, and patient operations, announced today a $15 million Series A, bringing the company’s total funding to $23 million. The round was led by Ansa Capital, with Marco DeMeireles, Co‑Founder & Managing Partner at Ansa, joining Synthpop’s Board of Directors. Defy.vc and Peterson Ventures participated in the round, alongside Storm Ventures and strategic investor Bruce Broussard.

Synthpop unifies document intelligence, payer-aware reasoning, and conversational voice agents into one coordinated system that automates up to 80% of healthcare business processes. These agents integrate directly with EHR, billing, and e-prescribe platforms, and customers use them to handle workflows that range from referrals, prior authorizations, eligibility checks, claims follow-ups, to patient access and more – reducing denials, saving costs, speeding up patient care, and lightening the overall administrative burden. Over the past year, Synthpop has demonstrated significant traction, processing over 2 million patients and now integrating with 8 major EHR systems.

“Point solutions can’t fix operational bottlenecks,” said Elad Ferber, CEO at Synthpop. “Providers need a unified system that understands insurance requirements, handles phone calls naturally, and works seamlessly with their existing software. This funding helps us expand our coverage and deepen integrations so providers can scale their operations and expand access to care.”

Some of the nation’s largest organizations across DME, Fertility, Diagnostics, and more have already seen substantial benefits by adopting Synthpop. Workflows that historically took 40 minutes are now processed in <1 minute at a 5x lower cost than traditional human labor spend, while maintaining complete compliance and transparency.

“Healthcare organizations have long been constrained by highly manual workflows and human capital bottlenecks. AI-native solutions like Synthpop are the only way for them to fulfill rising demand and increased patient expectations,” said Marco DeMeireles, Co‑Founder & Managing Partner at Ansa…

Full release here, originally announced February 3rd, 2026.


Solace Raises $130 Million Series C to Make Healthcare Advocacy a Standard of Care in the U.S.

New Funding Accelerates Solace’s Expansion, Establishing Healthcare Advocacy as Essential Infrastructure for Closing the Gaps Between Diagnosis and Treatment

Solace Health today announced a $130 million Series C funding round led by IVP, accelerating the company’s mission to make advocacy a standard part of care for every patient in the United States. The Series C values Solace at over $1 billion and reflects a growing consensus that healthcare advocacy is no longer optional as costs rise and systems fracture. The round also included participation from existing investors Menlo Ventures, SignalFire, Torch Capital, Inspired Capital, and RiverPark Ventures.

Despite unprecedented healthcare spending, millions of Americans still struggle to access timely, coordinated care, and nearly 40% delay or avoid care altogether due to cost and complexity. These gaps drive missed diagnoses, avoidable hospitalizations, caregiver burnout, and billions in unnecessary spend. Solace exists to close that gap.

Solace is a patient-centric healthcare advocacy layer that sits alongside clinical care. The company connects patients and families with trained healthcare advocates who coordinate care across providers, manage logistics, and surface options that help patients move forward with confidence. By intervening between diagnosis and treatment where patients are most vulnerable, Solace shortens time-to-care, reduces friction, and improves outcomes at scale.

Solace’s model is also designed around the professionals delivering advocacy. By establishing a dedicated advocacy role with clear scope and strong technological support, Solace enables experienced nurses and care specialists to focus on judgment and patient guidance, building durable relationships over time and reinforcing the quality and consistency that better outcomes require.

With this funding, Solace will significantly expand its national network of more than 2,000 experienced advocates serving Medicare and Medicare Advantage members, while accelerating investment in its platform and clinical research. The company will also deepen partnerships with payers and providers to embed advocacy earlier in the care journey where outcomes are most at risk.

Solace was founded by CEO Jeremy Gurewitz and Chief Product Officer Sara Sargent…

Full release here, originally announced February 10th, 2026.



Sunday, March 8, 2026

< + > Bonus Features – March 8, 2026 – 69% of physicians struggle to access recent records from outside providers, 76% of healthcare orgs have more AI pilot programs than they can scale, plus 31 more stories

Welcome to the weekly edition of Healthcare IT Today Bonus Features. This article will be a weekly roundup of interesting stories, product announcements, new hires, partnerships, research studies, awards, sales, and more. Because there’s so much happening out there in healthcare IT we aren’t able to cover in our full articles, we still want to make sure you’re informed of all the latest news, announcements, and stories happening to help you better do your job.

