Year: 2022

GE Heathcare and MediView XR, a med-tech company that leverages augmented reality, announced their collaboration to co-develop the OmnifyXR Interventional Suite System. It will combine medical imaging and mixed-reality solutions to assist physicians and their care teams.

The collaboration will pair GE’s imaging technologies with MediView’s augmented reality and surgical navigation expertise to allow physicians to evaluate multiple holographic displays of live imaging in 3D using Microsoft’s HoloLens technology. 

The aim is to help physicians better assess a patient’s anatomy, make more informed clinical decisions and allow for remote collaboration by care teams in different locations.

OmnifyXR will be designed and manufactured by MediView XR, and will initially launch in the U.S. 

“We are thrilled to advance our strategic collaboration with GE Healthcare by co-developing and creating the interventional suite of the future –- one that is designed to improve ergonomics, with natural interactions for optimized workflow and facilitates care

Med-tech company iCAD announced it would incorporate Google Health’s mammography AI technology into its breast-imaging solutions thanks to a strategic development and commercialization agreement. 

Cancer detection and therapy solutions platform iCAD will utilize Google’s AI breast-imaging technology in its portfolio, including its clinical decision support tool for breast cancer risk-estimation ProFound AI Risk.

The deal will bring Google’s AI technology into clinical practice. This marks the first time the Alphabet subsidiary’s AI research model has been licensed with a mammography vendor.  

The New Hampshire-based company will also utilize Google Cloud’s infrastructure to accelerate the commercialization of its cloud-based offerings. 

THE LARGER TREND

In 2020, a study was published in Nature showing how the tech giant’s deep learning-based AI system fared compared to radiologists in detecting breast cancer during the early stages of the disease.

Results showed the AI tool decreased the rate of false positives by 5.7% in the U.S.

It’s no secret the U.S. healthcare system is frequently hard to navigate, even for industry experts. 

Finding doctors, figuring out insurance and accessing care can be a particular challenge for young people who are doing it for the first time, said Lori Evans Bernstein, CEO and cofounder of Caraway. Young women and others assigned female at birth also face a complex landscape of abortion restrictions as well as a growing need for mental healthcare in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Caraway, which offers virtual mental and physical healthcare geared toward women ages 18 to 27, has been expanding into new states, most recently adding services in Ohio and North Carolina. The startup emerged from stealth over the summer with $10.5 million in seed funding.

Bernstein sat down with MobiHealthNews to discuss Caraway’s rollout in new states and what the startup has learned since its launch in September. 

Editor’s note: This article has been updated with a comment from Apple.

Ten state attorneys general are urging Apple to add new protections for reproductive health data contained in third-party apps hosted on the App Store.

In a letter sent to CEO Tim Cook, attorneys general of California, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, North Carolina, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont and Washington said lax rules for safeguarding reproductive health data could harm patients or providers in the wake of the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. 

The group said location history, search history and adjacent health data — information related to past, present or future reproductive health of the user — could pose a risk to people looking for or providing abortions, birth control or other reproductive care.

The attorneys general argue Apple should require app developers to delete location, search and health data that isn’t required for

Novi Health, a Singapore-based health tech company and specialist clinic, has scored $5 million in a Series A funding round led by Monk’s Hill Ventures.

WHAT IT DOES

Founded in 2018, the company offers a healthcare platform that integrates clinical treatments with behavioural and lifestyle interventions to address chronic conditions.

It has two core digital products: Novi Magnum and Novi Optimum Plus. The former helps people with diabetes control their condition using continuous glucose monitoring technology, coupled with medical care and dietary and lifestyle coaching. A study has found that this programme helped participants reduce HbA1c by 1% and weight by almost 6% over three months. 

Meanwhile, the latter is targeted at people wanting to lose excess weight. It also integrates medical treatment with health coaching to achieve sustainable and healthy weight loss.

WHAT IT’S FOR

Novi Health’s latest funds will be used to hire more people for its technology,