Rite Aid and Google Cloud announced a new, multi-year technology partnership that will help Rite Aid realize its vision of a modern pharmacy. Google Cloud technologies will provide Rite Aid with better insights, increased agility, and improved customer experiences. Modernized applications for personalized digital experiences will enable pharmacists to spend more time directly engaging customers.

As part of the new partnership, Rite Aid will be migrating key applications to Google Cloud's Anthos, a managed platform for application deployment. Applications include Rite Aid's popular vaccine scheduling tool, customer messaging infrastructure, and digital engagement platform. With Anthos, Rite Aid's approximately 2,350 pharmacies will have cloud computing capabilities on-site, providing resilient operations. Strategic business continuity enables the company to continue to provide elevated care during natural disasters through robust patient information, advanced prescription management, and offering recommendations without needing to be connected to centralized, legacy mainframe technology, states a press release.

"The power of pharmacies and the important role pharmacists play in the health of their communities, greatly expanded during COVID. Realizing that potential means making strategic investments in technology that can truly help our customers and maximize the capabilities of our pharmacists," said Justin Mennen, Executive Vice President and Chief Digital and Technology Officer at Rite Aid. "Google Cloud's solutions are uniquely positioned to run at each pharmacy location to allow our store teams to help our customers to achieve whole health for life."

Read more: Google’s Pixel Watch Coming This Fall, Here’s What We Know So Far

In addition to modernizing the technologies powering its pharmacies, Rite Aid has also tapped Google Cloud for digital transformations across other areas of its business, including:

• Complete enterprise data migration: Rite Aid will migrate its enterprise data to Google Cloud using BigQuery. This move will allow the pharmacy to have better insights into its finances, supply chain inventory, and customer information, powering data-driven decisions for its business operations.
• Enhanced search capabilities: Rite Aid has selected Google Cloud's Retail Search solution to provide customers with more precise search results when shopping on Rite Aid's eCommerce site and mobile app. Retail Search will provide Rite Aid customers with an improved search experience that uses Google-quality search models to understand customer intent and takes into account Rite Aid's first-party data (such as promotions, available inventory, and price) for product ranking results.
• Updated pharmacy benefits management application suite: Elixir, Rite Aid's pharmacy benefits and services company, will update its current pharmacy benefits management application suite to a cloud-first experience with artificial intelligence and machine learning-infused business logic capabilities. New Google Cloud data analytics and processing capabilities will help the pharmacy manager to better manage prescription benefits on behalf of health insurers.

"As a healthcare company with a retail footprint, Rite Aid is at the intersection of two quickly evolving industries and making strategic technology investments to meet rising customer expectations," said Carrie Tharp, Vice President of Retail and Consumer Solutions at Google Cloud. "Through these innovations, Rite Aid is defining the modern pharmacy."

About Google Cloud

Google Cloud accelerates every organization's ability to digitally transform its business. They deliver enterprise-grade solutions that leverage Google's cutting-edge technology – allon the cleanest cloud in the industry. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their partner to enable growth and solve their most critical business problems.

About Rite Aid Corporation

Rite Aid is a full-service pharmacy that improves health outcomes. Rite Aid is defining the modern pharmacy by meeting customer needs with a wide range of vehicles that offer convenience, including retail and delivery pharmacy, as well as services offered through our wholly owned subsidiaries, Elixir, Bartell Drugs, and Health Dialog. Elixir, Rite Aid's pharmacy benefits and services company, consists of accredited mail and specialty pharmacies, prescription discount programs, and industry-leading adjudication platform to offer superior member experience and cost savings. Health Dialog provides healthcare coaching and disease management services via live online and phone health services. Regional chain Bartell Drugs has supported the health and wellness needs in the Seattle area for more than 130 years. Rite Aid employs more than 6,400 pharmacists and operates approximately 2,350 retail pharmacy locations across 17 states.

As Medtronic continues to await FDA clearance of the latest iteration of its MiniMed insulin pump, the Medtech giant has churned out a steady stream of data supporting the device’s ability to improve outcomes for Type 1 diabetes (IDDM) patients. The latest proof of the MiniMed 780G’s promise arrives in the form of study results published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, Medtronic announced Thursday.

The MiniMed 780G system has been cleared in Europe since 2020. Medtronic submitted it to the FDA for U.S. approval in the spring of 2021 but is still awaiting a decision, slowed down by the roadblocks caused by a late 2021 warning letter from the agency that called out quality control issues at the California headquarters of its diabetes business.

In the company's Adapt trial, an insulin pump with an algorithm was compared to the gold standard of care for managing diabetes, which consists of a combination of several daily insulin injections and irregular check-ins using a continuous glucose monitor. The MiniMed device ultimately triumphed in a number of head-to-head comparisons, lowering average blood sugar levels and lengthening the time that individuals stayed within their ideal glycemic ranges, among other things.

The algorithms in the MiniMed 780G gadget enable the wearer's insulin dosages to be automatically adjusted when necessary. Based on wirelessly transmitted data from Medtronic's Guardian glucose monitor, which requires two daily fingerstick calibrations and checks blood sugar levels every five minutes, it makes those decisions, reports FierceBiotech. The MiniMed mobile app that comes with it allows users to monitor those automatic changes. It shows previous trends and real-time glucose readings and may also alert users if their blood sugar levels are rising or falling outside of a predefined range.

The Adapt trial involved 82 people who, before the study, had all been managing their diabetes with a combination of several daily injections and sporadic CGM scans. The patients' average HbA1C levels at the beginning of the trial were above 8%, significantly higher than the advised maximum of 5.7%, despite the fact that their glucose monitors were programmed to take readings roughly nine times each day.

Read more: Tandem Plans to Submit Insulin Pump for FDA Assessment

The experimental group in the research saw an average decline in their blood sugar levels of 1.4% after utilizing the MiniMed 780G system for six months. While none of the individuals in the control group—who continued to rely on the previous standard of care technique to manage their diabetes—reached that level, more than a quarter of those in that group had their HbA1C levels fall below the 7% threshold.

Along with the decrease in blood sugar, by the end of the first six months, those using the MiniMed 780G device were spending an average of 27.6% more time than the control group in their optimum glucose ranges. This equates to an extra 6.6 hours of range time per day, and Medtronic reported that benefits in range time were even more pronounced overnight when the MiniMed system's algorithms were solely in charge of insulin administration.

A lot of individuals use Google to research medical services, including insurance plans like Medicare and Medicaid. Recently, Google announced several health equity-focused updates to its products, including an addition to search that provides information about public insurance programs like Medicare and Medicaid, reports MobiHealthNews.

Announced Thursday in a blog post by Hema Budaraju (Google’s Senior Director of Product, Health, and Search Social Impact) the additions make it easier for patients to seek out doctors near them that fulfill their individual needs, addressing questions like whether a provider accepts Medicare or what languages that provider speaks. "Over the coming weeks, when people search for these programs, they'll see additional information about eligibility requirements and the enrollment process for your state and the federal government. We believe that this can help people enroll more easily into these programs,” Budaraju said during the company's Health Equity Summit.

A 2019 survey found that though 3 in 4 U.S. individuals look for health information online, the majority of those people complain about the difficulty of accessing that information, with older adults complaining more than their younger counterparts.

The tech giant's efforts to provide "timely and authoritative" health information to support individuals in their healthcare journeys are strengthened by the new search options, according to Budaraju.

Read more: Google Shows Off AR Glasses With Translation In Real Time

According to the blog post, individuals on Medicare can now select to filter out all providers that don't accept Medicare while looking for a new doctor on their phones. This enables them to browse only local clinics that guarantee coverage. In order to help people find physicians who speak their preferred language, healthcare practitioners should now list the languages spoken at their offices in their Google profiles. A provider's Google business page can be claimed and updated, and the company aims to regularly verify to make sure the information about nearby clinics is accurate.

