Big ideas in medical device development can come from regular people driven to solve vexing problems. Here are a handful of folks from outside the medtech industry who decided to create devices to solve their own health troubles or those of others around the world. Read on to see what high school, college and medical […]
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Huennekens out, Azarbarzin in at Verb Surgical | Personnel Moves, July 24, 2019
Veteran medtech executive Scott Huennekens is out as CEO of Verb Surgical, the robot-assisted surgery joint venture between Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) and Google parent Alphabet (NSDQ:GOOGL), which today installed Kurt Azarbarzin in the corner office. Azarbarzin, himself a medical device industry longtimer, was co-founder & CEO of SurgiQuest until its 2016 acquisition by ConMed (NSDQ:CNMD), where he was named […]
Report: Comcast to join home-health-monitoring fray
Comcast (NSDQ:CMCSA) is reportedly preparing to jump into the in-home health-monitoring market. The company will begin conducting pilot tests later this year and intends to launch a health monitoring device in 2020, according to a report by CNBC. Targeted toward seniors and people with disabilities, the device would use ambient sensors to determine whether they’re making extra […]
Report: Google AI improves lung cancer diagnosis accuracy
Google (NSDQ:GOOG) has unveiled a new artificial intelligence system that outperformed six radiologists in detecting lung cancer, identifying 5% more cancers and cutting false positive rates by 11%, according to a STAT News report. The system was trained on 42,000 computed tomography scans taken in a National Institutes of Health clinical trial, according to the report. […]
Report: Google’s AI is better at spotting early lung cancer than doctors
Google developers said this week that the company has trained algorithms to analyze CT scans to find early signs of lung cancer. At the Google I/O developer conference, Google said its AI model could identify early signs of lung cancer in patients who later developed the disease despite five out of six radiologists missing the […]
Verily eyes new deals with $1B to back them
Alphabet‘s (NSDQ:GOOGL) life sciences group, Verily, said yesterday that it raised $1 billion from a group of investors, including private equity firm Silver Lake and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan. The company plans to use its newly-raised funds to support strategic partnerships and potential acquisitions. In a statement, Verily announced that Alphabet’s chief financial officer, […]
Google’s Verily spikes glucose-sensing lens project with Novartis’ Alcon
Google (NSDQ:GOOG) life sciences company Verily said late last week that it is putting its joint project with Novartis (NYSE:NVS) unit Alcon to develop a glucose-sensing contact lens on hold due to difficulties in obtaining reliable tear glucose readings. The project, which began in 2014, aimed to develop a contact lens that could measure glucose levels for individuals living […]
Google taps ex-Geisinger CEO Feinberg to lead consolidated Google Health biz | Personnel Moves – November 14, 2018
Google (NSDQ:GOOG) has picked up former Geisinger Health CEO David Feinberg to lead its fragmented health divisions under the Google Health moniker, according to a recent CNBC report. The tech giant had been searching for a head for several months, with artificial intelligence head Jeff Dean heavily involved in the process, according to the report. Other […]
New eye health companies gain funders’ focus
Startups pioneering less-invasive technologies to treat common eye diseases are changing the outlook for both patients and the industry. A new study by CB Insights revealed that investors have been pouring money into smaller companies in 2017 and 2018, with some FDA approvals to begin marketing their technologies and treatments. These firms are eyeing conditions […]
Report: Google’s Nest looking to expand into healthcare
Connected home device maker Nest, which was bought by Google (NSDQ:GOOG) in 2014 for $3.2 billion, acquired smartphone-based health monitoring system developer Senosis Health last year in a hush-hush deal that may mark the business’ first steps towards an entry into the healthcare market, according to a GeekWire report. When the deal was initially reported last […]
GN Hearing inks deal with Google, launches Beltone Amaze
GN Hearing (CPH:GN) this week announced it inked a partnership with Google (NSDQ:GOOG) to enable its hearing aid devices to directly stream audio from Android devices, and said it launched its Beltone Amaze hearing solution. With the Google deal, users will be able to connect and monitor their hearing aids on Android devices as well as […]