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>>> Eliott Jones is Co-Founder and CEO of Biospectal SA, a diagnostic biosensing company using optical technologies in IoT and edge computing. Starting with blood pressure and hypertension management, the company is on a mission to make medical grade biosensing accessible, actionable, and meaningful through connected smart devices. Biospectal has developed instant, ubiquitous, and accurate blood pressure monitoring and management simply by placing your finger on the camera of your smartphone. Biospectal's cuffless optical blood pressure solution was awarded MassChallenge Switzerland's 2018 Gold Prize from a field of 1,000 applicants and many talented cohort participants. Eliott has led Biospectal SA since 2017, and is also currently President + Creative Director of Inflektiv, since 2013, an experience strategy and design consultancy with services encompassing strategic planning and execution for digital products, design methods-driven ideation and innovation process, and user-centered research. Eliott's career background includes being VP of UX Innovation at Rambus; Senior Director of Product Design at RingCentral; Senior Director, Design at Yahoo!; Director of Marketing at DreamFactory Software; Senior Manager, Web Channel Marketing, at Intuit; and President of Jones Digital Media. Eliott has joined the Silicon Valley Healthcare Round Table.
>>> Arpit Khemka is Co-Founder and CEO of SimpleTherapy, a digital healthcare platform that combines physical therapy with artificial intelligence to create a musculoskeletal (MSK) pain recovery program that can be used at home for a fraction of the cost. SimpleTherapy works with health plans and employers of all sizes to provide head-to-toe pain recovery and prevention, accessible 24/7, with no copays and without the need for expensive equipment. SimpleTherapy has 20,000+ users across the world, of which 72% report a significant reduction in pain. Its solution has been validated by three national payers and was shown to decrease the MSK spend by 18% in just year one. Further, SimpleTherapy's solution has a significant impact on opioid usage, getting 39% of opioid dependents completely off of opioids in year one. By Implementing SimpleTherapy, organizations realize a 3:1 ROI. Arpit has been in technology his entire career, most of which have been spent building AI- and algorithm-driven decision-making systems for public and private sector companies. He co-founded SimpleTherapy with two surgeons in 2011, and has served as its CEO since 2017. Previously, he was Senior Consultant and Lead Systems Architect at CGI, in New York, where he digitized the incarceration process for the NYC Department of Corrections Jail Management System, and resolved critical issues impeding the Massachusetts Health Exchange. Arpit has also joined the Silicon Valley Healthcare Round Table.
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Blue Shield of California Offers Digital Hospital Triage Tool |
Blue Shield of California is offering its network hospitals a new digital tool - the COVID-19 Screener and Emergency Response Assistant (COVID-19 SERA), which patients can access via Internet-connected smartphone, tablet, or computer on a participating hospital's website. It can be customized for each health system's emergency response plan, and is updated in real-time with latest guidelines from the CDC and WHO. Patients will answer a few basic questions, and based on their reply, would be directed to the appropriate medical settings for their health situation. The COVID-19 SERA service can be implemented on a hospital's website within 48 hours. (Greg Buchert, MD, Orange County Healthcare)
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Elemeno's Digital App Utilized by UCSF & Sonoma Valley Emergency Departments |
In Keeping Patients and Frontline Medical Staff Safe in SF Bay Area, Elemeno Health describes how Sonoma Valley Hospital recently went live with Elemeno's digital app in less than 12 hours, following UCSF's lead. ED staff are using the Elemeno app to quickly access coronavirus information on: screening safely and preventing the spread of infection; managing patients with potential COVID-19 infections; quickly reporting suspected cases to health agencies; protective gear requirements; how-to videos (eg, how to put on and take off protective gear); how to protect other patients and staff and alleviate anxiety; shared UCSF COVID-19 practices; selected CDC and regional resources; and more. (Arup Roy-Burman, MD, Bay Area Healthcare)
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LigoLab Launches Interface & Workflow Support for High-Volume COVID-19 Testing in Clinical Labs Nationwide |
LigoLab Information System is providing fully integrated and automated LIS support for client laboratories in California, Washington, and New York that are using FDA-approved instruments to perform high-volume COVID-19 tests. LigoLab LIS & RCM Operating Platform has successfully integrated with instruments from Roche, Thermo Fisher Scientific, QIAGEN, Bio-Rad, and Hologic. LigoLab completed its system enhancements and validation for COVID-19 testing just days after the FDA started approving the instruments, and has already deployed the solution in multiple high-volume labs. CEO Suren Avunjian said LigoLab will deploy its LIS capabilities at no cost for any laboratory that will perform the COVID-19 test to help increase turn-around times and patient safety. Additionally, patients will soon be able to order the COVID-19 test online through a LigoLab partnership with TestDirectly.com, a digital health company that specializes in direct-to-consumer clinical testing. Meanwhile, Suren has been invited to join a coalition called StaySafe, fighting COVID-19 on a national scale. (Suren Avunjian, Los Angeles Healthcare)