"I think particularly in this age, where we're seeing misinformation so prevalent [and] targeted disinformation efforts that are out there to undermine confidence in science and information. It's really critical that we amplify credible voices and provide it in ways that people can relate to and connect with," said Tina Hoff, Senior Vice President at KFF and Executive Director of the organization's Social Impact Media Program.

Google also announced it would expand its health equity research program, first announced last spring as the Fitbit Health Equity Initiative. The expanded program, now called the Google Health Equity Research Initiative, will offer selected researchers at academic institutions and nonprofits in the U.S. access to direct funding, Google Cloud credits, Fitbit devices, and analytics platform Fitabase's services.

Apple introduced Apple Watch Series 8 and the new Apple Watch SE, which bring groundbreaking technology and performance, and important safety innovations to the two best-selling smartwatches. Apple Watch Series 8 features the beloved design of the Apple Watch, including a large, always-on retina display and a strong crack-resistant front crystal. With all-day 18-hour battery life, Apple Watch Series 8 builds on best-in-class health and safety features like the ECG app and fall detection by introducing temperature-sensing capabilities, retrospective ovulation estimates, crash detection, and international roaming. The new Apple Watch SE delivers the core Apple Watch experience, including Activity tracking, high and low heart rate notifications, and emergency SOS, as well as the new crash detection feature and a completely redesigned back case that perfectly matches the three classic case finishes, all at a more affordable price of $249 (US). Both models are powered by watchOS 9, introducing new and more customizable watch faces like Lunar and Metropolitan, an enhanced workout app, sleep stages, a first-of-its-kind AFib history feature, and an all-new medications app.

“We hear from customers how Apple Watch helps them stay connected with loved ones, be more active, and live healthier lives,” said Jeff Williams, Apple’s Chief Operating Officer. “Apple Watch Series 8 reinforces our commitment in these areas with the addition of pioneering technology, while Apple Watch SE brings advanced core features at a new starting price. Powered by watchOS 9, the best smartwatches deliver more capabilities than ever before.”

Wrist Temperature Sensing for Women’s Health

The menstrual cycle is an important marker of health, and many physicians consider it a vital sign. Apple Watch Series 8 features innovative new temperature-sensing capabilities that give women further insights into their health, designed with the same privacy protections as with all other health data. Utilizing the new temperature-sensing capabilities in Apple Watch Series 8, users can receive retrospective ovulation estimates. Knowing when ovulation has occurred can be helpful for family planning, and Apple Watch Series 8 makes it easy and convenient by providing these estimates in the Health app. Temperature sensing also enables improved period predictions.

Additionally, with iOS 16 and watchOS 9, all cycle tracking users can now receive a notification if their logged cycle history shows a possible deviation, such as irregular, infrequent, or prolonged periods, and persistent spotting, which can be symptoms of underlying health conditions.

Apple Watch Series 8 takes a unique approach to temperature sensing with a two-sensor design — one sensor on the back of the watch, nearest the skin, and another just under the display —reducing bias from the outside environment, reports Apple. Nighttime wrist temperature can be a good indicator of overall body temperature. The sensors in Apple Watch Series 8 sample the wrist temperature during sleep every five seconds and measure changes as small as 0.1° C. In the Health app, users can see nightly shifts in baseline temperature, which can be caused by exercise, jet lag, or even illness.

Crash Detection

To enable crash detection, Apple developed an advanced sensor-fusion algorithm that leverages a new, more powerful gyroscope and accelerometer on Apple Watch, which now has the highest dynamic range accelerometer in any smartwatch.

Read more: Apple Could Soon Launch AR/VR Headset with 8K Display

When Apple Watch detects a severe car crash, the device will check in with the user and dial emergency services if they are unresponsive after a 10-second countdown. Emergency responders will receive the user’s device location, which is also shared with the user’s emergency contacts. When combined, crash detection on Apple Watch and iPhone work seamlessly to get users help efficiently.

Low-Power Mode

To keep users connected for even longer, a new low-power mode can extend battery life to reach up to 36 hours for Apple Watch Series 8 with iPhone present. This new mode temporarily disables or limits select sensors and features, including the always-on retina display, workout autostarts, heart health notifications, and more.

watchOS9

The latest software brings new features and enhanced experiences to the world’s leading wearable operating system:

• With international roaming coming later this fall, users can stay connected to a cellular network while traveling abroad. Plans can be extended to Apple Watch from iPhone for little or no additional fee and will be available with over 30 carriers worldwide.
• Users who are diagnosed with AFib can turn on the FDA-cleared AFib History feature and access important information, including an estimate of how frequently their heart rhythm shows signs of AFib, providing deeper insights into their condition. Users will receive notifications with an estimate from the previous week and also have access to a detailed history in the Health app on iPhone, including lifestyle factors that may influence AFib, like sleep, alcohol consumption, and exercise.
• The completely redesigned Compass app in watchOS 9 surfaces more in-depth information and three distinct views. The app displays a new hybrid view that simultaneously shows both an analog compass dial and a digital view. Turning the Digital Crown reveals an additional view that includes latitude, longitude, elevation, and incline, as well as an orienteering view showing Compass Waypoints and Backtrack.
• The Workout app in watchOS 9 includes new in-session views, such as segments, splits, and elevation that offer more precise workout data. Users can also improve their training with advanced workout experiences, including heart rate zones, custom workouts, pacer, and, coming later this year, race route.
• Sleep tracking in watchOS 9 provides even more insights with the introduction of sleep stages.
• The new medications experience on Apple Watch and iPhone helps users manage and track their medications, vitamins, and supplements, allowing them to create a medications list, set up schedules and reminders, and view information on their medications in the Health app.

AppleWatch SE

The new Apple Watch SE delivers advanced features at a new low price and is a great way for users to start their Apple Watch journey, use it with Family Setup, or gift to their loved ones. Powerful upgrades include the S8 SiP advanced dual-core processor, the same processor that is in Apple Watch Series 8 and Apple Watch Ultra, making it 20 percent faster than the previous generation, along with crash detection and international roaming.

Apple Watch SE maintains the same case design but features a redesigned matching back case made of a nylon composite material, making it lighter than ever. With watchOS 9, Apple Watch SE users can enjoy the benefits of the new Compass app in addition to the enhanced fitness and wellness features. Apple Watch SE is available in 40mm and 44mm aluminum cases, in midnight, starlight, and silver finishes, and is compatible with all bands.

AppleWatch and the Environment

Apple Watch Series 8 and Apple Watch SE are designed to minimize their impact on the environment. Both models are made with 100 percent recycled aluminum in the case, 100 percent recycled tungsten in the Taptic Engine, and 100 percent recycled rare earth elements in all magnets. In a first for Apple Watch, both models feature 100 percent recycled gold — in the plating of multiple printed circuit boards on the Apple Watch Series 8, and in the plating of the SiP on the new Apple Watch SE. Both models are free of mercury, BFRs, PVC, and beryllium. No Apple Watch packaging uses outer plastic wrap, and 94 percent or more of the packaging is fiber-based, bringing Apple closer to its goal of completely removing plastic from its packaging by 2025.

Privacy

Privacy is fundamental in the design and development of all of Apple’s features. When a user’s iPhone is locked with a passcode, Touch ID, or Face ID, all of their health and fitness data in the Health app — other than Medical ID — is encrypted. Any health data backed up to iCloud is encrypted both in transit and on Apple servers. When using iOS and watchOS with the default two-factor authentication and a passcode, Health app data synced to iCloud is encrypted end-to-end, meaning that Apple does not have the key to decrypt the data and therefore cannot read it.

