Health Technology
Verily | October 09, 2023
Verily, an Alphabet subsidiary focused on precision health technology, has unveiled Viewpoint Workbench, a new enterprise-grade platform created to consolidate multimodal data and expedite biomedical research.
Workbench offers a secure collaborative setting for data generators, researchers, and biopharmaceutical organizations to oversee and analyze their data. This platform is a component of Verily Viewpoint, a comprehensive suite of solutions that enable the generation of evidence necessary for expediting the availability of safe and effective therapies to individuals in need.
Scott Burke, Chief Technology Officer, Verily, said,
Researchers are gathering more data of more types than ever, but it is challenging to effectively store, access, and analyze it while complying with data governance mandates.
[Source – Business Wire]
Scott Burke added that Workbench can adapt to any organization and helps researchers use data to advance scientific understanding.
Workbench integrates technology and optimal methodologies honed over several years of constructing data infrastructure for extensive research undertakings, including National Institutes of Health's All of Us Research Program, Accelerating Medicines Partnership Parkinson's Disease (AMP PD) program, and Project Baseline Health Study.
Dr. James Lu, MD, Ph.D., CEO and Co-Founder of Helix, emphasized the importance of a platform that can effectively integrate multiple data layers to advance their work significantly. He expressed enthusiasm about integrating Verily's Workbench, which will facilitate collaborative research and yield more informed insights.
Additionally, Manish Raisinghani, MBBS, Ph.D., President and CEO of Target ALS, stressed the need to maintain momentum in accelerating ALS drug discovery. He mentioned that Workbench aligns with their ambitious initiative to create a comprehensive biosample and dataset collection for ALS and to provide unrestricted access to scientists worldwide, thus promoting progress in their research endeavors.
Workbench enables secure collaboration among data generators, research sponsors, and biomedical researchers. Users can analyze multimodal data, ensure data governance through access control, and engage with a growing network of researchers to advance scientific progress and promote reproducible research.
About Verily
Verily, an Alphabet health technology company, specializes in research, healthcare delivery, and health financing. Its mission is to advance precision health and promote healthier lives by operating at the intersection of technology, data science, and healthcare. The company develops tools to accelerate evidence generation, creates products for more personalized care, and introduces approaches to enhance cost predictability.
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Healthcare Analytics
Business Wire | October 31, 2023
Weave a leading all-in-one experience platform for small and medium-sized healthcare practices, today announces the addition of AI-driven voicemail transcriptions to its platform.
Now available to Weave’s 27,000+ customers, Voicemail Transcription automatically transcribes voicemails from patients allowing for efficient, visible, and private reading experiences. With this update, users will now see the voicemail transcription when they click on the Voicemail tab within their Desktop Application or within the mobile app, improving overall user experience by making it faster to consume messages without having to listen to the audio, which can often be difficult in busy settings.
said Branden Neish, Chief Product and Technology Officer at Weave.
AI has exploded in popularity over the past year, and we’re taking steps to ensure Weave is delivering state of the art offerings that empower our customers to enhance patient experiences and deliver top of the line care. AI will only continue to grow in popularity and daily use, which will have a transformative impact on the future of the healthcare industry. Weave customers that have already implemented AI into their practices claim they save an average of an hour a day with the technology.
[Source:Business Wire]
In a new customer and consumer report conducted by Weave, the company found that patients are accepting of AI in healthcare settings and they see it leading to enhanced care and patient experiences. In fact, the majority of consumers (65%) are open to providers using AI tools in their practices. The report also found that consumers and providers are aligned with how they think AI will impact the healthcare industry, with two in three consumers (67%) and 3 in 4 (75%) healthcare providers believing that AI is likely to become a prevalent tool in healthcare.
"Artificial Intelligence is the catalyst for a new era in healthcare,” says Dr. Matt Nejad, DDS of Beverly Hills, CA. “Weave's AI-enabled voicemail transcripts are a leap in this direction, providing automation and actionable insights that empower providers to focus on what truly matters: patient care."
This announcement follows months of AI-driven activity from Weave to enhance features that allow healthcare providers to deliver quality care and improve patient experiences, including Email Assistant and Response Assistant.
About Weave
Weave is a leading all-in-one customer experience platform for small- and medium-sized healthcare businesses. From the first phone call to the final invoice and every touchpoint in between, Weave connects the entire customer journey. Weave’s software solutions transform how local businesses attract, communicate with and engage customers to grow their business. In the past year, Weave has been named a G2 leader in Patient Engagement, Optometry, Dental Practice Management and Patient Relationship Management software.
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Healthcare Analytics
Xenex | September 11, 2023
United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) has issued a De Novo authorization to Xenex Disinfection Services, Inc. (Xenex) for its LightStrikeTM+ device, an advanced high-intensity, broad-spectrum ultraviolet (UV) light robot.
The LightStrike+ devices are designed for microbial reduction on non-critical medical device surfaces in healthcare environments, following manual cleaning and disinfection practices. They are authorized for use in various healthcare settings, including unoccupied operating rooms and hospital rooms. These devices have an impressive track record, with over 1,200 healthcare facilities worldwide employing LightStrike robots for over 37 million cycles.
The new LightStrike+ device, capable of microbial reduction in as little as 2 minutes, represents the culmination of over a decade of knowledge accumulation from healthcare facilities' best practices, supported by 45 peer-reviewed studies demonstrating its safety and effectiveness, a portfolio of 193 patents, and unparalleled technical and epidemiological expertise.
