Last Month in Digital Health (March 2024)

CONTENTS: 1) 💊Pharma Digital Health | 2)📱Digital Therapeutics 3)🤖Health Tech | 4)⌚️Wearables & Sensors | 5) 🧠 Artificial Intelligence 6)💰Funding & Finance

1)💊 Pharma Digital Health

💊Daewoong Pharmaceutical has launched an AI-driven drug discovery system, powered by an extensive database of 800 million compounds. The system, named DAVID (Daewoong Advanced Virtual Database), named after David of Goliath fame, where Goliath is the rest of big pharma

💊Pfizer has developed a new generative AI platform called ‘Charlie’ named after their founder. It is being used to help with content creation and editing, fact-checking and legal reviews and to support employee collaboration

💊AstraZeneca launches the LOOP study in the US to gather evidence from Lung Cancer (NSCLC) patients to complement the development of a digital health solution.

💊Merck & Co. partners with Vector Institute aiming to advance healthcare innovation through artificial intelligence. The collaboration is focused on utilizing AI to enhance healthcare solutions, customer engagement and aiming to improve patient care

💊Akili is expanding to Japan via a partnership with Shionogi & Co., Ltd to deliver its video game-based digital therapeutic for ADHD following a successful clinical trial in Japanese children. Japan presents a key market for Akili as access to common ADHD stimulant medications are limited there

💊Biofourmis has partnered with four undisclosed Big Pharmas centered on developing digital biomarkers and safety monitoring algorithms in cancer trials.

2)📲Digital Therapeutics

📲 Better Therapeutics secures FDA breakthrough for a Dtx addressing Fatty Liver Disease (MASH) through cognitive behavioral therapy, backed by study results. Following the launch of their diabetes therapy, they aim for strategic partnerships to enhance development and reach

📲Curavit decentralized clinical trial provider for DTx successfully completed a study for the Sana Health Device, a virtual reality mask aiming to reduce post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Sounds promising but aside from a 76% retention rate they did not share any data

📲AppliedVR's study, in collaboration with Kernel demonstrates the effectiveness of the RelieVRx VR device in reducing chronic low back pain by enhancing brain coherence and promoting slower breathing, offering a non-opioid, home-based management solution

📲Closed Loop Medicine’s study, utilizing a smartphone app with Pfizer's Norvasc, demonstrates the app's ability to personalize hypertension treatment, significantly lowering blood pressure and improving medication adherence while minimizing side effects

📲Mynd Immersive and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs partner for Virtual Therapy for Vietnam Veterans. The unique collaboration aims to create a DTx virtual reality project, "Virtual Vietnam: A Path to Peace", designed explicitly for Vietnam veterans

📲Digital tools helped lower blood pressure in marginalized patient groups. The meta-review of 28 studies of digital health interventions for people of color and low-income patients showed significant and clinically meaningful reduction in average systolic blood pressure compared to control groups

And some relevant aquisitions:

📲Dubai-based virtual care provider TruDoc has announced its acquisition of Indian digital therapeutic start up Wellthy Therapeutics

📲DarioHealth acquires Twill for $10M, aiming to create a comprehensive Digital Health Platform for chronic conditions

3)🤖Health Tech

🤖 A coin-sized wearable device, CUE1, offers a noninvasive and approach to reducing Parkinson's Disease symptoms by emitting high-frequency vibrations. Inspired by historical observations on rhythmic stimulation's benefits, the device, developed by Charco Neurotech improves movement and sleep

🤖Flow Neuroscience offers a drug-free depression treatment, trialing a headset that delivers non-invasive and targeted transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to rebalance brain activity. Initially offered to 50 NHS clinicians it has been shown to be twice as effective as antidepressants in early trials

🤖A UCLA Health study shows that digital health interventions, including telehealth coaching, peer forums, and text messaging, designed to address barriers such as medical mistrust and access issues, more than doubled the uptake of HIV prevention medication PrEP among younger, at-risk Americans.

And in more exploratory but still exciting news, this month researchers have developed:

A single-dose genetic therapy that can clear protein blockages that cause motor neurone disease, also called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).  Exciting stuff but it still needs to be tested in humans 

A new bio ink optimized for 3D printing “heart on a chip” devices.  The new 3D printable composite bio ink is said to accurately reflect the electrical activity, mechanical properties, and physiology of a human heart

The world’s first 3D-printed brain tissue that grows and behaves similarly to natural brain tissue. It won’t be used to print us new brains but could significantly advance our understanding of neurological conditions

A device that allows people with amputations to experience natural temperature sensations using their prostheses, potentially paving the way for integrating a host of sensations into artificial limbs. 