Pricing and Availability

Customers in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Japan, the UAE, the UK, the US, and more than 40 other countries and regions can order Apple Watch Series 8 and Apple Watch SE today, with availability in stores.

Apple Watch Series 8 starts at $399 (US) and Apple Watch SE starts at $249 (US).

Evernorth, the health services business of Cigna Corporation, has expanded its Digital Health Formulary to include five new app-based programs to help people better manage their sleep issues, anxiety, alcohol and opioid use disorders, and inflammatory conditions. In a crowded digital health marketplace, Evernorth's Digital Health Formulary is a clinically based platform of verified, credible health apps designed to help people achieve their health goals.  

Solutions on the Evernorth Digital Health Formulary have been reviewed by physicians, pharmacists, and user experience experts. Each solution must meet standards for clinical effectiveness, compliance security and privacy requirements, value, and usability to be included, according to a press release.

"Evernorth continues to expand our Digital Health Formulary to address unmet health care needs of patients with chronic and complex medical conditions," said Dr. Glen Stettin, Chief Innovation Officer, Evernorth. "The latest additions give patients access to new and affordable options to improve and maintain their health while making it easier and cost-effective for our clients to include these solutions in their benefit plans. The Digital Health Formulary is one of the ways we can connect employers, insurers, and patients with innovative, affordable, and evidence-based care that meet their broader healthcare needs."

Read more: SyncThink Secures CE Mark for Digital Health Platform

The five digital solutions added to the Digital Health Formulary are:

• Big Health's Sleepio for insomnia
• Big Health's Daylight for anxiety
• Quit Genius for alcohol use disorder
• Quit Genius for opioid use disorder, rounding out a suite of addiction support solutions from Quit Genius
• HealthBeacon's Injectable Care Management System for inflammatory conditions

Evernorth has also launched a series of pilot programs, with a variety of scopes and scales, through the Digital Health Formulary to further evaluate the clinical impact and user experience of solutions that address additional categories of care. The four pilot programs are:

• Jasper for oncology
• Zerigo for psoriasis and eczema
• Hinge Health for women's pelvic health, which will enhance Hinge Health's Digital Musculoskeletal Clinic that was added as a preferred solution in 2021
• Lid Sync™ for medication treatment adherence

Benefit plans covering more than 20 million U.S. members offer solutions from the Digital Health Formulary to their members, and it delivers average administrative savings of more than $120,000 per solution. Plan sponsors can choose to offer individual digital solutions or incorporate them into one of Evernorth's connected care programs, which safely integrates biometric data from the digital health solutions with pharmacy, medical, and lab data while protecting patient privacy. With this comprehensive view, plan sponsors can identify gaps in care and health opportunities more quickly than when using a standalone solution — ultimately leading to better health outcomes for patients, improved insights for providers, and greater value for health plans.

About Evernorth

Evernorth creates and connects premier health services offerings, including benefits management, pharmacy, care solutions, insights, and intelligence. With an open approach to partnering across the healthcare landscape, they deliver innovative and flexible solutions for health plans, employers, and government programs. Evernorth capabilities are powered by their family of companies, including Express Scripts, Express Scripts® Pharmacy, Accredo, eviCore, and MDLIVE, along with holistic Evernorth platforms and solutions that elevate health and drive progress for people and businesses. All Evernorth solutions are serviced and provided by or through operating affiliates of Evernorth Health, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cigna Corporation, or third-party partners.

The "Global Electronic Adhesives Market by Form (liquid, paste, solid), Resin (epoxy, silicone, acrylic), End-Use Industry (communications, computers, consumer electronics, industrial, medical), Product Type and Region - Forecast to 2027 report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The electronic adhesives market is projected to grow from USD 4.5 billion in 2022 to USD 6.1 billion by 2027, at a CAGR of 6.1% between 2022 and 2027.

The global electronic adhesives market is driven by the rising demand for advanced and sophisticated electronic devices. The use of electronic devices is increasing in developed as well as developing regions, such as North America and the Asia Pacific.

Read more: Sustainable Solution to Replace Etching Processes

Epoxy is estimated to be the largest resin type segment of the electronic adhesives market. Epoxy resin in electronic adhesives held the largest market share in 2021 in terms of value. The most frequently used resin type for electronic applications is epoxy, either two-part or single-part heat cure products. Occasionally snap-cure epoxies, which cure at a lower temperature than regular single-part epoxies, are used, says a press release.

These adhesives can be used, among others, for bonding components, potting, and encapsulation. Potting compounds are intended to provide a high level of the guard to PCBs and electronic devices by surrounding them in a thick, durable polymer. Epoxy is used when extreme operating conditions require optimum protection.

The Asia Pacific is forecasted to be the fastest-growing electronic adhesives market during the forecast period. It is the largest market for electronic adhesives, and this dominance is expected to continue during the forecast period. High economic growth rate, growing manufacturing industries, cheap labor, increasing electronic adhesives patents, and global shift of consumption and production capacity from the developed markets to the emerging markets in the region are the factors leading to the growth of the electronic adhesives market in the Asia Pacific.

The region's market is driven by high economic growth and heavy automotive, industrial, and medical investments. Its growing middle-class population plays an important role in driving various industries, which has led to industrialization in the region.

Tasso, the leading provider of convenient, clinical-grade blood collection solutions, announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared its Tasso+™ lancet as a Class II medical device. The clearance allows the company to market and sell the device to more pharmaceutical companies, healthcare organizations, as well as academic institutions across the country, expanding access to a simple and virtually painless blood collection experience.

Read more: Abbott Wins FDA Breakthrough Device Designation

The Tasso+ device is the first single-use, patient-centric blood collection product to receive Class II clearance from the FDA as part of the new reclassification process for lancets, which are intended to puncture the skin to obtain drops of capillary blood samples. This action is part of the FDA’s ongoing effort to ensure the safe and effective use of blood lancets in the home and health care settings. With this clearance, more pharmaceutical companies will be able to accelerate their decentralized clinical trials, especially for pharmacokinetic and biomarker research endpoints. Healthcare systems and physicians will also be able to use the Tasso+ device with compatible collection tubes to make determinations on blood chemistries for their patients and expand care access. Tasso+ device-based solutions with Class II clearance will be widely available to customers across the USA in Q4 2022, reports BusinessWire.

“With continued industry interest in decentralized clinical trials and diverse testing applications, demand for our high-quality, virtually painless, convenient blood collection solutions is at an all-time high,” said Ben Casavant, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Tasso. “This FDA Class II medical device clearance will help improve patient care by relieving traditional phlebotomy-related bottlenecks and enabling more individuals to get the tests they need at the time they are needed. We are excited to unlock a new wave of large commercial opportunities for the company and to lead the industry into the future of remote testing.”

About Tasso

Tasso is an emerging healthcare technology company that is transforming the traditional blood collection paradigm with a patient-centric approach. The company’s devices enable simple, convenient, and virtually painless blood collection for users. Tasso technology has the power to bring healthcare anywhere, any time. Headquartered in Seattle, Washington, Tasso is privately held and funded by federal grants, venture investments, and co-development agreements with industry leaders.

Alphabet's life science offshoot Verily announced it had raised $1 billion in an investment round led by its parent company alongside a shakeup of its executive team.

The new capital will be used to support a variety of the company’s core initiatives focused on real-world evidence generation, healthcare data platforms, research and care, and the underlying technology that drives this work, which all share the goal of making healthcare better and more tailored to individuals. The company will also consider further investment in strategic partnerships, global business development, and potential acquisitions.

