Patients with a rare, chronic disease can find themselves in a conundrum when seeking treatment: Researchers can’t find enough patients to enroll in a statistically rigorous clinical trial and there is uncertainty in the regulatory path. Frustrated by the lack of treatment options on the market, patients may be willing to accept a certain level of […]
Big Data
Cohero raises $9m Series A for smart inhalers
Cohero Health said today that it closed a $9 million Series A round for its BreatheSmart patient monitoring platform, which can track medication adherence and measure lung functioning. The funds are also earmarked for commercial development efforts and expanding Cohero’s clinical trial program. The round was led by Three Leaf Ventures with participation by Zaffre Investments and BioAdvance, Cohero […]
Litmus Health looks to bring wearables to drug development
Litmus Health said yesterday that it launched its clinical data science platform into public beta. The company hopes to use big data from wearables and connected devices to help inform endpoints for Phase I & II clinical trials. The goal of its platform, according to Litmus, is to get pharmaceuticals to market faster by putting […]
Brigham & Women’s iHub, Evidation to study digital health outcomes
Brigham and Women’s Innovation Hub (iHub) and Evidation Health said today they are collaborating to study the impact that digital health interventions have on clinical and economic outcomes. The groups hope to quantify the impact of digital health solutions across a range of therapeutic areas using Brigham and Women’s clinical expertise and Evidation Heath’s efficient, direct-to-patient […]
Outpatient care quality stays flat
(Reuters) — The quality of outpatient care hasn’t changed much in the U.S. over the past decade, despite a variety of local, regional and national efforts to encourage improvements, a study suggests. “Overall, the quality of outpatient care has remained largely flat; there are some areas of improvement, but we also see areas of decline,” said […]
U.S. diabetics have worsening blood sugar
(Reuters) — The number of U.S. diabetics with healthy blood sugar levels has declined in recent years, a study suggests. Researchers analyzed data on 1.6 million adults with diabetes from 2006 to 2013. During this period, the proportion with HbA1c below 7% declined from 56% to 54%, and the share with HbA1c at or above 9% […]
Researchers look to create massive human cell ‘atlas’
Scientists launched a global initiative on Friday to map out and describe every cell in the human body in a vast atlas that could transform researchers’ understanding of human development and disease. The atlas, which could take more than a decade to complete, aims to chart the types and properties of all human cells across all […]
Siemens, IBM Watson Health, 3M and Google get into population health management
Four major players in the medical field are pairing up to dive into population health management, according to press releases posted today. Siemens (NYSE:SI) and IBM‘s (NYSE:IBM) Watson Health announced a 5-year population health management deal, while Google‘s (NSDQ:GOOG) Verily Life Sciences and 3M (NYSE:MMM) announced a similar agreement in the field. IBM Watson Health’s deal with […]
Median Technologies, Microsoft ink Big Data deal for cancer diagnostics
Median Technologies (EPA:ALMDT) and Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) said today they inked a deal to develop new cancer detection, diagnosis and monitoring methods using “big data” analytics. Through the deal, Median Technologies will use its Ibiopsy imaging biomarker phenotyping system with Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform to provide capabilities for processing and analyzing medical images and extracting biomarkers […]
IBM forms medical imaging collaborative with Watson
IBM (NYSE:IBM) said today it formed the Watson Health medical imaging collaborative, which aims to bring cognitive imaging into daily practice for practitioners through a collaborative, global initiative. Members in the collaboration will use the Watson cognitive computing system to “extract insights” from previously unstructured imaging data. IBM said it hopes the new program will help […]
Philips CEO van Houten: Tech-savvy patients drive the agenda
(Reuters) – Demand from technology-savvy patients seeking control over their medical data will overcome privacy concerns about the “connected” products and services Royal Philips (NYSE:PHG) is now focused on, its chief executive said. The success of the Dutch company’s decade-long transition from a consumer goods giant specializing in lighting to a seller of networked medical […]