AI Archives - Medical Design Sourcing

Decoding Bayer’s digital health leap and its implications on drug discovery and personalized medicine

The German multinational pharma and biotech colossus Bayer is taking further steps to ramp up its focus on digital health by launching a new business unit. In 2022, Bayer invested $9.5 million in Woebot Health, an AI-powered behavioral health platform company. In 2020, it launched a venture known as G4A Digital Health Partnership Program to drive digital collaboration in cardiometabolic and renal disease, oncology and women’s health.

This new unit, the Bayer Precision Health group, plans to focus on identifying digital and digital-supported consumer healthcare opportunities. The group seeks to create new precision health products based on real-world evidence and digital technologies.

Bayer’s new digital health unit has a priority mission. It seeks to cultivate pioneering digital technologies. The goal? Empower individuals to make more informed health choices. It aims to accomplish that objective by uncovering novel delivery mechanisms, as our sister…

Science unbound: AI and open data accelerate the pace of discovery

[Tartila/Adobe Stock]

Scientists have long been perceived and portrayed in film as old people in white lab coats perched at a bench full of bubbling fluorescent liquids. The present-day reality of scientific research is quite different from old stereotypes, with AI-driven scientific breakthroughs emerging as a major driving force behind new discoveries. Scientists are increasingly data jockeys in hoodies sitting before monitors analyzing enormous amounts of data. Modern day labs are more likely composed of sterile rows of robots doing the manual handling of materials, and lab notebooks are now electronic, in massive data centers holding vast quantities of information. Today, scientific input comes from data pulled from the cloud, with algorithms fueling scientific discovery the way bunsen burners once did.

Advances in technology and especially instrumentation, enable scientists to collect and process data at an …

Behind the scenes: Dr. Andy Beck, PathAI CEO, talks PathExplore

A selected region of a digitized H&E-stained slide [Image courtesy of PathAI]

In a recent conversation with Dr. Andy Beck, co-founder and CEO of PathAI, we had the opportunity to discuss PathExplore, an AI-driven platform that aims to transform the way tumor microenvironment (TME) analysis is conducted. Traditional methods such as manual pathology, multiplex immunofluorescence and single-cell omics often face limitations, including high costs or tissue consumption. PathExplore addresses these challenges by using AI to analyze digitized H&E slides, which are widely available and don’t necessitate advanced assays or equipment.

In the following interview, Dr. Beck highlights the advantages of PathExplore, such as its ability to bridge the gap between H&E and high-resolution modalities such as multiplex and single-cell RNA sequencing and its potential for rapidly scaling biomarkers. Additionally, t…

AI breakthroughs in medtech: 7 ways to enhance healthcare

[Image from Pixabay]

Whether it’s OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft’s new Bing or Google’s Bard, 2023 is the year when generative artificial intelligence entered the popular consciousness.

In the medtech space, it seems as though every company is seeking ways to incorporate some form of AI into the digital features of their products and services.

So what is artificial intelligence good at so far when it comes to advancing medtech and healthcare in general? Here are seven recent examples:

1. Helping physicians identify medical problems quickly

GI Genius’ AI-based enhancements place green boxes around areas that may need extra scrutiny during a colonoscopy, helping to prevent physicians from losing their focus. [Image courtesy of Medtronic]

Interest is growing in artificial intelligence that can help radiologists, gastroenterologists and othe…

AI is part of Augmedics’ Xvision Spine System expansion

The Xvision Spine System. [Image from Augmedics]Augmedics announced today that it launched new, FDA-cleared features and indications for its Xvision Spine System.

Updates to Xvision come just weeks after the company hit its 3,000-patient milestone for the system. It marks Xvision’s largest expansion since its commercial launch.

Chicago-based Augmedics said in a news release that the launch creates a technical foundation for future platform developments, too.

Augmedics added new features including artificial intelligence (AI)-based image enhancement functionalities. Xvision now also features new customizable views to expand its advanced visualization and customization capabilities.

The system now includes new cervical and iliosacral indications, joining existing thoracic, lumbar and sacral indications. This expands Xvision navigation to cover nearly the entire spine. Surgeons can now utilize the advantages of its navigation in posterior cervical…

Philips highlights how it is bringing AI to MR

The MR 7700 imaging system. [Image from Philips]Philips (NYSE:PHG) today announced a range of artificial intelligence (AI)-based offerings it plans to present at the European Congress of Radiology (ECR) 2023.

The Amsterdam-based medtech giant plans to showcase its MR5300 and MR 7700 offerings, as well as its Spectral CT 7500 and Incisive CT with CT Smart Workflow. It also intends to highlight its DXR Smart Workflow, Ultrasound Compact 5000, Ultimate Ultrasound for liver assessment and EPIQ Elite.

MR 5300, powered by AI, simplifies and automates complex clinical and operational tasks to boost MR productivity. It also speeds up exam time and enhances clinical decision-making.

