Into the Great White North. MDClone, a patient data-focused startup, told MobiHealthNews that it will be debuting its platform in Canada thanks to a new partnership with The Ottawa Hospital. With it, the hospital’s practitioners and researchers will have a synthetic set of patient data that, although statistically comparable to the original, includes no identifiable information so that medical research can be conducted without worry of compromising patient privacy.
“We now have the collective opportunity with The Ottawa Hospital to democratize data and give physicians better tools to discover better ways to help thousands of Canadians,” Ziv Ofek, CEO and founder of MDClone, said in a statement provided to MobiHealthNews. “The power of leveraging data for better health-care delivery is truly a global desire and this collaboration is an exciting example in Canada. Partnering with a world-class health-care organization focused on innovation like the Ottawa Hospital is the perfect starting point to fulfill our shared vision of insights impacting care.”
This will mark the third country in which MDClone is live, following the US and its home country of Israel.
Cityblock to the Commonwealth. Cityblock, a startup focused on addressing socio-economic health disparities through tech, will be pushing into Massachusetts via an arrangement with Tufts Health Plan announced yesterday. Starting in March, Cityblock’s care delivery platform will play a part in a Tufts plan for those under the age of 65 who are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid — a demographic that the companies say are among the plan’s most vulnerable.
"Members are at the center of everything we do, and that means meeting them where they are, with the right care, at the right time," Iyah Romm, CEO and cofounder of Cityblock, said in a statement. "We believe everyone should have good care for what matters to them, in their community. Our approach to care, from our technology to our community-based care teams, is designed to best support each member on their own health journey. We're here to learn from our members and partner with them to achieve better health and well-being."
More than a heartbeat. North Carolina State University researchers have detailed an experimental wristwatch-like device that can monitor the wearer’s metabolites using replaceable chemical test strips. The proof of concept, published in Biosensors and Bioelectronics, uses internal hardware to read its sensors and connect to a smart device, and was shown to appropriately measure glucose, lactate and pH.
"The device is the size of an average watch, but contains analytical equipment equivalent to four of the bulky electrochemistry devices currently used to measure metabolite levels in the lab,” Michael Daniele, an assistant professor at North Carolina State University and a co-corresponding author on the paper, said in a statement. "We've made something that is truly portable, so that it can be used in the field."
New CDS 510(k). French imaging software maker Qynapse announced that it has received 510(k) clearance for its QyScore analysis tool for brain MRI markers. In order to better spot early development of various neurodegenerative diseases, the software will generate patient reports that include comparisons the subject’s imagery to that of logged healthy subjects.
“FDA clearance is a major milestone to expand the commercialization of the software within the US,” said Olivier Courrèges, CEO of Qynapse, said in a statement. “Qynapse will accelerate collaboration with experts and healthcare providers in the U.S. to pursue its journey for better patient care in neurology.”