Dr. Mark 'Tuck' Stibich, Xenex's Founder and Chief Scientific Officer, emphasized the long-standing collaboration with healthcare partners spanning more than a decade to enhance patient safety and public health.
As an infectious diseases epidemiologist, Dr. Stibich expressed concern about antibiotic resistance within hospital environments and the potential for FDA authorization to facilitate the broader adoption of the LightStrike+ tool in combating pathogens.
Perilous pathogens persist on surfaces within healthcare facilities, notwithstanding diligent manual cleaning endeavors. The LightStrike+ robot employs a xenon lamp to generate high-intensity pulsed UV light, which effectively diminishes the presence of these pathogens on surfaces and plays a pivotal role in interrupting the transmission chain from one patient or healthcare worker to another. Xenex's FDA authorization is substantiated by comprehensive testing conducted on more than 10,000 samples of vegetative bacteria and Clostridiodes difficile (C. diff) spores.
This authorization establishes a novel medical device product classification, with the LightStrike+ robot being its inaugural and sole product. It is a landmark in the FDA's regulatory framework for UV robots designed to diminish pathogens on non-porous, frequently touched surfaces within healthcare settings.
Furthermore, Xenex's Chief Executive Officer, Morris Miller, acknowledged the challenges hospitals face when evaluating UV technologies, citing the prevalence of unverified and exaggerated claims by some manufacturers. He underscored the significance of FDA authorization in instilling confidence among hospital decision-makers, assuring them of the accuracy and validation of Xenex's claims regarding the LightStrike+ device.
Numerous world-renowned hospitals, such as HonorHealth, Mayo Clinic, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Ochsner Health System, Stanford Health Care, and Texas Health Resources, have integrated LightStrike robots into their comprehensive disinfection strategies.
About Xenex
Xenex is a global leader in pioneering strategies and solutions grounded in UV technology. Its fundamental mission revolves around enabling its partners to safeguard lives and reduce human suffering by eliminating the dangerous microorganisms that cause infections. The company benefits from substantial support from renowned investors, including EW Healthcare Partners, Piper Sandler, Malin Corporation, Battery Ventures, Targeted Technology Fund II, Tectonic Ventures, and RK Ventures.
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Health Technology
Business Wire | November 02, 2023
Absolute Software™, the leading provider of self-healing, intelligent security solutions, today announced the launch of Absolute Application Health. This new feature empowers digital enterprises to strengthen cyber resilience and boost end user productivity with the industry’s most resilient application health monitoring capabilities. With this latest innovation to the company’s Secure Endpoint product line, customers can monitor the health of more than 2,000 commonly used Windows and Mac applications – including security controls, business, and productivity tools – to ensure they are installed, running, and properly configured on all devices.
“Organizations deploy millions of endpoint devices to support growing remote workforces around the world, and they invest billions of dollars into security controls needed to protect their networks against advanced threats and costly compliance violations,” said Sarah Pavlak, Industry Principal, Frost & Sullivan. “Despite all these efforts and money spent, organizations continue to experience increasing attacks and complexity challenges that severely disrupt business operations. This is leading to a continual need for innovations that can mitigate software failures and close security gaps.”
Absolute’s 2023 Resilience Index reveals that on average, enterprise endpoint devices have 67 applications deployed, with 10 percent of these having more than 100 applications installed. In analyzing 10 of the most widely deployed security tools, the report also shows seven of those 10 apps were installed and healthy on less than 80 percent of deployed devices, on average. In some cases, apps were only functioning correctly 47 percent of the time.
said John Herrema, Chief Product Officer, Absolute Software.
Today’s digital enterprises are investing billions of dollars in mission-critical security and business tools, and we believe those applications should deliver their intended value. The complexity and fragility of endpoint applications, however, means that all too often they are failing. And if the tool you use to monitor your other applications is subject to those same failures, then you’re really in trouble, because it’s impossible to fix what you can’t reliably see or diagnose. This latest innovation builds on Absolute’s unique Persistence technology to provide the industry’s most resilient visibility and monitoring capabilities. This allows our customers to achieve maximum security, productivity, and return on their software investments.
[Source:Business Wire]
With Absolute Application Health, IT and security practitioners gain the deep visibility needed to ensure applications are installed, running, up-to-date, and properly configured across their entire device fleet. They also have access to detailed, interactive reports and widgets that enable them to swiftly diagnose why an application is failing and then take remedial action.
Embedded in the firmware of more than 600 million devices, Absolute’s patented Persistence® technology provides a secure, always-on connection between the Absolute Platform and the endpoint. The new Application Health feature leverages this digital tether to ensure health monitoring and reporting remains uninterrupted.
Absolute Application Health is available now to Absolute Secure Endpoint customers subscribed to eligible Absolute Resilience licenses. For more information, including how to access and activate this new feature, visit our latest blog.
About Absolute Software
Absolute Software makes security work. We empower mission-critical performance with advanced cyber resilience. Embedded in more than 600 million devices, our cyber resilience platform delivers endpoint-to-network access security coverage, ensures automated security compliance, and enables operational continuity. Nearly 21,000 global customers trust Absolute to protect enterprise assets, fortify security and business applications, and provide a frictionless, always-on user experience.
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