This Week In HealthTech - August 11, 2026
Many people are asking me how I achieve the glowing skin you see on display in episodes of TWIHT. The secret is I film these on Sunday nights when they turn the A/C off at the office. I am literally cooking in these videos. On a related note, if anyone knows how to avoid having your Sony SV1 camera overheat every five minutes, please call me.
Anyways, on to our stories for this week…
This Week in HealthTech is presented by:
Populate is the AI operating system for private medical practices that treat muscles bones joints and tendons. Populate’s ambient scribing, AI billing recommendations, RCM services, AI Voice Agent, and reimbursable monitoring programs enable practices to grow without increasing headcount while operating with a fraction of the administrative burden.
Book a demo at populateemr.com.
💊 The Master Of None Inspectorate
This week, the FDA announced plans to move forward on its “Simple Reform” initiative
A lot of Simple Reform is unobjectionable, focusing primarily on creating shared services across functional areas like IT and finance across the agency
But the Simple Reform initiative buries in it a highly controversial move to “generalize” the FDA inspector force
While FDA leadership is signaling this is a strategic choice in service of talent development, it’s clear that this is a reaction to the haphazard reductions in force executed in the name of DOGE last year. As the FDA has lost specialist talent, the only recourse is to generalize the remaining bench
This work would unwind several years of specialization and likely means more friction for industry stakeholders that interface with the FDA’s inspectors
🤝🏼 Hinge Health acquires Cylinder
Hinge Health announced a $105mm deal to acquire Cylinder, a GI-focused digital health company
Cylinder’s fundamentals actually look compelling - 100 clients, 2mm lives contracted, and $20-25mm of revenue. On paper, this is clearly one of the rare breakout digital health companies that has achieved real scale
However, the veneer on this deal fades when you add in the fundraising context. Raising $40-50mm to achieve a ~$100mm exit means the outcomes for shareholders are just not that compelling, a travesty given the scarcity of digital health assets that reach “Cylinder scale”
This deal is a great reminder that mispricing early deals can jeopardize long-term outcomes for investors and founders, which is why investors who actually sell companies tend to exhibit more price discipline in early rounds than investors who don’t
💵 Meta vs. New Mexico
A judgement in New Mexico orders Meta to cough up $567mm into a fund to provide resources for teen mental health as restitution for the damage the Company’s products have unleashed
The judgement outlines several areas from screening to treatment with specific carve outs, forming something of a shopping list for mental health tech and services
Settlements like these might be a meaningful source of catalytic energy for companies building in and around teen mental health