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SimpleTherapy Offers Free, Unlimited Access to Digital Musculoskeletal Program |
As social distancing has become the current norm, people with a musculoskeletal (MSK) disorder may find that access to in-person physical therapy is challenging and, in many cases, not possible. As such, SimpleTherapy has taken action to ensure that everyone has access to quality, evidence-based exercise therapy regimens to manage their MSK condition from the comfort of their home. Through July 1, 2020, SimpleTherapy is providing unlimited access to their digital musculoskeletal program for your employees at no cost and without any obligation. More information. (Arpit Khemka, Silicon Valley Healthcare)
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TECH INDUSTRY NEWS & TRENDS
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BACK TO WORK
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Google Cloud, IBM, Rolls Royce, Others Partner to Model COVID-19 Economic Recovery, Return to Work |
Rolls Royce and a bevy of data science players including IBM, Google Cloud, Truata, and the Leeds Institute for Data Analytics have formed a group to collaborate on modeling the economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The group, called Emer2gent, brings together multiple analytics technologies and experts to figure out ways to support business and government efforts to recover. From a data perspective, Emer2gent will combine economic, business, travel and retail data sets with behavior and sentiment data. The combination of data is critical to modeling economic recovery since consumer behavior may influence how fast a rebound occurs. The goal is to create models to get people back to work and identify leading indicators. These indicators would ideally influence business and government investments and actions. (Read Article: ZDNet, 4/16/20)
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FCC Announces Covid-19 Telehealth Program Application Portal; Providing $200 Million in Funding |
The FCC's COVID-19 Telehealth Program will provide $200 million in funding, appropriated by Congress as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, to help health care providers provide connected care services to patients at their homes or mobile locations in response to the novel coronavirus pandemic. Applications, as well as guidance and FAQs about the program, are now available through the dedicated application portal at www.fcc.gov/covid-19-telehealth-program.
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COBOL Programmers are In Demand to Fight Pandemic |
The spike in unemployment has brought unprecedented traffic to state systems, many of which are based on COBOL (common business oriented language), a programming language built in the 1950s that has largely been phased out of modern computer science curriculum. More than half of the states in the US, including California, New York, and Pennsylvania, still rely on COBOL. As a result, COBOL programmers are now in growing demand. (Read Articles: TechRepublic, 4/10/20; CIO Dive, 4/13/20)
And, response has been overwhelming to the call by states for COBOL programmers for help keeping unemployment systems functioning. Nearly 1,300 people have stepped forward to either volunteer or work for hire, according to the Linux Foundation, which has partnered with IBM on initiatives to teach the 60-year-old COBOL programming language to coders. The foundation and IBM have rolled out a free training course and a forum where people with knowledge of the language can be matched with organizations that need help maintaining their critical systems. (Read Article: TechRepublic, 4/17/20)
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VIRUS DETECTION APPS
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Researchers Aim to Use AI to Judge People's Coughs |
Some researchers are betting that smartphones can be trained to detect whether we are infected with the new coronavirus - just by listening. Several teams of artificial-intelligence researchers are working toward systems that could help spot the disease through people's breathing, coughing and speech. They are collecting thousands of sound samples from people who have contracted Covid-19 on the hope that the signature respiratory problems that make the infections so dangerous could also help unlock the way to a faster diagnosis. (Read Article: Wall Street Journal, 4/16/20)
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Stanford, Fitbit Join Forces to Predict Viral Infections with Wearables |
