Technology

The messaging-based primary care provider 98point6 has raised $50 million in its latest round of led by the Merchant Banking Division of Goldman Sachs.

It seems that Jo Natauri, the global head of healthcare investing in Goldman Sachs& investment banking group is a fan of the concept that millennials would rather text than video chat.

The Seattle-based company had previously raised over $36 million from investors including YIS Capitalfounder Jeffrey Greenstein, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

98point6 said in a statement that it will use the funding to expand its products and services and recruit new doctors to the platform.

The companyservices are currently available in 37 states and Washington and will be in all 50 states by the beginning of 2019.

According to the company, the U.S. will need 52,000 physicians to meet patient demand by 2025, and given the shortage of doctors that already exists in the U.S., 98point6 is touting its messaging service as a viable alternative.

&Primary care is the main entry point for individuals into an increasingly complex healthcare system, making it the ideal setting for providing patient education, encouraging preventive care and controlling downstream costs,& said Natauri, in a statement.

The investment is of a piece with Natauribroader thesis that healthcare investment activity broadly is about controlling the engagement with patients earlier and more upstream in the process. Itdriving big healthcare acquisitions like the whopping $69 billion that Aetna paid to acquire CVS.

The investment is an interesting one for Goldman Sachs& investment group, because 98point6 looks, in many ways, like a direct competitor to a company in the Goldman Sachs Investment Partners portfolio, DoctorOnDemand.

Earlier this year that company raised a $74 million round and was touted (by me) as a strong contender to reshape role of telemedicine in primary care service.

In addition to these companies looking to supplant the traditional doctoroffice visit with their own practices. Other companies are looking to give doctors their own way to consult with patient via text and video — selling secure communications tools that doctors can offer to their patients.

Like other startups tackling healthcare problems in the 21st century, 98point6 depends on a combination of algorithmically defined care methodologies and natural language processing alongside consultations with board certified physicians to help diagnose patients and come up with treatment regimes.

If a patient does require a specialist, a physician can make a referral.

So far, the company is selling its service through a mix of commercial contracts with employers and their healthcare providers and direct to consumer marketing. For users paying out of pocket, the plan costs $20 for the first year and $120 for each year thereafter.

The bulk of the companypublicly disclosed patients — which is expected to reach 100,000 members by the end of the year — come through contracts with customers like Seattle ChildrenHospital, Aegis Living, and Zones Inc., according to a statement.

&We set out to make primary care accessible and affordable for everyone, to address a crisis in America that has led to nearly one-fifth of the population not having a relationship with primary care,& said Robbie Cape, CEO and co-founder of 98point6, in a statement. &

I&m bad at meditating. The act of sitting still with my thoughts is a terrifying, anxiety-inducing thing. I&ve been on and off meditation kicks for years now, so I&m willing to try just about any quick fix that promises to keep on track.

I&ve had limited results with various mindful apps — Calm and Insight Timer have proven the most useful thus far. But those are only as good as your own practice. Ita bit like going to the gym, really. You start to slip. One missed day becomes two, two becomes a week and next thing you know, you haven&t been mindful in a month.

The idea of hacking onemindfulness practice is pretty appealing, honestly — even if it means wearing a dumb-looking headband while you sit alone in silence. The second generation of InteraxonMuse headband features a slimmer profile than its predecessor and the ability to read four activity metrics: body movements, breath, heart rate and &mental activity.&

It all looks and feels a little silly — and frankly, I&m glad we opted not to do a video this time out. It was just me and a judgmental rabbit staring at me from the corner of a darkened room. The setup, too, is a pain. You have to sit through a couple of guided videos and then get the placement of the headset just right, so the headbandelectrodes all make contact with your skin. Ittricky getting just right.

Once everything is up and running, ita distinctly different experience from the various meditation apps I&ve tried. The real-time feedback from the headset brings an interesting level of gamification to the product. Rather than music, guided meditation or ambient sounds, the audio interacts with your session.

The app defaults to a storm sound, with the weather getting worse as you grow more restless. Focus, breathe and calm down, and the storm subsides. Do it for a while and you start to hear the occasional bird. If nothing else, it gives you something to focus on beyond all of the reliving of past events and going down checklists we often obsesses about when attempting to quiet our minds.

I was able to shift things a good deal between my first and second sessions. The first, at five minutes, rated at 26 percent calm. The second, at 10, was 89 percent calm. That bumped me from two birds in the first to 90 in the second, no doubt drenched in bird crap by the end of the second.

I&m sure therea fair bit of placebo effect in all of this, but the Muse 2 has given an extra little jolt of energy to my admittedly wobbly meditation practice. And having a timeline of meditation metrics akin to an Apple or Fitbit app is certainly appealing. Actually sticking with the practice, on the other hand, is another question entirely. Ask me again in a few weeks whether I think itworth the $249.

In the words of three of our greatest philosophers, &no sleep &til Brooklyn.& That goes double for all of you West Coasters, because todayApple event is kicking off bright and early at 10AM ET/7AM PT. Itbeen just over a month since the last big Apple hardware event, but it seems the company still has plenty to announce ahead of the holidays.

Expect todaybig event attheBrooklyn Academy of MusicHoward Gilman Opera House to focus primarily on all things iPad and Mac. Herea quick breakdown of all of the things we expect to see. Of course, this being an Apple event, theresure to be plenty of surprises as well. As ever, we&ll be on-site, bringing you the news as it breaks.

We&ll also be liveblogging the event right here on this very page. Stay tuned to this spot to see everything Apple has up its sleeve (or watch the live stream).