Just a few weeks ago, the mood among technologists in the Coronavirus pandemic remained cautiously optimistic about reopening society with the help of testing data, contact tracing apps, and other IT-enabled resources. But the recent spike in illness – 1.9 million new US cases in July, more than double any other month – is a sobering reboot on a crisis we now understand needs far more IT and data coordination than previously recognized.
The emerging consensus among epidemiologists is that
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genomics
CancerIQ Raises $5M to Expand Genetic Cancer Risk Assessment Platform
What You Should Know:
- CancerIQ raises $5M in Series A funding led by HealthXVentures to accelerate the growth of its genetic cancer risk assessment platform to identify and manage patients at high risk of cancer.
- CancerIQ’s technology enables hospitals to use genomics
to personalize the prevention and early detection of cancer.
- Two new hires recently joined CancerIQ’s newly formed
Integrated Products team from Epic, with the goal of advancing CancerIQ’s
integration with leading
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Analysis: July Health IT M&A Activity; Public Company Performance
– Healthcare Growth Partners’ (HGP) summary of Health IT/digital health mergers & acquisition (M&A) activity, and public company performance during the month of July 2020.
While a pandemic ravages the country, technology valuations are soaring. The Nasdaq hit an all-time high during the month of July, sailing through the 10,000 mark to post YTD gains of nearly 20%, representing a 56% increase off the low water mark on March 23. More notably, the Nasdaq has outperformed
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Sun Genomics Nabs $8.65M to Scale Personalized Probiotic Solutions
What You Should Know:
- Sun Genomics raises $8.65M in Series A funding to scale
direct to consumer personalized probiotic solutions based on whole-genome sequencing
diagnostics.
- Flagship product Floré, a microbiome test, and gut probiotics solution utilizes whole-genome sequencing to evaluate different digestive system data points and ensure that customers receive a completely personalized product that is based on their unique gut profiles.
Sun Genomics, a San
Diego, CA-based
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Eliminating the Long, Cumbersome and Costly Diagnosis of Genetic Diseases
The answer to questions about human disease can be found in our genes. The difficulty in the past has been the testing process, a sort of trial and error approach of drilling down into the multitude of variants that can be found within the genes, variants that when analyzed in tandem with detailed clinical histories can actually tell the story and lead to a faster diagnosis.
Human beings carry around 20,000 genes and, of those, approximately 5,000 are somewhat understood, and those genes can
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Fitbit Launches Ready for Work Program to Help Employers Manage Workplace Health During COVID-19
What You Should Know:
- Fitbit launches new Ready for Work program to help
organizations with the unprecedented challenge of returning to the workplace
during the COVID-19 health crisis.
- The program combines key health biometrics from Fitbit devices along with symptom and temperature tracking into an easy-to-use daily check-in that provides employees with a recommendation on whether to go to work or stay home and seek medical care.
- Early research shows that resting heart rate data
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Consumer Genetic Tests Accelerate Precision Medicine for Some Providers
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic tests have been on the scene for some time now. The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first DTC test on three specific BRCA1/BRCA2 breast cancer gene mutations more than two years ago. Six months after that, the agency similarly green-lighted a DTC pharmacogenomic (PGx) test to examine 33 variants for eight different genes that indicate how effectively patients metabolize specific medications.
Like many such advances, availability of DTC tests is
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2020 MedTech Breakthrough Award Winners Announced
What You Should Know:
- MedTech Breakthrough announces 2020 MedTech Breakthrough Award Winners that recognizes the top companies, people, platforms, and products in the health, fitness, and medical technology industries today.
- The 2020 MedTech Breakthrough Awards program is open to all individuals, companies, and organizations involved in producing digital health and medical technology products and services.
MedTech
Breakthrough, a market intelligence organization that recognizes
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The DNA Company Acquires AI Digital Therapeutics App for $30M to Form My Next Health
What You Should Know:
- DNA Company acquires AI-based digital therapeutics app My Pain Sensei (MPS) to form My Next Health and is building a COVID-19 risk assessment platform to help people understand their risks of developing serious COVID-19 complications.
- The acquisition combines functional genomics with conversational AI for patient self-management apps and disease tracking tools designed to inform clinician-patient interactions.
Leading functional genomics provider The
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Machine Learning Will Transform Medicine, but Only if We Use it Right
World chess champion Garry Kasparov made headlines all over the world in 1997 for something that he probably wasn’t very excited about. He lost a chess match. To a computer.
It was an IBM supercomputer called Deep Blue and its victory in that New York City match marked the first time a reigning world chess champion had been defeated by a computer under tournament conditions. It was also a symbolically significant event, the first sign that artificial intelligence could become equal to or even
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