News

  • AI security firm Mindgard identified flaws in Doctronic, that chatbot that the state of Utah has allowed to prescribe medication renewals without human intervention. The company was able to exploit Doctronic’s prompts and make it do things such as triple the recommended dose of an opioid.

Studies

Partnerships

Products

Implementations

Company News

People

If you have news that you’d like us to consider for a future edition of Healthcare IT Today Bonus Features, please submit them on this page. Please include any relevant links and let us know if news is under embargo. Note that submissions received after the close of business on Thursday may not be included in Bonus Features until the following week.

Safe travels to HIMSS 2026! Say hello to Brittany, Colin, David, and John. Allow me to live vicariously through you and snag a free coffee on the expo hall somewhere. (I have more than enough T-shirts.)



Saturday, March 7, 2026

< + > Weekly Roundup – March 7, 2026

Welcome to our Healthcare IT Today Weekly Roundup. Each week, we’ll be providing a look back at the articles we posted and why they’re important to the healthcare IT community. We hope this gives you a chance to catch up on anything you may have missed during the week.

HIMSS 2026 Preview. The Healthcare IT Today crew will be in Las Vegas in full force. John Lynn outlined when and where to meet the team (and grab a selfie, of course). He also listed the most interesting sessions and topics at HIMSS 2026, which includes business operations, AI in clinical care, and puppies (apparently a must-have for healthcare tech conferences now). Read more…

How One Practice Saved 700 Staff Hours and Improved Access. Colin Hung caught up with NextGen Healthcare’s Jenna Hagan, who described the company’s Closed Loop solution for aligning care access, intake, the visit, care coordination, and ongoing health management. One practice saved a lot of time in just 6 months. Read more…

ViVE 2026: The Conversations That Mattered. What was everyone talking about in Los Angeles? Brittany Quemby compiled Healthcare IT Today’s video interviews from ViVE 2026.

  • If you missed it last week, Part 1 of our video interview series emphasized aligning innovation across the healthcare ecosystem.
  • Part 2 covered AI guardrails, AI agility, AI governance, and aligning AI adoption with clinical workflows.
  • Part 3 focused on foundational architecture, virtual care, senior care, and earning AI’s trust.
  • Part 4 highlighted improving patient identification and improving cost savings through automation.

ViVE 2026: From Big Ideas to Real Accountability. Amy Oliver at Azul Heart said the vibe at ViVE 2026 was about proving the value of AI, especially since AI has rapidly transitioned from a cool demo to a core functionality and touches all parts of the healthcare system. Read more…

Life Sciences Today Podcast: Changing Spine Surgery. Danny Liberman connected with Erez Lampert at PathKeeper Surgical, which is offering optical 3D imaging and AI as an alternative to low‑cost, high‑radiation fluoroscopy and expensive robotics. Read more…

Healthcare IT Today Podcast: The Healthcare Technology Olympics. John and Colin addressed the (torch) burning question: What Olympic sport best represents what it’s like in health IT right now? Read more…

No-Code Is Quietly Solving Healthcare’s Compliance-Flexibility Problem. EHR systems offer compliance but little flexibility, while no-code tools make prototypes easy but lack audit trails. Elliott Sprecher at Knack said that’s about to change with Knack Health’s HIPAA-compliant no-code database. Read more…

America Is Betting on AI While Ignoring Its Biggest Healthcare Weakness. Michael Savas and Richard Ricciardi at The George Washington University noted that AI’s promise risks colliding with a fragmented infrastructure – not to mention Americans’ concerned about centralized data collection. Read more…

Intelligent Interoperability and AI Are Redefining Tech Equity in Healthcare at HIMSS. Rachel Wilkes at MEDITECH described how improving interoperability leads to empowered patients and efficient clinicians, all while making data more actionable. Read more…

Taiwan’s HIMSS Debut Highlights Shift From AI Promise to Production. The Taiwan Excellence Pavilion will make its first appearance at HIMSS 2026. Exhibiting companies will emphasize AI infrastructure, diagnostics, telehealth, sustainability, and scalability. Read more…

This Week’s Health IT Jobs for March 4, 2026: CIO roles at HCA Healthcare’s Galen College of Nursing (Louisville, Kentucky) and Loma Linda University Health (California’s San Bernardino Valley). Read more…

Bonus Features for March 1, 2026: NVIDIA finds 70% of healthcare orgs use AI; insider breaches cost healthcare 48% more than other industries. Read more…

Funding and M&A Activity:

Thanks for reading and be sure to check out our latest Healthcare IT Today Weekly Roundups.



