Archive for October 2017
$3.5B Invested In Digital Health So Far In 2017. Where Is The Industry Going?
Investors in digital health have been busy this year. In the first half of 2017, 188 startups took in $3.5 billion in investments—a record-setting amount. It’s not hard to see why. Patients and providers are both looking to digital health tools to get better treatment and improve the relationship dynamic. With all that money flowing into…
Read MoreNew “Ultrasound on a Chip” Tool Could Revolutionize Medical Imaging
Jonathan Rothberg, a entrepreneur who prides himself on drastically disrupting the biomedical industry every so often, has typically big claims for his new product. The Butterfly iQ, a cheap handheld ultrasound tool with AI smarts tucked inside, will 1) revolutionize medical imaging in hospitals and clinics, 2) change the game in global health, and 3) eventually…
Read MoreNew Wound Care Product Offers the Next Step in Healing
A new antimicrobial wound dressing that uses a patient’s cells to regenerate lost tissue may soon replace antiseptics, stitches, and skin grafts now used to treat chronic wounds. The dressing promises to reduce the risk of scarring and infection while making the healing process less agonizing than it is today. The dressing combines a patient-derived…
Read MoreConcussions – Lasting Effects Even After You Feel Better
In Canada, many kids are on ice skates before they can walk. But they don’t get to start slamming into each other until they’re around 11 when they can sign up for full contact hockey. Unsurprisingly, that’s also the age when the baby Wayne Gretzky’s start getting their first concussions. If they take a knock, the puck-hungry…
Read MoreManipulating Genetic Code
Scientists have demonstrated an “incredibly powerful” ability to manipulate the building blocks of life in two separate studies. One altered the order of atoms in DNA to rewrite the human genetic code and the instructions for life. The other edited RNA, which is a chemical cousin of DNA and unlocks the information in the genetic…
Read MoreBioTech Entrepreneurs Number One Fail
“Do you know what the number one failing of biotech entrepreneurs who try to get into medical devices is?” a senior healthcare VC (who asked for anonymity so he could speak freely) asked me over lunch recently. (Disclosure/reminder: I work at a cloud genomics company; this VC is not an investor, and focuses mostly on…
Read More6 Business Leaders Tell You How To Sell Them
Ever been pitched by a sales professional who wasn’t very, uh, professional? Often, I’ve had a strong urge to say, “Hold on. If you’d only address this or that, or approach me in another way, I’d probably buy from you.” Conversely, in a sales role, I’ve too often delivered my presentation without being fully prepared,…
Read More‘Handful of Changes’ Make Cancer
British scientists have worked out how many changes it takes to transform a healthy cell into a cancer. The team, at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, showed the answer was a tiny handful, between one and 10 mutations depending on the type of tumour. It has been one of the most hotly debated issues in…
Read More11 Most Innovative Medical Devices of 2017
The nominees for the best medical technology of 2017 were recently announced for the 11th Annual Prix Galien USA Awards. The Galien Foundation, the host of the awards, hands out the the Prix Galien Award annually to examples of outstanding biomedical and technology product achievement designed to improve human condition. Before candidates can qualify for…
Read MoreWearables for Rehabilitation
According to the American College of Sports Medicine, wearable technologies are the worlds current number one fitness trend (Thompson, 2015, 2016). By providing patients with an instant biofeedback, wearables not only have the possibility to prevent injury and overuse, but also to optimize training (Düking, Holmberg, & Sperlich, 2017) which becomes of special interest in…
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