Read more: Verily and iRhythm Deliver AFib Detecting Zio Watch

As the company enters its next phase of growth, company founder Andy Conrad will become Executive Chairman of the Verily Board and current president Stephen Gillett will be promoted to Chief Executive Officer, with both changes effective January 2023. These new roles are the result of thoughtful succession planning led by Conrad and the board and in recognition of the skills and experience required to lead Verily as it becomes a more operationally and commercially focused company executing its precision health strategy, Verily states in a press release.

Gillett joined Verily from Google in 2020 as an operational advisor to the company and to lead Verily’s effort to establish a Cybersecurity Center of Excellence. In November of that year, he was named Chief Operating Officer. Before joining Verily, Gillett was co-founder and CEO of Chronicle, an Alphabet cybersecurity company that is now part of Google Cloud. He continues to be an active advisor to GV and X. Prior to Alphabet, Gillett held a number of executive roles at companies in a variety of industry sectors including Best Buy, Starbucks, and Symantec.

Separately, Deepak Ahuja, CFO, has decided to leave Verily for another opportunity. He will remain an advisor to Verily but depart his current role at the end of September. Verily will begin a search for his replacement immediately.

About Verily

Verily is a subsidiary of Alphabet that is using a data-driven, people-first approach to change the way people manage their health and the way healthcare is delivered. Launched from X in 2015, Verily’s purpose is to bring the promise of precision health to everyone, every day. Verily is focused on generating and activating data from a wide variety of sources, including clinical, social, behavioral and the real world, to arrive at the best solutions for a person based on a comprehensive view of the evidence. Verily uses its recognized expertise and capabilities in technology, data science, and healthcare to enable the entire healthcare ecosystem to drive better health outcomes.

The next generation of robotic technology will produce soft machines and robots that are safe and comfortable for direct physical interaction with humans and for use in fragile environments. Unlike rigid electronics, soft and stretchable electronics can be used to create wearable technologies and implantable electronics where safe physical contact with biological tissue and other delicate materials is essential.

Soft robots that safely handle delicate fruits and vegetables can improve food safety by preventing cross-contamination. Robots made from soft materials can brave the unexplored depths of the sea to collect delicate marine specimens. And the many biomedical applications for soft robots include wearable and assistive devices, prostheses, soft tools for surgery, drug delivery devices, and artificial organ function, reports Carnegie Mellon University.

But creating these nearly imperceptible components that can seamlessly integrate with human life is only the first step. Mainstream adoption and commercialization of soft and stretchable electronics will require the development of new manufacturing techniques that are scalable and reproducible. Although a variety of methods have already demonstrated the ability to fabricate liquid-metal-based devices on a smaller scale in labs, these methods have not yet resulted in the critical combination of desired features required to produce liquid-metal-based soft and stretchable electronics at a commercially viable scale.

A team of researchers from Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Engineering seeks to change this with a novel method they have developed for mass manufacturing of liquid-metal-based soft and stretchable electronic devices. Their work was recently published in Advanced Materials Technologies.

Kadri Bugra Ozutemiz, who recently earned his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering, has developed a new approach that achieves scalability, precision, and microelectronic compatibility by combining the use of liquid metal with photolithography and wafer-based dip coating. Ozutemiz, who worked with Carmel Majidi and Burak Ozdoganlar, both professors of mechanical engineering, explains that liquid metals have become popular in recent years as a conductor for stretchable circuits to create sensors and antennas as well as soft and stretchable wiring for various electronics and robotics applications.

The gallium-based alloy, eutectic gallium–indium (EGaIn), is liquid at room temperature, can freely flow inside channels, has high electrical conductivity, and can be deformed as long as it is encapsulated in another medium.

Read more: Soft Semiconductors that Stretch Like Human Skin Can Detect Ultra-low Light Levels

“We had to better understand the inherent properties of gallium-based liquid alloys to overcome challenges that make them unsuitable for mass manufacturing,” said Ozutemiz. The most significant challenge was that a thin gallium-oxide “skin” rapidly forms when the liquid metal is exposed to air, which makes it difficult to achieve a uniform and continuous shape or geometry. The liquid metal sticks everywhere, flowing into a wide variety of changeable shapes.

“Our team devised a novel approach that combines selective metal-alloy wetting that deposits the liquid metal into the desired circuit layout with a dip coating process that dissolves the oxide skin that results when EGaln is exposed to the air,” explained Ozutemiz.

Thin metal traces, made of affordable and readily available copper, are first lithographically patterned onto an elastomer surface as a wetting layer. The traces serve as templates for selectively depositing the EGaln onto the silicone rubber surface. In order to dissolve the oxide skin while maintaining the selective deposition of the liquid metal, the researchers devised a novel approach that combined the selective metal alloy wetting with a dip coating process.

Dip-coating, which has been used in the microelectronics industry, but not with liquid metals, facilitates the deposition of EGaIn selectively onto the circuit layout defined by lithographically patterned copper traces on elastomer-coated wafers in a scalable manner.

An automated, high-precision motion system and a two-layer dipping bath are used to deposit the EGaIn onto the patterned copper wetting layer. The bath includes a thin layer of aqueous sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution at the top surface, followed by the EGaIn. The NaOH solution facilitates the removal of oxide skin and of any oxidation on the surface of the copper traces when the patterned wafer is dipped into the bath. The wafer is then immersed in the bath, and after a short dwell time, is withdrawn at a prescribed speed that controls the amount of liquid deposited on the substrate.

The researchers used a custom-built simple machine to dip the wafers into the bath. By controlling the withdrawal speed, they successfully produced repeatable liquid metal geometries.

In future testing, they will work to control parameters such as withdrawal speed and the amount of time the wafer remains in the bath in order to better understand what effect each variable has on the resulting geometry. But for now, they have established a viable process for the mass production of liquid metal circuits that can be used in a wide variety of soft robotic and electronics applications.

“For us, what was most important was that we achieve repeatable results with a standard process that is already used by chip manufacturers,” said Ozutemiz, who explained that by introducing new material into a well-established process, manufacturers will be able to scale production that will allow for more widespread adoption of these innovative soft robots and electronic devices.

Lenovo announced the new Lenovo Glasses T1 wearable private display for on-the-go content consumption. Compatible with many of today’s modern smartphones, tablets, and laptops with full-function USB-C, the Lenovo Glasses T1 offers superb image quality, high-efficiency optics for extended battery life, and is lightweight so users can explore and enjoy content well beyond the limited screen size of mobile devices.

With mobile devices growing in computing power, mobile gamers, road warriors, and just about everyone else will benefit from the power of carrying a personal monitor in their pocket. The trend is clear, mobile device users want to be able to play more games and stream more videos. The global market for mobile gaming is projected to reach US$153 billion by 2027, growing at an annual growth rate of 11.5%, while the market for video streaming is forecasted to reach US$972 billion by 2030, growing 18.1% on average annually.

These glasses are not just about fun and games. As hybrid work has become the new norm, professionals are looking to get more done on their mobile devices, but working on private business-critical documents on a PC in public spaces creates risk. Using the Lenovo Glasses T1, workers have a private workspace to prevent shoulder surfing, reports Lenovo.

The Lenovo Glasses T1 is ready to meet the demands of many different users. In addition to most full-function USB-C-equipped Windows, Android, and MacOS devices, the glasses can also connect with Lightning Connector-equipped iOS devices via an optional adapter. To maximize comfort for extended use, the Lenovo Glasses T1 is equipped with swappable nose clips, adjustable temple arms and supports custom prescription lenses via an in-box attachable frame.

Superb image quality is achieved with leading-edge micro-OLED display technology, delivering incredible color richness and a super-high contrast ratio of 10,000:1. With high optical efficiency and low overall power consumption, the Lenovo Glasses T1 can stream videos or play games from tethered mobile devices for up to hours without worrying about draining the batteries of the connected devices.

