When they were students in the biomedical engineering department at the University of Virginia, Will Mauldin and Kevin Owen found a problem that needed solving – anesthesiologists often fail to successfully place an epidural on their first try. It’s a problem that costs the medical system more than $1.5 billion each year, according to Rivanna Medical. […]
Technology
Draper develops novel device to deliver drugs to the inner ear
Millions of people around the world are losing their hearing thanks to inner ear disorders and the pharmaceutical industry has spent years working to develop therapeutics to help address this patient population. But Jeff Borenstein, lead scientist for drug delivery at Draper, discovered by talking to experts in the hearing loss field that many of […]
Study: Glooko’s mobile app boosts glycemic control in patients with Type II diabetes
Glooko touted data today from a feasibility study evaluating the impact of its mobile insulin dosing system for people with Type II diabetes who are taking long-acting insulin. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company said it hoped to better understand the extent to which its system can make appropriate insulin titration adjustments and improve a patient’s […]
How slugs, snails & worms inspired Gecko Biomedical’s biocompatible sealant
The story behind Gecko Biomedical’s biocompatible sealant starts in the summer of 2009, when Boston Children’s Hospital‘s chief of cardiac surgery reached out to Jeffrey Karp about a problem he was experiencing in the operating room. Dr. Pedro del Nido told Karp, a professor of medicine at Harvard and the director of the Laboratory for […]
How etectRx’s “smart pill” aims to improve patient compliance trends
When Harry Travis first met Neil Euliano and learned about his medication adherence technology, the pharmaceutical industry was beginning to usher in the age of pricey drugs with Hepatitis C therapies that hit the market at prices like $500 or $1,000 dollars a pill. “It just so happened at the time, really expensive medications were […]
Propeller Health launches API to provide local asthma conditions to orgs, patients
Earlier this week, Propeller Health released an application programming interface to give local asthma conditions to anyone within the U.S. who is interested in using that data. The Air by Propeller API is a free service that uses a machine-learning model based on millions of days of anonymous asthma symptom data and environmental data. The […]
One Drop touts effects of diabetes management mobile app
One Drop touted data today from a retrospective study of people with Type I and Type II diabetes using its mobile diabetes management app. The data, which were published yesterday in JMIR Diabetes, showed that people using the One Drop mobile app had a 1.1% to 1.3% absolute reduction in A1C in 4 months. The app […]
Diabetes app developer DarioHealth closes $5m private placements
Digital health company DarioHealth (NSDQ:DRIO) said today that it closed a $5 million private placement with new and existing investors for shares of the company’s common stock and shares of the company’s Series B convertible preferred stock. The Israel-based company said current shareholders accounted for 58% of the securities sold in the offerings. DarioHealth issued […]
Novartis launches MS study using data collected from smartphones
Novartis (NYSE:NVS) said today that it is launching a research study to better understand the daily challenges facing people with multiple sclerosis. The study is designed to collect data from physical tasks and symptoms using participants’ smartphones. The company said it hopes to find new potential ways to measure treatment effectiveness. The elevateMS study, developed with […]
Medtech stories we missed this week: August 11, 2017
From Xtant Medical’s 510(k) extension to Varian Medical’s distribution deal, here are seven medtech stories we missed this week but thought were still worth a mention. 1. FDA extends Xtant Medical’s 510(k) for Calix C spinal implant Xtant Medical announced in an Aug. 9 press release that the FDA has cleared its product line extensions […]