4)⌚️Wearables & Sensors

⌚️A thermal earring developed by University of Washington researchers can detect changes related to stress, eating, exercise and even ovulation

Samphire Neuroscience is building a brain stimulating wearable for period pain.  The wearable headband which it’s calling Nettle uses neuromodulation to target specific areas of the brain responsible for the pain 

An arthritis study showed using an Apple Watch and iPhone to continuously gather data on health status, mobility and fatigue analyzed by a machine learning algorithm, effectively identified impairments and differentiated arthritis patients from healthy individuals.

Samsung's Galaxy Watch receives FDA approval for sleep apnea detection. And it’s Galaxy Ring, is launching with tracking features including heart rate and sleep monitoring, with Samsung outlining a vision for a connected ecosystem

A team in Korea has created a stretchable wearable facial system that uses skin friction and vibration monitoring to evaluate human emotions and generate its own power

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a safety alert indicating that smartwatches or smart rings that claim to measure a user’s blood glucose levels without piercing the skin should are not reliable and should not be trusted

5) 🧠 Artificial Intelligence

See my Top 5 below or for this months AI Healthcare Newsletter see >>here

🧠An AI method developed by researchers can predict Alzheimer's Disease seven years before symptoms appear by analyzing patient records, highlighting high cholesterol and osteoporosis as key predictors and linking specific genes to Alzheimer's risk

🧠AI can tell a person's sex from brain scans with 90 per cent accuracy, which is interesting, but the findings may help us understand the reasons why some medical conditions or forms of neurodiversity vary by sex, such as depression, anxiety and ADHD

🧠An AI method could reduce full body MRI scan times to just minutes. This advance promises clearer, more accurate imaging, significantly cutting patient wait times and potentially saving lives by allowing faster treatment

🧠AI-equipped eyeglasses can read silent speech. EchoSpeech uses acoustic sensing to recognize silent speech commands, offering potential benefits for individuals unable to vocalize sound and for communication in situations where speaking is inconvenient

🧠InMed AI has launched Neuroshield CT TBI, an AI tool for traumatic brain injury screening, automating the detection of intracranial issues in CT scans and facilitating quicker patient triage, potentially discharging patients with normal scans without needing a radiologist or neurosurgeon to review

6)💰Funding & Finance

💰 Surgical robotics company Medical Microinstruments secures $110M

💰 Ambience Healthcare raises $70M for its AI assistant led by OpenAI and Kleiner Perkins

💰 Reveleer scores $65M to scale AI-enabled data and analytics platform

💰 Fabric raises $60M to grow conversational AI-powered healthcare platform

💰 Unlearn snags $50M for digital twins in clinical trials

💰 Cohere Health, clinical intelligence and prior authorization automation company, has closed $50M in additional equity funding

💰 b.well Connected Health secures $40M to revolutionize fragmented healthcare landscape

💰 Bioptimus raises $35M seed round to develop AI foundational model focused on biology.

💰 Data exchange company Moxe Health secures $25M

💰 Mental health platform Headlight launches with $18M and more digital health funding

💰 Blackbird Health, which offers technology-based mental healthcare for youth, scored $17M in Series A funding

💰 Cryotherapy technology company Vessi Medical scores $16.5M

💰 Redi Health secures $14M for creating a digital platform that connects pharmaceutical companies, healthcare providers, and patients

💰 Virtual eating disorder provider Arise has raised roughly $6.5M

💰 Stellar Sleep, a startup providing a first-digital tool for chronic insomnia management, raised $6M in seed funding

💰Community health insights co. Siftwell Analytics secures $5.8M in funding round.

💰 Salvo Health secures $5M for digital gastrointestinal care.

💰 Sorella raises €5M to establish its hybrid women’s health care model in France.

💰 Vivet Therapeutics receive €4.9M to advance the development of gene therapy.

💰 TORTUS secures $4.2M to give every clinician a personal AI assistant.

💰 Kenya’s Ilara Health gets $4.2M backing to expand clinic-support services.

💰 Mesh Bio bags $3.5M to bring digital twin tech to Hong Kong, Indonesia, Philippines.

💰 Hedia raises €3M seed extension to expand the digital health portfolio.

💰 Merit Medicine announces $2M seed round to transform employer-sponsored healthcare with AI-powered risk predictions.