Read more: Google Shows Off AR Glasses With Translation In Real Time

“Every day, people all over the world are increasingly shifting to mobile devices for entertainment and productivity,” said Eric Yu, Senior Vice President of Commercial Product Center and SMB Segment, Intelligent Devices Group, Lenovo. “Screen real estate can be a big bottleneck in the user experience. With a solution like the Lenovo Glasses T1, users have a portable and private big screen experience and can get more value from their phones and laptops.”

The Lenovo portfolio of solutions for consumers and workers offers better experiences through complementary technologies. Users of Motorola smartphones can leverage Ready For to amplify their gaming and entertainment experience with the Lenovo Glasses T1. Ready For unleashes the full power of smartphones making it easier to connect to portable monitors, keyboards, and other devices for an immersive, one-of-a-kind experience.

Pricing and Availability

The Lenovo Glasses T1 (known as Lenovo Yoga Glasses in China) will go on sale in China in late 2022 and be available in other select markets in 2023. The price for the wearable display solution will be announced upon availability.

Key Specs:

Lenovo Glasses T1

Display: Micro OLED

Resolution: 1920 X 1080 per eye

Frame rate: 60Hz

Audio: High-fidelity built-in speakers

Certifications: TUV Low Blue Light, TUV Flicker Reduced

Device Compatibility: Android (Requires Full-functional USB-C only); Windows; iOS with Lightning connector (Requires HDMI to Glasses Adapter, Apple Lightning Digital AV Adapter).

About Lenovo

Lenovo is a US$70 billion revenue global technology powerhouse, ranked #171 in the Fortune Global 500, employing 75,000 people around the world, and serving millions of customers every day in 180 markets. Focused on a bold vision to deliver smarter technology for all, Lenovo has built on its success as the world’s leading PC player by expanding into new growth areas of infrastructure, mobile, solutions, and services. This transformation together with Lenovo’s world-changing innovation is building a more inclusive, trustworthy, and sustainable digital society for everyone, everywhere.

Scientists have created a ‘digital mask that will allow facial images to be stored in medical records while preventing potentially sensitive personal biometric information from being extracted and shared. In a research published in Nature Medicine in September, a team led by scientists from Cambridge and China used three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction and deep learning algorithms to erase identifiable features from facial images while retaining disease-relevant features needed for diagnosis.

Facial images can be useful for identifying signs of disease. For example, features such as deep forehead wrinkles and wrinkles around the eyes are significantly associated with coronary heart disease, while abnormal changes in eye movement can indicate poor visual function and visual cognitive developmental problems. However, facial images also inevitably record other biometric information about the patient, including their race, sex, age, and mood.

With the increasing digitalization of medical records comes the risk of data breaches. While most patient data can be anonymized, facial data is more difficult to anonymize while retaining essential information. Common methods, including blurring and cropping identifiable areas, may lose important disease-relevant information, yet even so cannot fully evade face recognition systems, reports the University of Cambridge. Due to privacy concerns, people often hesitate to share their medical data for public medical research or electronic health records, hindering the development of digital medical care.

“During the COVID-19 pandemic, we had to turn to consultations over the phone or by video link rather than in person. Remote healthcare for eye diseases requires patients to share a large amount of digital facial information. Patients want to know that their potentially sensitive information is secure and that their privacy is protected,” said Professor Haotian Lin, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.

Professor Lin and colleagues developed a digital mask, which inputs an original video of a patient’s face and outputs a video based on the use of a deep learning algorithm and 3D reconstruction while discarding as much of the patient’s personal biometric information as possible – and from which it was not possible to identify the individual.

Deep learning extracts features from different facial parts, while 3D reconstruction automatically digitizes the shapes and movement of 3D faces, eyelids, and eyeballs based on the extracted facial features. Converting the digital mask videos back to the original videos is extremely difficult because most of the necessary information is no longer retained in the mask. Next, the researchers tested how useful the masks were in clinical practice and found that diagnosis using the digital masks was consistent with that carried out using the original videos. This suggests that the reconstruction was precise enough for use in clinical practice.

Read more: This Wearable Face Mask Diagnoses COVID-19 And Alerts The Wearer

Compared to the traditional method used to "de-identify" patients – cropping the image – the risk of being identified was significantly lower in the digitally-masked patients. The researchers tested this by showing 12 ophthalmologists digitally masked or cropped images and asking them to identify the original from five other images. They correctly identified the original from the digitally-masked image in just over a quarter(27%) of cases; for the cropped figure, they were able to do so in the overwhelming majority of cases (91%). This is likely to be an overestimation, however: in real situations, one would likely have to identify the original image from a much larger set.

The team surveyed randomly selected patients attending clinics to test their attitudes towards digital masks. Over 80% of patients believed the digital mask would alleviate their privacy concerns and they expressed an increased willingness to share their personal information if such a measure was implemented. Finally, the team confirmed that the digital masks can also evade artificial intelligence-powered facial recognition algorithms.

Professor Patrick Yu-Wai-Man from the University of Cambridge said: “Digital masking offers a pragmatic approach to safeguarding patient privacy while still allowing the information to be useful to clinicians. At the moment, the only options available are crude, but our digital mask is a much more sophisticated tool for anonymizing facial images. "This could make telemedicine – phone and video consultations – much more feasible, making healthcare delivery more efficient. If telemedicine is to be widely adopted, then we need to overcome the barriers and concerns related to privacy protection. Our digital mask is an important step in this direction.”

The research was a collaboration led by scientists from the Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center, Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou; Tsinghua University in Beijing, China; and the University of Cambridge.

Tinnitus sufferers can regain their sense of silence with the use of ForgTin®. The annoying ear noises can be diminished—or even eliminated—by applying gentle pressure stimulation to specific locations around the ear.

The symptom of tinnitus is the sense of sound when there are no external stimuli. Millions of people experience tinnitus on a regular basis; epidemiologic studies have revealed that its prevalence ranges from 8% to 25.3% of the US population. ForgTin® by Pansatori effectively lowers tinnitus. Light pressure stimulation can lessen bothersome ringing in the ears.

What we especially like about ForgTin® is that their product is backed up by science!

A study showed that within six weeks,

• A decrease in the volume of the subjectively felt tinnitus was observed in roughly 39% of all ForgTin® users.
• Approximately 41% of all ForgTin® users reported less jaw tension.
• It resulted in a decrease in neck stress in 39% of people.
• In addition, 40% of ForgTin® users showed a significant decrease in their individual felt stress levels.

You would like to learn more about ForgTin®? Do not miss the chance to meet them at the WT Pavilion at MEDICA 2022 from the 14-17^th of November!

BIOTRONIK announced today its partnership with AliveCor, a leading innovator in FDA-cleared personal electrocardiogram(ECG) technology and services. This partnership will combine the strengths of BIOTRONIK's BIOMONITOR Injectable Cardiac Monitor (designed with industry-leading 95.1% p-wave visibility1 across all cardiac cycles and 5.5-year longevity) with AliveCor's AI-enabled, clinically validated, medical-grade KardiaMobile 6L and KardiaMobile Card ECG technology. Through this pilot collaboration, healthcare providers will be able to access clinically relevant heart rhythm analyses and actionable reports to monitor at-risk patients; identify underlying arrhythmias, including atrial fibrillation (AF); and assessments to drive improvements in patient care and clinical outcomes.

Read more: New, smart, dissolving, and communicating pacemaker

Up to 25% of stroke patients present with AF2, the most common type of treated cardiac arrhythmia. Historically, screening options for early AF detection have been limited. Pairing AliveCor's KardiaMobile ECGs with BIOTRONIK's implantable device data strives to streamline workflow by providing comprehensive visibility within a single solution.