Stanford Medicine has announced that its researchers are working on an algorithmic model for detecting if a person is sick using data collected from wearables. It has partnered with Fitbit and other tech and academic partners on the effort, and is now looking for participants to help refine the diagnostic tool. As a partner, Google-owned Fitbit will be informing users of the ability to participate in the research. It's also giving the researchers 1,000 smartwatches. The idea is that smartwatches or other wearable sensors may have the ability to detect symptoms that indicate a viral infection before a person notices it themselves - such as higher skin temperature, elevated heart rate, and more. (Read Article: Mashable, 4/14/20)
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Apple & Google Team to Track Spread of Coronavirus Using iPhone & Android Apps |
Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google recently announced that they will work together to create contact tracing technology that aims to slow the spread of the coronavirus by allowing users to opt into logging other phones they have been near. The rare collaboration between the two companies, whose operating systems power 99% of the world's smartphones, could accelerate usage of apps that aim to get potentially infected individuals into testing or quarantine more quickly and reliably than existing systems in much of the world. Such tracing will play a vital role in managing the virus once lockdown orders end, health experts say. To be effective, the system would require millions of people to opt in the system, trusting the technology companies' safeguards, as well as smooth oversight by public health systems. (Read Article: Reuters, 4/10/20)
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COVID SCREENING & CLINICAL TRIALS
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Verily's COVID-19 Website Offering California Residents Access to Risk Screening & Testing |
Alphabet's Verily has launched a website where California residents can complete a short survey regarding their current condition and, if they meet certain criteria, could be referred to a nearby mobile COVID-19 testing site. The program is intended to expand access to COVID-19 risk screening and testing and is not intended for people experiencing severe symptoms. From the website: "If you are interested in getting tested for COVID-19 to help protect yourself or other people, choose Get Started. Based on the responses and testing appointment availability, you will learn whether you can get tested through this program . . . In California, it's currently offering free testing for COVID-19 in: Lake Elsinore, Long Beach, Sacramento, Salida, San Jose, San Mateo, Sherman Oaks, and Stockton." (Project Baseline by Verily)
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New Platform Seeks to Help Link Patients with Coronavirus Clinical Trials |
A new public health tool, dubbed World Without COVID, has launched with the goal of connecting patients to coronavirus clinical trials across the country. The new product is aimed at helping propel clinical research and treatment surrounding the virus. On the new platform, patients can sign up and enter information about whether they are fully healthy, recovered from coronavirus, or currently have the virus. Next, the tool walks volunteers through a questionnaire. Patients are then presented with clinical trials that best match them based on condition, trial location, phase of the study and other factors. (Read Article: mobihealthnews, 4/14/20)
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LIFE AFTER COVID
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Digital Health Companies Optimistic on COVID-19's Long-Term Business Impact |
The coronavirus pandemic is causing upheavals in healthcare delivery in every corner of the world, but those hailing from digital health firms are more optimistic than others within the industry that these changes will ultimately benefit their long-term business, according to a recent survey and white paper released by Research2Guidance. 51% of respondents were from digital health companies, with the rest representing organizations such as research institutions and universities (11%), healthcare providers (9%), pharmas (8%), accelerators and venture funds (5%), and other groups. (Read Article: mobihealthnews, 4/15/20)
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Study: FCC Spectrum Moves Would Add $183 Billion to Economy |
The FCC's plans to open up the 6 GHz and 5.9 GHz bands for unlicensed WiFi would add at least $183.44 billion to the U.S. economy over the next five years. That is according to a new study released and funded by WiFi Forward, whose members include cable broadband providers and computer and tech companies. Both FCC spectrum efforts are part of the larger push for more spectrum for 5G wireless broadband. The study finds that sharing those bands between licensed and unlicensed users would add $106 billion to the GDP by increasing broadband speeds and thus accelerating the Internet of Things and the augmented reality/ virtual reality market. It predicts another $8 billion in "consumer surplus" thanks to broadband speed increases. Another $69 billion would come in savings on enterprise wireless traffic and sales of WiFi and AR/VR equipment. (Read Articles: Multichannel News, 4/13/20)
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