Friday, March 6, 2026

< + > How PathKeeper Surgical is Changing Spine Surgery – Life Sciences Today Podcast Episode 51

We’re excited to be back for another episode of the Life Sciences Today Podcast by Healthcare IT Today. My guest today is Erez Lampert, Founder and CEO at PathKeeper Surgical! I talk with Lampert about his journey from Israel’s aerospace industry and Invisalign’s Itero scanner to founding PathKeeper in 2018–2019. We dig into the core problem in spine surgery—surgeons “flying blind” between low‑cost, high‑radiation fluoroscopy and ultra‑expensive robotics—and how PathKeeper offers a third way using optical 3D imaging and AI. Erez explains their dual business model (capital + disposables, plus a “razor blade” model via implant partners in a $10B US spine market), and how strategic deals with High Ridge Medical (Zimmer Biomet spine) and Vizient unlock scalable US commercialization without a 50‑person direct sales team. The conversation challenges the myth that Israelis don’t know how to sell in the US, reframing success as understanding gatekeepers, GPOs, and distribution science rather than just raising $50M and hiring a big sales force.

Check out the main topics of discussion for this episode of the Life Sciences Today podcast:

  • What problem are spine surgeons facing today, and why is “flying blind” so dangerous?
  • How does PathKeeper’s 3D imaging + AI platform actually work in the OR, and how is it different from fluoroscopy and million‑dollar robots?
  • What is PathKeeper’s business model, and how does the implant “razor blade” model create leverage in a $10B US spine market?
  • How did the High Ridge Medical and Vizient deals come together, and what do they change for commercialization?
  • Why is the common investor advice, “raise $50M and build a huge US sales team’ the wrong playbook here?
  • What are the biggest anti‑patterns in the spine/med‑device industry today?

Subscribe to Danny’s newsletter to get strategic patterns for life science leaders building a defensible business.

Be sure to subscribe to the Life Sciences Today Podcast on your favorite podcasting platform:

Along with the popular podcasting platforms above, you can Subscribe to Healthcare IT Today on YouTube.  Plus, all of the audio and video versions will be made available to stream on Healthcare IT Today. As a former pharma-tech founder who bootstrapped to exit, I now help TechBio and digital health CEOs grow revenue—by solving the tech, team, and go-to-market problems that stall your progress. If you want a warrior by your side, connect with me on LinkedIn.

If you work in Life Sciences IT, we’d love to hear where you agree and/or disagree with our takes on health IT innovation in life sciences. Feel free to share your thoughts and perspectives in the comments of this post, in the YouTube comments, or privately on our Contact Us page. Let us know what you think of the podcast and if you have any ideas for future episodes.

Thanks so much for listening!



< + > MediKarma Acquires Nanell from Niterra Co., Ltd. | Hims & Hers Announces Agreement to Acquire Eucalyptus

Check out today’s featured companies who have recently completed an M&A deal, and be sure to check out the full list of past healthcare IT M&A.


MediKarma Acquires Nanell from Niterra Co., Ltd. to Accelerate Women’s Health Expansion and Value-Based Care Footprint

Strategic Move Integrates Specialized Pregnancy Journey Solution into MediKarma’s Holistic Patient Profile, Deepening B2B2C Engagement

MediKarma, the AI-driven platform that unifies and activates patient data to drive proactive care, today announced it has successfully completed the acquisition of Nanell, a specialized digital solution focused on the pregnancy journey, from Niterra Co., Ltd (Headquarters: Nagoya, Japan). The acquisition is set to integrate Nanell’s intellectual property, product assets and operations directly into MediKarma’s platform, strengthening its offering in Women’s Health.