The MR 7700 offers enhanced imaging and speed to support confident diagnosis. It features up to 35% shorter scan time with higher diffusion image quality for all anatomies. MR 7700 also allows radiologists to image six different clinically relevant nuclei across all anatomies.

Spe…

How Google and iCAD will partner to advance AI mammography

iCAD’s AI for digital breast tomosynthesis provides a case score for each detection. (Image courtesy of iCAD)

iCAD will help Google Health get its AI mammography technology into clinical practice, while Google will help iCAD improve its algorithms and reach more patients through the cloud.

Google and cancer detection developer iCAD are teaming up on the development and commercialization of artificial intelligence (AI) for detecting breast cancer.

It’s Google Health’s first partnership with a mammography AI provider. The development and commercialization agreement is Google Health’s first deal to introduce its breast imaging AI into clinical practice through iCAD’s portfolio of AI products.

RELATED: How the cloud tools behind Google Maps and Photos can advance medtech

Nashua, New Hampshire-based iCAD (Nasdaq:ICAD) is licensing Google’s AI technology for breas…

Avail Medsystems plans to roll out first third-party software integration

The Avail Medsystems console brings remote experts into the operating room virtually. [Photo courtesy of Avail Medsystems]

Avail Medsystems is testing a third-party software integration that it plans to launch in the coming months.

Avail executives said they hope it will be the first of many partnerships with medical technology developers of software or algorithms that could be useful in the operating room.

Avail CEO Daniel Hawkins expects to launch the software integration in the first quarter of 2023, he told Medical Design & Outsourcing after a panel discussion at DeviceTalks West in Santa Clara, California. He declined to name his company’s partner, but offered some details as the product goes through UI and customer experience testing.

“A remote user can pull up that software and optimize the workflow in a specialty category that really benefits from workflow enhancement,̶…

Avail Medsystems plans to roll out first third-party software integration

The Avail Medsystems console brings remote experts into the operating room virtually. [Photo courtesy of Avail Medsystems]

Avail Medsystems is testing a third-party software integration that it plans to launch in the coming months.

Avail executives said they hope it will be the first of many partnerships with medical technology developers of software or algorithms that could be useful in the operating room.

Avail CEO Daniel Hawkins expects to launch the software integration in the first quarter of 2023, he told Medical Design & Outsourcing after a panel discussion at DeviceTalks West in Santa Clara, California. He declined to name his company’s partner, but offered some details as the product goes through UI and customer experience testing.

“A remote user can pull up that software and optimize the workflow in a specialty category that really benefits from workflow enhancement,̶…

Can I get IP for my healthtech AI?

With healthtech AI investment booming, companies are seeking guidance on when and how to protect that work.

Andrew (A.J.) Tibbetts, Greenberg Traurig

(Image courtesy of the FDA)

Can you get intellectual property (IP) for artificial intelligence (AI)? Absolutely. Should you file a patent application? Maybe, but there are alternatives. Should you consider data options? Yes. Is there a standard strategy for AI? Not if you want to see value from your IP.

The healthtech industry is investing heavily in software engineering and data science as it increasingly develops decision support, medical telemetry, surgical navigation and countless other medical software applications. The software investments naturally raise questions on how best to protect against copycats. It is certainly wise to obtain IP for your AI and software, to protect market position or set partnership terms. But while protecting other tec…

Mayo Clinic develops AI childbirth risk prediction tool for women in labor

Dr. Abimbola Famuyide is a Mayo Clinic OB-GYN studying AI algorithms for childbirth. [Photo courtesy of Mayo Clinic]

Mayo Clinic researchers are using AI algorithms to calculate childbirth risk while women are in labor in an effort to reduce the rate of cesarean delivery and complications.

The machine learning algorithms — a type of device known as Software as a Medical Device (SaMD), where the software is the device rather than a mechanical device — analyze patterns of changes for women in labor.

ADVICE: How to pass the patent eligibility test for Software as a Medical Device

“This is the first step to using algorithms in providing powerful guidance to physicians and midwives as they make critical decisions during the labor process,” senior author Dr. Abimbola Famuyide said in a news release. “Once validated with further research, we believe the algorithm will work in real time,…

New semiconductor design boosts AI computing efficiency

The NeuRRAM chip [Photo by David Baillot for the University of California San Diego]

Medical devices could one day get a boost from a new energy-efficient semiconductor designed with AI computing in mind.

Stanford engineers have developed a new resistive random-access memory (RRAM) chip called NeuRRAM that does AI processing within the chip’s memory, saving the battery power traditionally spent moving data between the processor and storage.

“The data movement issue is similar to spending eight hours in commute for a two-hour workday,” Weier Wan, a recent graduate at Stanford leading this project, said in a news release. “With our chip, we are showing a technology to tackle this challenge.”

They say their compute-in-memory (CIM) chip is about the size of a fingertip and does more work with limited battery power than current chips. That makes the new chip a potential space-saver for medical de…