We would say it's time for a bit of light reading. But it's not.
Virtual Tools & Remote Labs
COVID-19 have changed patients' behavior and shifted their preferences toward virtual care. According to the findings of Accenture, 70% of patients deferred or cancelled
treatments due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
As patients avoided healthcare facilities, they learned to use new technologies to continue their care. "Virtual tools became essential lifelines for communication and guidance for patients now administering their own treatments at home," the research says.
According to this research, 44% of respondents started using new devices or apps to manage their conditions during COVID-19. Let’s see what new technologies can make healthcare more comfortable both for medical practitioners and patients.
Temperature Monitoring
Nemaura plans to repurpose its sugarBEAT® platform as a CTM (continuous temperature monitoring).
Initially, sugarBEAT® is a non-invasive continuous glucose monitor developed by Nemaura Medical Inc. It’s designed to help people with diabetes and prediabetes to better manage their glucose levels. While the Beat was launched for people with diabetes and prediabetes, the CTM will help to track fever caused by viral infections.
"The data being automatically sent by low energy Bluetooth to a mobile phone app from which it can then be reviewed by the user and/or sent to a family member or caregiver," stated Dr. Faz Chowdhury, Nemaura's CEO.
Remote labs
How to make remote medical testing more reliable and faster? Scientists at South Australia’s Flinders University think about developing AIE bioprobe applications which can pick up disease biomarkers in very low concentrations.
According to Professor Youhong Tang, aggregation-induced emission (AIE) with the portable device is an exciting new method for detecting biomarkers in bodily fluids.
"This technique can be easily enhanced by commonly available wearable devices such as smartphone data capture and analysis, and data cloud storage," stated Mr. Tang.
Heart tech
Protaryx Medical announced that it has raised $8.3 million in funding to develop the company’s first-in-class device for precision transseptal access to the left atrium during structural heart and catheter ablation procedures.
The “Transseptal access performed with today’s existing technology can be challenging, time-consuming and difficult to learn, which creates a clear pain point for physicians,” said Protaryx co-founder James S. Gammie, M.D., professor and chief of Cardiac Surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
Protaryx device is intended to provide physicians with confidence in accuracy and safety through independent steerability and three-dimensional control to streamline rapid crossing to the left heart.
Helmet from Lithuania
Lithuanian medical scientists and techs developed a helmet that helps to provide advanced health monitoring of stroke survivors.
The Head of research group Dr Darius Jegelevicius said that this technology can be used for constant or episodic monitoring both in medical facilities and at home or in similar environments.
"The prototype for the cerebral circulation measuring equipment is akin to a light helmet placed on the head of the patient. The cardiovascular health monitoring system prototype is a smart wrist band with several attachable electrodes. It can be used by patients at home," added Dr Jegelevicius.
Brain Stimulator to treat depression
Flow is a medical device and therapy app startup designed to treat depression. It is Europe’s first medically-approved brain stimulation device available for people to use at home to treat depression. The set comprises a portable brain stimulation headset and therapy app.
Generally, people diagnosed with depression often have lower neural activity in their left frontal lobe. The Flow headset offers a gentle electrical signal to stimulate the left frontal cortex and rebalance neural activity in this part of the brain. The user interacts with a virtual therapy app that provides information and advice on lifestyle changes.
See more about best Medtech startups here.