Nanell was created by Niterra Ventures Company of Niterra Co., Ltd. to provide expert consultation, guided resources and health tracking, and has reported strong early results including targeted support for first-time and high-risk pregnancies, with retention above category averages.

“This acquisition immediately fast-tracks MediKarma’s expansion into women’s health with a solution purpose-built for the critical moments that happen between visits,” said Kris Narayan, CEO at MediKarma. “By integrating Nanell’s proven pregnancy expertise, we empower our members with clearer, real-time guidance and route meaningful signals back to care teams. This is a strategic move that strengthens value for payors and employers by offering earlier risk visibility and delivers a more human, proactive experience for families at a pivotal life stage.”

Under the agreement, MediKarma acquires Nanell‘s IP and related assets, followed by a planned 60–90 day knowledge transfer and operational transition. The commercial structure includes equity-linked consideration and a revenue-share component aligned to Nanell’s future growth. Furthermore, the collaboration is cemented by Niterra Ventures Company’s commitment to provide transitional support.

“Niterra Co., Ltd. invests and, in the past, also built ventures with the vision to improve everyone’s quality of life. Nanell was the result of researching women’s needs and building a solution for better support during pregnancy,” said Dirk Schapeler, President at Niterra Ventures Company of Niterra Co., Ltd…

Full release here, originally announced February 23rd, 2026.


Hims & Hers Announces Agreement to Acquire Eucalyptus, Accelerating Its Vision to Become the Leading Global Consumer Health Platform

Eucalyptus is a Consumer Healthcare Leader in Australia, the UK and Germany, with Expanding New Operations in Japan and Canada

Hims & Hers Health, Inc., the leading health and wellness platform, today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Eucalyptus, an international leader in digital health, accelerating the company’s ability to bring access to high-quality, personalized care to more people across the world. As its US business continues to grow, Hims & Hers will be well-positioned, upon closing of the acquisition, to expand into Australia and Japan and deepen its presence in the UK, Germany, and Canada. The terms of the transaction have been structured to preserve the financial flexibility of the company, ensuring continued control over balance sheet management and capital allocation.

With this acquisition, Hims & Hers plans to expand its bench of local expertise and scale its infrastructure, making it possible for the company to reach millions more people globally with the model it has successfully built – and continues to maintain – in the US. Hims & Hers is committed to partnering with regional experts to enter new markets in a way that meets each region’s needs and supports customer access and choice. Together with Hims & Hers’ other recent acquisitions, the addition of Eucalyptus will create a diversified international platform that expands the range of offerings available to customers around the world, from simple online pharmacy fulfillment to advanced, concierge-style service.

“Healthcare challenges are global, and so is the demand for simpler, transparent, and more personalized healthcare. But how that comes to life looks different for every region and every person. We’ve shown the difference that makes in the US, and the logical next step is working with more international experts to make that difference abroad,” said Andrew Dudum, Founder and CEO at Hims & Hers. “With Eucalyptus, we will not only enter new markets, we will expand our ability to serve customers globally, trusting local experts to be a key part of how we transform healthcare into a customer-first, personalized industry. We believe this puts us on the path to becoming the leading global consumer health platform, where everyone can access the best care for their needs, regardless of where they live.”

Eucalyptus operates several consumer-beloved brands across the world – including Juniper and Pilot – and has served more than 775,000 customers. Eucalyptus has a demonstrated track record of efficiently entering new markets and is recognized for its customer-first approach, clinical rigor, simple digital experience, and local regulatory expertise. The company has also published more than 20 peer-reviewed articles in international journals, examining how its model supports patient outcomes, adherence, quality and safety. It is also the first Australian telehealth business to receive accreditation from the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards (ACHS).

Following the completion of the acquisition, Tim Doyle, current CEO at Eucalyptus, will become the SVP of International at Hims & Hers, overseeing the company’s international business…

Full release here, originally announced February 19th, 2026.



< + > The Hidden Complexity of Nutrition + Meals and How Illumia is Fixing It

Healthcare is full of complex workflows, but we overlook one of the most operationally intense areas of any hospital: nutrition and dining s...