Until now, remote personal monitoring data and implantable device data have rarely been integrated, making it difficult for healthcare providers to access the full range of patient data. "Our FDA-cleared ECG technology paired with BIOTRONIK's implantable devices for cardiac rhythm diagnostics will allow a holistic view of the patient's heart health on the go while providing critical insights for physicians," said Vincent Balsamo, Executive Vice President of Global Sales at AliveCor, as a press release states.

"Connecting wearable and implantable cardiac diagnostic device data from the earliest stages in the care continuum is groundbreaking," said Kenneth Nelson, Head of Digital Health and Diagnostics at BIOTRONIK. "This pilot project intends to give physicians and caregivers a more longitudinal view of the patient's condition while simultaneously reducing the overall time spent on data management. We are proud to be on the frontier driving novel innovation."

This partnership aims to enable faster diagnosis, more informed clinical decision-making, and effective treatment by bringing complete information to every step in the diagnosis, device implant, and management process. Providing connected solutions with EHR-integrated monitoring may facilitate seamless sharing of secure ECG data to optimize physicians' workflow. "BIOTRONIK is pioneering a digital health ecosystem that is long overdue in the cardiac device industry," said Raul Weiss, MD, FHRS, FACC, Professor of Clinical Medicine, Cardiologist, Director, Electrophysiology Fellowship Program, Ohio State University Medical Center.

This pilot collaboration is the first in a series of partnerships with leading digital health organizations to improve the delivery of connected care in cardiac diagnostics and remote patient monitoring.

About BIOTRONIK

BIOTRONIK is a leading medical device company that has developed trusted and innovative cardiovascular and endovascular solutions for more than 50 years. Driven by a purpose to perfectly match technology with the human body, BIOTRONIK innovations deliver care that saves and improves the lives of millions diagnosed with heart and blood vessel diseases every year. BIOTRONIK is headquartered in Berlin, Germany, and is represented in over 100 countries.

About AliveCor

AliveCor, Inc. is transforming cardiological care using deep learning. The FDA-cleared KardiaMobile device is the most clinically-validated personal ECG solution in the world. KardiaMobile 6L provides instant detection of Atrial Fibrillation, Bradycardia, Tachycardia, Sinus Rhythm with Supraventricular Ectopy, Sinus Rhythm with Premature Ventricular Contractions, Sinus Rhythm with Wide QRS, and Normal Sinus Rhythm in an ECG. Kardia is the first AI-enabled platform to aid patients and clinicians in the efficient detection of atrial fibrillation, the most common arrhythmia and one associated with a highly-elevated risk of stroke. AliveCor's enterprise platform allows third-party providers to manage their patients and customers' heart conditions simply using state-of-the-art tools that provide easy front-end and back-end integration to AliveCor technologies.

Artificial Intelligence may soon help doctors diagnose and treat diseases, including cancer and depression, based on the sound of a patient’s voice, as 12 leading research institutions launch a landmark National Institutes of Health-funded academic project that may establish voice as a biomarker used in clinical care.

The University of South Florida in Tampa, FL, is the lead institution on the project in collaboration with Weill CornellMedicine in New York City, 10 other institutions in the United States and Canada, and French-American AI biotech startup Owkin. The first year of the project includes $3.8 million from the NIH, with subsequent funding over the following three years contingent upon annual NIH appropriations by Congress that could bring the overall award to $14 million, reports Owkin.

Called Voice as a Biomarker of Health, the project is one of several recently funded by the NIH Common Fund’s Bridge2AI program, which is designed to use AI to tackle complex biomedical challenges. The voice project will aim to build an ethically sourced database of diverse human voices while protecting patient privacy. Using this data, machine learning models will be trained to spot diseases by detecting changes in the human voice, which could empower doctors with a low-cost diagnostic tool to be used alongside other clinical methods.

Based on the existing literature and ongoing research, the research team has identified five disease cohort categories for which voice changes have been associated with specific diseases with well-recognized unmet needs. Data collected for this project will center on the following disease categories:

• Voice disorders: (laryngeal cancers, vocal fold paralysis, benign laryngeal lesions)
• Neurological and neurodegenerative disorders (Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, stroke, ALS)
• Mood and psychiatric disorders(depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorders)
• Respiratory disorders(pneumonia, COPD)
• Pediatric voice and speech disorders (speech and language delays, autism)

Although preliminary work with voice data has been promising, limitations to integrating voice as a biomarker in clinical practice have been linked to small datasets, ethical concerns around data ownership and privacy, bias, and lack of diversity of the data. To solve these, the Voice as a Biomarker of Health project is creating a large, high-quality, multi-institutional, and diverse voice database that is linked to identity-protected/unidentifiable biomarkers from other data, such as demographics, medical imaging, and genomics. Federated learning technology – a novel AI framework that allows machine learning models to be trained on data without the data ever leaving its source – will be deployed across multiple research centers by Owkin to demonstrate that cross-center AI research can be conducted while preserving privacy and security of sensitive voice data.

Supported by AI experts, bioethicists, and social scientists, the project aims to transform our fundamental understanding of diseases and introduce a revolutionary new method of diagnosing and treating diseases in clinical settings. As the human voice is low-cost, easy to store, and readily available, diagnosing diseases through the voice using AI could prove a transformative step in precision medicine and accessibility.

Read more: Partnership to Integrate Voice Biomarker for Mental Health

“Voice has the potential to be a biomarker for several health conditions. Creating an effective framework that incorporates huge datasets using the best of today’s technology in a collaborative manner will revolutionize the way that voice is used as a tool for helping clinicians diagnose diseases and disorders,” said Dr. Bensoussan, assistant professor in the Department of Otolaryngology and director of USF Health Voice Center at the USF Health Morsani College ofMedicine.

Dr. Elemento, director of the EnglanderInstitute for Precision Medicine and a professor of physiology and biophysics at Weill Cornell Medicine, said that:

The potential for using voice and sounds together with advanced AI algorithms to accurately diagnose certain diseases is incredible. Our future findings could lead to a revolution in health care where continuous voice monitoring could alert physicians earlier than currently possible to certain conditions, such as infections or neurological diseases.

Thomas Clozel MD, co-founder and CEO ofOwkin, said that:

By using AI to analyze minute changes in the human voice, we aim to help doctors to diagnose and treat diseases ranging from cancer to depression. Vocal biomarkers are set to play an increasingly important role in healthcare. We are excited to be using federated learning, our privacy-preserving AI framework, to connect the medical world together in the pursuit of improving outcomes for patients.

About Owkin

Owkin is a French-American startup that uses artificial intelligence to find the right treatment for every patient. Our focus is to use AI to discover and develop better treatments for unmet medical needs, starting with the fight against cancer. We use AI to identify new drug candidates, de-risk and accelerate clinical trials and build diagnostic tools that improve patient outcomes. Using federated learning, a pioneering collaborative AI framework, Owkin enables medical and biopharma partners to unlock valuable insights from siloed datasets while protecting patient privacy and securing proprietary data. Owkin was co-founded by Thomas Clozel MD, a former assistant professor in clinical onco-hematology, and Gilles Wainrib, a pioneer in the field of machine learning in biology, in 2016. Owkin has raised over $300 million and became a unicorn through a $180 million investment from biopharma company Sanofi in November 2021.

Bose Corporation and Lexie Hearing, a direct-to-consumer hearing aid provider in the United States, announced a partnership to bring Bose’s self-fitting hearing aid technology to the Lexie Hearing product line. The new Lexie B1 Hearing Aids will be Powered by Bose, allowing wearers to fit, program, and control their hearing aids with clinically proven, audiologist-quality results — without a doctor visit, hearing test, or prescription.

