For many patients, it has become a routine part of the medical process: Get a diagnosis or treatment plan and then seek a second opinion.
A growing number of online services are offering second opinions and some are seeing increasing patient demand for a second set of eyes.
Some of the services are sponsored by established medical centers, including Massachusetts General Hospital and Cleveland Clinic. Others are independent businesses that work with specialists on a consulting basis. Employers increasingly are contracting with such services, and insurance companies at times require patients to get a second opinion, such as for surgery.
Bayer HealthCare has launched its own digital health accelerator program in Berlin, Germany called “Grants4Apps,” selecting five digital health startups from around the globe that will advance their business ideas and technology in areas such as hormone tests, patient adherence, breathing patterns, clinical trials and vitamin deficiency.
La empresa biotecnológica Tigenix, participada en un 21,3% por Grifols, comunicó ayer que los resultados de la última fase de los ensayos clínicos de su terapia celular CX601 han sido positivos en seguridad y efectividad, por lo que seguirá adelante en el desarrollo y se acerca al hito de llevarlo al mercado.
“Estos resultados positivos permiten la presentación del registro en Europa en el primer trimestre de 2016”, aseguró en un comunicado la empresa, que cotiza en Bélgica, pero tiene sede en Madrid, donde se desarrolla la I+D.
There is an FDA project underway that could help change the way molecular diagnostics are developed, evaluated, and regulated in the U.S. one day, should things go the way the agency intends. And Mountain View, CA-based DNAnexus is getting the first crack at building the platform at the plan’s heart.
MicroHealth, a mobile health startup in Y Combinator’s current class, is launching today to help patients take control of their chronic illnesses.
The company was started by Spanish brothers Dr. Marc Lara and Miguel Lara in 2011, who previously spent 10 years researching digital health and holding clinical trials at Columbia University Medical Center.
Through a disease management and doctor communication platform, MicroHealth is attempting to crowdsource the management of rare, chronic conditions, starting with hemophilia.
You’re in the ER with appendicitis. Surgeons can remove your appendix through a few three-fourth-inch openings, but the bulky sutures and staples they use to close internal incisions are difficult and time-consuming to manipulate. One day it may be possible to patch you up faster and more easily using glue made of nanoparticles, which can be injected through a needle for use in minimally invasive surgeries and eye surgery.
The Israeli company that developed the world’s first device that can scan products and provide a list of ingredients, components, materials, calories, nutrition data and other important information about food, pharmaceuticals, plants, and more, is one of the top 49 tech companies in the world, according to the World Economic Forum. Consumer Physics, makers of the SCiO pocket molecular sensor, is one of the WEF’s “technology pioneers,” a group of early-stage tech firms around the world that are “poised to have a significant impact on business and society,” according to the group.
BoardVitals is essentially a repository for hard questions. Aimed at doctors to be, the service wants to change the way medicine is taught and is beginning with the medical boards, test taken by doctors in specific fields to become licensed to bleed you to release the bad humours.
The company raised $1.1 million in Series A from Rock Creek Capital after a small seed fund. The company has trained over 30,000 doctors so far and is in use at 150 institutions.
In its current incarnation the service allows students and doctors to take practice tests using thousands of pre-selected questions. The questions are based on actual medical board tests and can be used to refresh yourself on concepts or prepare for the exams.
Los resultados de una vacuna experimental contra el virus del ébola muestran “un alto grado de efectividad” tras haber sido probada en más de 4.000 personas en contacto con la enfermedad en Guinea Conakry, uno de los países más afectados por la epidemia.
La nueva vacuna, denominada VSV-ZEBOV y desarrollada por Merck and NewLink Genetics, es “eficaz al 100%” diez días después de haber sido administrada a una persona sin la infección, según los resultados publicados hoy por la revista británica The Lancet y difundidos por el Gobierno de Guinea.
NeuWave Medical, a Madison, WI-based maker of medical devices that use microwave energy to zap tumors, has received FDA clearance to sell new software that it says can help doctors more easily monitor each step of the procedure, and more confidently determine that the cancerous tissue was eradicated.
