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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…

Contract manufacturer Minnetronix Medical launches its first in-house product, MindsEye

Minnetronix Medical’s MindsEye expandable port [Photo courtesy of Minnetronix Medical]

Minnetronix Medical has launched MindsEye, making it the first medical device that the contract developer and manufacturer has conceived and commercialized.

St. Paul-based Minnetronix Medical’s MindsEye is the first expandable brain access port on the market. The FDA cleared the device under the 510(k) pathway in August 2020.

The minimally invasive device gives neurosurgeons deep brain access and visualization as they treat strokes, cancer and other conditions. The device features a flexible sheath made of cyclic olefin copolymer (COC) and an aluminum obturator. MindsEye won the Minnesota Technology Association’s TEKNE award for best medical technology and device in 2021.

“Its benefits to neurosurgeons — such as expandability, easier insertion and removal, and transparency that minimizes glare …

GE Healthcare picks AI imaging startups for inaugural Edison Accelerator

GE Healthcare has selected seven companies to test their AI imaging technologies with GE’s Edison Digital Health Platform. [Image courtesy of GE Healthcare]

GE Healthcare and Nex Cubed have selected seven companies focused on artificial-intelligence-augmented medical imaging for the first cohort of the Edison Accelerator in Canada.

The companies will be matched with mentors and test their technologies with GE’s new Edison Digital Health Platform over the next three months. The program will end with innovation showcase presentations to potential investors and customers, and some startups could have their products distributed through the GE Healthcare Marketplace.

The cohort’s six startups are:

16 Bit, a physician-founded startup that uses routine chest, spine, pelvis, knee or hand x-rays with computer-aided detection and notification software for low bone mineral density prescreenin…

Blue Spark’s TempTraq catches fevers faster. Fever prediction is next.

Blue Spark’s TempTraq continuous temperature monitoring patch could one day be used for fever prediction. The patch is 100mm long, 50mm wide, 3mm thick and weighs 5.1 grams. [Photo courtesy of Blue Spark Technologies]

Blue Spark Technologies developed the first wireless continuous temperature monitor patch, TempTraq, to enable faster fever detection than standard manual readings every four hours.

Westlake, Ohio-based Blue Spark is now looking at fever prediction rather than just detecting them.

The R&D team is working on developing an AI neural network model built on the company’s collection of continuous temperature data captured in the cloud, CEO John Gannon said in an interview.

“Taking our existing data, training an AI model to be able to understand and learn what fever profiles and onsets of fevers look like, and then apply that to new patients … we are working tow…

How AI-based technologies improve clinical trial design, site selection and competitive intelligence

[Photo by Tara Winstead on Pexels]

Clinical trials form the cornerstone of evidence-based medicine and are essential to establishing the safety and efficacy of new drugs. However, only some of the information in clinical trial reports is well-structured and searchable via keywords; much of the information is buried in unstructured text.

In the past, uncovering actionable insights from this unstructured text meant that documents such as clinical trial reports had to be searched and read individually, a process that can be time-consuming and subject to human error. It is estimated that 80% of clinical data is unstructured and difficult to analyze.

To overcome these limitations, life sciences companies are using natural language processing (NLP), an artificial intelligence-based technology that extracts and synthesizes high-value information hidden in unstructured text. NLP-based text mining solutions can an…

Drug discovery isn’t rocket science. It’s harder.

Early in my career, my manager used the phrase in the above headline to highlight the difficulty inherent in drug discovery. Over the ensuing years, I have seen that statement repeatedly confirmed by the brutal attrition in the discovery and development of new drugs. There are so many variables that can kill a drug discovery project — ranging from target validation and hit generation to off-target effects and formulation challenges — and that’s before even entering the clinic, where a whole new set of attrition factors arise. The number of variables to be simultaneously optimized is immense. One is never quite sure if it is even possible to thread the needle and arrive at a global optimum. It is a testament to the grit and persistence of drug discovery scientists that we have found as many lifesaving drugs as we have.

As a multiparameter optimization problem, drug discovery is perhaps the most challenging example we face. But recent advances in computational power and…

Fueling breakthroughs in pharma AI: 3 critical factors

Image courtesy of Pixabay

Big data and AI offer massive opportunities to the pharmaceutical industry — in theory. In reality, many companies are struggling to realize the potential of these tools. Some organizations have been hesitant or resistant to leveraging the technologies. Others may have attempted to embrace them early on but are now beginning their second or third incarnations of “digital transformation,” likely with some layoffs along the way.

Why the difficulty? Digital transformation is, of course, a massive undertaking — requiring enterprise-wide coordination and a clear, focused vision. In the real world, organizations have struggled with defining a focus for their AI efforts and sustaining the investments necessary to reach them. It’s easy to get excited about the prospect of using AI to solve everything under the sun, but more often, successes are coming when teams stay focus…

Google Health hires FDA’s chief digital health officer

Bakul Patel in 2016, when he was the associate director for digital health in the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health [FDA photo by Michael Ermarth]Former FDA Chief Digital Health Officer of Global Strategy and Innovation Bakul Patel has started a new job with Google after 13 years with the regulatory agency.

Patel became senior director, global digital health strategy and regulatory for Google Health earlier this month, he said on LinkedIn.

Patel recounted highlights of his “incredible journey since 2008” at the FDA, including the introduction of functionality-based regulations in the FDA’s mobile medical apps guidance, working with international agencies to define and regulate software-as-a-medical-device (SaMD), developing the Digital Health Software Precertification (Pre-Cert) Program and launching the Digital Health Center of Excellence.

Patel had only been in his latest role at FDA since February, previously serving as director of the FDA…

Stryker leaders talk medtech trends at DeviceTalks Boston: ‘If you’re slow, you’re going to lose’

Tracy Robertson is VP of Digital at Stryker. [Photo courtesy of Stryker]The first day of DeviceTalks Boston closed with a panel of Stryker (NYSE:SYK) executives discussing new tools, technologies and strategies in medtech.

Digital VP Tracy Robertson, Digital, Robotics, and Enabling Technologies President Robert Cohen and Surgical Technologies VP of Digital Innovation Siddarth Satish offered their thoughts on industry trends in healthcare and at the Kalamazoo, Michigan–based orthopedic device giant.

It was only the first question posed to the panel yesterday, which also featured Dave Lively — SVP of Product Management, Vocera (now part of Stryker) — and was moderated by Orthopaedics and Spine Group President Spencer Stiles.

Get the full story at our sister site, Medical Design & Outsourcing.

Stryker leaders talk medtech trends at DeviceTalks Boston: ‘If you’re slow, you’re going to lose’

The first day of DeviceTalks Boston closed with a panel of Stryker (NYSE:SYK) executives discussing new tools, technologies and strategies in medtech.

Digital VP Tracy Robertson, Digital, Robotics, and Enabling Technologies President Robert Cohen and Surgical Technologies VP of Digital Innovation Siddarth Satish offered their thoughts on industry trends in healthcare and at the Kalamazoo, Michigan–based orthopedic device giant.

It was only the first question posed to the panel, which also featured Dave Lively — SVP of Product Management, Vocera (now part of Stryker) — and was moderated by Orthopaedics and Spine Group President Spencer Stiles. Watch for more from the discussion at Medical Design & Outsourcing.

The following has been lightly edited for space and clarity.

Tracy Robertson is VP of Digital at Stryker. [Photo courtesy of Stryker]

Tracy Robertson: “The one that I think a…