“We selected Lexie Hearing as our partner to continue to deliver our industry-redefining technology because of our shared mission to make hearing aids more accessible and affordable. Their understanding of the complex, regulated hearing aid market, and ability to reach more of the millions of people who suffer from hearing loss today was also critical to our decision,” said Nick Smith, senior vice president of Bose strategy and business development. “Bose remains committed to developing technologies and innovative experiences that improve how people hear the world around them.”

Read more: Audibel Launches AI-Enabled Hearing Aids

“This partnership with Bose represents an exciting evolution for Lexie Hearing and its commitment to making hearing healthcare accessible to everyone, everywhere,” said Nic Klopper, founder and CEO of Lexie Hearing and hearX Group. “The Lexie B1 Hearing Aids Powered byBose are one of the most revolutionary devices of its kind, marrying convenience and customer service with Bose’s groundbreaking self-fitting technology and customization. By offering top-quality products like these, especially as the FDA prepares to permit the sale of over-the-counter hearing aids this year, we will give more people control of their hearing.”

With this new partnership, BoseSoundControl™ Hearing Aids will no longer be manufactured or sold. Bose will continue to support customers who have previously purchased the product. The Lexie B1 Hearing Aids Powered by Bose will cost $899 — a fraction of the price of most traditional hearing aids — and will be available at lexiehearing.com starting today, reports BusinessWire.

About Bose Corporation

Bose Corporation was founded in 1964 by Dr.Amar G. Bose, then a professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Today, the company is driven by its founding principles, investing in long-term research to develop new technologies with real customer benefits. Bose innovations have spanned decades and industries, creating and transforming categories in audio and beyond. Bose products for the home, in the car, on the go, and in public spaces have become iconic, changing the way people listen to music.

About Lexie Hearing

Lexie Hearing, developed by hearX Group, is an innovative game-changer in the U.S. hearing aid market, on a mission to make better hearing affordable and accessible to everyone. The team at Lexie is passionately committed to helping people enjoy healthy hearing without having to spend thousands of dollars, recognizing that too many people do not wear hearing aids because they are so expensive. Lexie brings a great experience to customers with high-quality hearing aids, world-class customer support, and smart technology that gives customers control of their hearing experience.

Insulet Corporation, the global leader in tubeless insulin pump technology with its Omnipod® brand of products, announced its Omnipod 5 Automated Insulin Delivery System is now fully available through U.S. retail pharmacy channels for individuals aged six years and older with type 1 diabetes.

“With the significant demand for our tubeless AID system and impressive clinical outcomes, we continue to expand access to Omnipod 5 and provide a best-in-class experience to more people with type 1 diabetes,” said Bret Christensen, Insulet Chief Commercial Officer. “Through our team’s learnings from the limited market release, we have met our timeframe and goals. We are thrilled to announce that Omnipod 5 is now fully available through retail, specialty, and mail-order pharmacies to anyone with a prescription and coverage.”

Omnipod 5 is the first tubeless AID system in the U.S. that integrates with the Dexcom G6 CGM system to help protect against high and low glucose levels 1. It is also the only tubeless AID that offers the option of using a compatible smartphone or the separate Omnipod 5 Controller, which is provided to every customer. Insulet is continuing to expand its list of compatible smartphones to make this option available to as many people as possible who are living with diabetes, reports BusinessWire.

“Omnipod 5 has been such a life-changing technology. My patients and I have seen significant improvement of their time in range with no overnight lows and much less work required,” said Dr. Anita Swamy, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine; Associate Clinician, Pediatric Endocrinology, Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago; Medical Director, Chicago Children’s Diabetes Center. “It has given parents and other caregivers more peace of mind, especially overnight, and that’s priceless. People no longer have to make trade-offs between outcomes and a better lifestyle fit because it’s a tubeless AID.” She continued, “Many have told me that they have been extremely happy with Omnipod 5 and are feeling a new sense of freedom. I can see why there has been tremendous demand for this product!”

Marston Alfred, who made the switch to Omnipod 5 from multiple daily injections, said, “Having been on insulin pens for decades, I’ve had to deal with the roller coaster of blood sugar levels. Since starting Omnipod 5 as my first insulin pump, my glucose spikes have disappeared and it’s the first time in my life I’ve had weeks of consistent 80%+ time in range.”

Read more: Dexcom G6 CGM Gets Coverage in Alberta for Children and Youth Living With Diabetes

Alfred said he can’t remember the last time he had low blood sugar, and that his energy and focus have also significantly improved. “It has changed my life,” said Alfred.

Omnipod 5 and Omnipod DASH® are the only insulin pumps available through the pharmacy channel, which eliminates the high upfront cost and four-year lock-in period that is typical with the traditional Durable Medical Equipment (DME) channel, making it simpler for people with type 1 diabetes to access.

To expand awareness of Omnipod 5 as the first tubeless AID system in the U.S., Insulet has launched new direct-to-consumer TV advertising, in addition to its ongoing digital and social campaigns.

About Insulet Corporation

Insulet Corporation (NASDAQ: PODD), headquartered in Massachusetts, is an innovative medical device company dedicated to simplifying life for people with diabetes and other conditions through its Omnipod product platform. The Omnipod Insulin Management System provides a unique alternative to traditional insulin delivery methods. With its simple, wearable design, the disposable Pod provides up to three days of non-stop insulin delivery, without the need to see or handle a needle.

Biofourmis, a Boston-based global leader in virtual care and digital medicine, today announced that Intel Capital, the strategic investment arm of chipmaker Intel Corporation, has joined its Series D financing in an extension that brings the total funding raised in the round to $320M. The initial Series D funding round was announced in April and was led by global growth equity firm General Atlantic with participation by CVS Health, Trevor Fetter, and existing investors.

Biofourmis announced earlier that it is using the funds from the Series D round to scale up its virtual care offerings that drive high-quality care-at-home across the continuum as well as digital medicine initiatives, including building digital companion therapeutics to augment existing and upcoming novel therapies.

Read more: Enara Health Raises $6M to Tackle the Obesity Epidemic

"Biofourmis is laser-focused on delivering real-time patient insight to clinicians to improve the home-based care experience," said Mark Rostick, Vice President and Senior Managing Director at Intel Capital. "Through edge computing and edge-to-cloud processing capabilities, Biofourmis is redefining the patient and provider journey leveraging advanced technology."

Biofourmis continues to buck health tech funding trends with this Series D extension, which comes during a downturn in digital health investment. According to a recent Rock Health report, the first half of 2022 saw 329 digital health funding deals totaling $10.3 billion—down from $14.7 billion raised in the first half of 2021 across 372 deals, states a press release.

"To receive this additional funding from the venture capital arm of a global technology giant during an unpredictable time in digital health investment is further validation of Biofourmis' market strength and potential and validates that we are distinguishing ourselves in the market," said Kuldeep Singh Rajput, founder and CEO of Biofourmis. "We are on a strong trajectory for continued strategic growth in the coming years in terms of customers, partners, and solution development."

Biofourmis also announced the appointment of two esteemed healthcare leaders to its Board: Trevor Fetter, MBA, senior lecturer on the faculty of Harvard Business School and former longtime Tenet Healthcare Chairman and CEO; and Sachin H. Jain, MD, MBA, president and CEO of SCAN Group and SCAN Health Plan.

About Biofourmis

Biofourmis, based in Boston, is a global leader in providing advanced technology and clinical support for Care@Home and digital therapies. They are driven by a passion to personalize care and predict clinical worsening before it happens. The clinically validated platform, powered by machine learning and advanced analytics, enables better healthcare, maximizes the effectiveness of high-value drugs, and lowers costs across the entire care continuum.

ABBOTT announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Device Designation to investigate the use of its deep brain stimulation (DBS) system in treatment-resistant depression (TRD), a form of major depressive disorder (MDD). Breakthrough Device Designation expedites the review of innovative technologies that can improve the lives of people with life-threatening or irreversibly debilitating diseases or conditions.

Abbott's DBS system is a personalized, adjustable therapy that involves implanting thin wires – or leads – into targeted areas of the brain. A pulse generator implanted under the skin in the chest is connected to the leads and produces electrical impulses that can modulate abnormal brain activity. While Abbott's DBS system has traditionally been used to help control symptoms for people with movement disorders, such as Parkinson's disease and essential tremor, evidence suggests that implanting electrodes in the part of the brain that regulates mood could help reduce symptoms of TRD. Abbott is working with the FDA to develop a plan for evaluating the device's safety and effectiveness for this purpose. One of the added benefits of certain Abbott DBS systems is that they can be used with NeuroSphere™ Virtual Clinic, a first-of-its-kind connected care technology that allows people to communicate with and receive care and therapy adjustments from their doctors remotely and from the comfort of their own home, states a press release.

For patients who suffer from TRD, a condition that costs the U.S. approximately $44 billion a year in healthcare, unemployment, and lost productivity, deep brain stimulation has the potential to offer meaningful improvement of depressive symptoms. Currently, physicians have access to a range of treatments for MDD, also called clinical depression, including antidepressant medications and device therapies. Despite this, up to a third of individuals diagnosed with MDD – approximately 2.8 million Americans each year – do not respond even after trying four different antidepressant regimen approaches1,2 resulting in TRD or difficult-to-treat depression. With each failed treatment, the chance of experiencing a decrease in symptoms drops. By the fourth failed treatment, as many as 83% of patients will relapse.

Read more: Abbott, CamDiab and Ypsomed Partner Up To Develop Automated Insulin Delivery

To qualify for a Breakthrough DeviceDesignation, a device technology must address an unmet need and show that it has the potential to provide for more effective treatment of life-threatening diseases or irreversibly debilitating conditions. The goal of the program is to provide patients and clinicians with timely access to these breakthrough treatments by accelerating their development, assessment, and review while maintaining regulatory standards for pre-market approval. With Breakthrough Device Designation, Abbott's DBS system could become available as a new treatment option sooner for people affected by TRD.

"Breakthrough product development always requires bold thinking and collaboration, and Abbott is fully committed to the journey of providing people with new therapeutic options for their treatment-resistant depression," said Pedro Malha, vice president of neuromodulation, Abbott.

Abbott DBS therapy for treatment-resistant depression is limited to investigational use only.

About Abbott

Abbott is a global healthcare leader that helps people live more fully at all stages of life. Their portfolio of life-changing technologies spans the spectrum of healthcare, with leading businesses and products in diagnostics, medical devices, nutritional, and branded generic medicines. Its 113,000 employees serve people in more than 160 countries.

Tandem's global revenues over those three months increased 16% over the same period last year, reaching a record high of a little over $200 million, but that wasn't enough to keep the diabetic technology developer on track for its 2022 objectives. The company said it will cut its full-year sales forecast to represent growth of between 19% and 20% over 2021, totaling between $835 million and $845 million, in an earnings report released Wednesday afternoon.

That represents a change in perspective from a quarter ago when Tandem adopted a far more upbeat stance by raising projections for the year's beginning. After a strong first quarter, it increased that projection to land between $850 million and $865 million, which would have represented an improvement of up to 23% over 2021's results. It started off 2022 with an eye toward total sales between $845 million and $860 million.

The San Diego-based device maker reported operating losses of over $12 million and a net loss of $15.1 million in addition to the lower-than-expected sales; these figures had been comfortably positive at this time the previous year, reports FierceBiotech. According to a copy of the call, CEO John Sheridan blamed the dip on three things: persistent "pandemic-related pressures," increasing domestic rivalry, and economic difficulties like inflation and the impending recession.

However, now that the second quarter's problems are firmly in the past, Tandem is once again upbeat, with a promising prognosis for sales of both current and emerging technology.

The Mobi insulin pump is the most prominent member of the latter group. It is roughly half as big as Tandem's top-of-the-line t:slim pump and can be entirely operated by a user's smartphone. Additionally, Sheridan stated on the call that it will be “the first novel form factor launched in our space since we introduced t:slim a decade ago,”

“We are in the final stages of testing, as well as drafting the submission, and intend to submit a 510(k) to the FDA this quarter,” the CEO said. Furthermore, he said Tandem is already making plans for the miniature pump's commercial debut after receiving FDA certification, which it hopes to do in the first half of 2023.

Read more: MFineApp Allows To Monitor Blood Pressure and Glucose

Sheridan stated that in the interim, Tandem is also closely collaborating with partners Dexcom and Abbott to integrate its insulin pumps with their most recent CGMs: Abbott's FreeStyle Libre 3, which was recently approved by the FDA, and Dexcom's G7 device, whose own FDA review is still in progress following a request for more information from the agency.

Tandem has already had a hectic year. The company's t:connect mobile app, which can be downloaded to a user's smartphone and used to remotely schedule bolus doses through the company's t:slim X2 insulin pumps, received FDA authorization at the beginning of 2022. Just a month ago, Tandem added Capillary Biomedical, a producer of extended-wear infusion set technology based in the Los Angeles region, to its portfolio. The deal's financial details weren't made public.

First Relief, a PENS (percutaneous electrical neurostimulation) device, has been cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration for multiple treatments up to 56 days for symptomatic relief of chronic, intractable pain from diabetic peripheral neuropathy, Dyansys Inc. has announced.

The wearable device placed on the ear administers continuous pulses of a low-level electrical current over several days. With the FDA clearance of First Relief, this device can be used to treat pain related to diabetic neuropathy.

Read more: Rune Labs Secures FDA Clearance

The First Relief percutaneous neurostimulation device can be used to treat pain related to diabetic neuropathy. It is applied behind the ear and delivers continuous pulses of a low-level electrical current over several days.

"We are excited to have the FDA clearance of First Relief so that this device, which has been proven effective, can now be used to treat patients who have been experiencing pain related to diabetic neuropathy," said DyAnsys CEO Srini Nageshwar. "First Relief offers a significant treatment option without drugs or narcotics."

According to a press release, the approval was based on a study that tested First Relief against a placebo and another device previously cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration. The study was conducted at the Jeevak Multispeciality Hospital in Warangal, India, renowned for the treatment of diabetes. The single-center, three-arm, randomized, controlled, parallel assignment, double-blinded, prospective study involved 63 patients aged 30 to 74.

The devices were applied on a bi-weekly basis for 16 weeks. The primary efficacy endpoint was pain intensity measured through the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) score and the secondary efficacy endpoints are vibration perception threshold (VPT) value, insomnia severity index (ISI), overall neuropathy limitations scale (ONLS), and Hamilton rating scale for anxiety.

The VAS pain score analysis showed a significant reduction in the pain score of patients being treated with First Relief from the start of the treatment to the end. This improvement persisted throughout the 90-day follow-up, suggesting that the treatment was a long-term improvement in neuropathic pain and not a short-term improvement. The secondary outcome measures (VPT, Insomnia, ONLS, and HAM) also showed similar improvements to the pain score, showing significant improvement in sleep and mood as the neuropathic pain decreased.

No complications or adverse events were observed in any of the subjects during the study period.

About DyAnsys

DyAnsys Inc. is a global company headquartered in California with subsidiaries in Switzerland and India. DyAnsys provides advanced medical diagnostic and monitoring systems to clinicians in individual practices and hospitals. DyAnsys, ANSiscope. First Relief, Primary Relief, and Drug Relief are registered trademarks, of DyAnsys, Inc.