Valencell, a leader in transforming the science of wearable biometrics to enable impactful health outcomes, announced its groundbreaking calibration-free, cuffless blood pressure (BP) technology for wearables is now able to be used in devices worn on the finger and wrist. The technology, which brings cuff-like BP accuracy to other parts of the body, was first announced in January 2020 for hearables, hearing aids and other ear-based devices. This latest advancement significantly expands the number of device form factors to embed the technology, including smartwatches, fitness bands, patches and pulse oximeter finger clips.

According to the CDC 1, hypertension affects nearly one-third of Americans, or 75 million people, aged 18 or older. Additionally, for approximately one-half of adults with hypertension (nearly 35 million people), it is uncontrolled. A new national survey released today by Valencell revealed 62% of Americans with hypertension only measure their BP a few times a month or less, far below expert recommendations of twice daily 2 . However, more than 75% of respondents would measure their BP “more or much more” often if they could accurately measure passively in the background, which cuff-less options like smartwatches and audio earbuds would enable.

Valencell’s BP technology that can be built into a range of passive form-factors worn in the ear, on the finger and on the wrist makes it significantly easier for people to monitor their BP on a regular basis, allowing them to build potentially life-saving habits. Valencell is pursuing FDA clearance for this technology in early 2021 to help manufacturers who embed the technology in their devices moving forward with the clearance process

Unlike other sensor modalities such as ECG or pulse transit time, the Valencell BP technology does not need to be calibrated to a BP cuff and only requires data from photoplethysmography (PPG) and inertial sensors that are already in widespread use in wearables today. This data, along with a subject’s physical characteristics (age, weight, gender, height), is processed by the Valencell BP estimation software in an embedded model created using machine learning techniques and data from tens-of-thousands of patient results. Valencell is now the first commercially available embedded sensor solution to enable BP readings throughout the day with the same accuracy as current BP cuff devices without the need for a cumbersome cuff.

“Our survey results solidify the next frontier in medical wearables, which is to make a measurable impact on the global hypertension crisis through passive technologies that people will actually use regularly,” said Dr. Steven LeBoeuf, President and co-founder of Valencell.“Huge opportunities exist to ease the burden of blood pressure monitoring and reduce the cost of healthcare with non-invasive sensor technology embedded in devices people wear every day. In fact, the marketplace has recently validated the importance of regular BP self-monitoring with two new CPT codes—99473 and 99474 – supporting reimbursement for home BP monitoring.”

The full results of Valencell’s survey can be found here. Highlights include:

Inconsistent monitoring: People with high blood pressure are not measuring often enough. In fact, Americans with hypertension measure their BP “a few times a month” (31%) or “a few times a year” (also 31%). Only 4% measure BP multiple times a day.
Fingers and wrists: When provided a choice, respondents would prefer to passively measure their BP with a finger clip or pulse oximeter clip (41%), followed by a watch (40%), phone (32%), fitness band (20%) and earbuds (10%).
Information desired: In terms of data people would be interested in receiving when monitoring their BP, over half of respondents (52%) are interested in knowing if their blood pressure is out of the normal range or trending too high or too low. Forty-five percent are interested in the specific systolic and diastolic BP readings.
Comorbidities impact hypertension management: Numerous comorbidities emerged from the research in addition to hypertension, including high cholesterol (50%), obesity (42%), type 2 diabetes (27%), chronic kidney disease (7%) and congestive heart failure (5%).

About Valencell

Valencell transforms the science of wearable biometrics to enable impactful health outcomes. Through innovative R&D and validated technologies, we develop breakthroughs and collaborate with wearables, hearables, and medical device companies around the world to deliver amazing results. Protected by more than 100 granted patents and more than 50 patents pending, Valencell’s technology can be used in wearables and hearables for virtually anyone, anywhere, doing anything. Valencell’s biometric sensor systems are currently integrated into more wearables, hearables and other form factors than any other technology provider in the world.

Survey Methodology

The 2020 Blood Pressure Research Survey was conducted by Valencell from November 5-9, 2020. The online survey polled 787 U.S consumers, ages 18 and up, to understand how they manage hypertension and how that experience could be improved.

The MCM expects to quickly meet the high demand for negative pressure beds in the nation and eventually many other countries where the third wave of COVID-19 is raging. The module is now ready to be rolled out after a three-week test at the Korea Cancer Center Hospital.

Professor Tek-Jin Nam, who developed the MCM, cites ‘expandability’ as its key feature. Eventually, it will serve as both a triage unit and bridge center in emergency medical situations.

“This is a very efficient and versatile unit. It takes approximately two hours to build the basic MCM unit, which comprises four negative pressure bed rooms, nurse’s station, locker room, and treatment room. We believe this will significantly contribute to relieving the drastic need for negative pressure beds and provide a place for monitoring patients with moderate symptoms,” said Professor Nam.

It will also help manage less-severe patients who need to be monitored daily in quarantined rooms or serve as a bridge station where on-site medical staff can provide treatment and daily monitoring before hospitalization. These wards can be efficiently deployed either inside or outside existing hospitals.

The research team specially designed the negative pressure frame to ensure safety level A, utilizing a multi-function panel wall roofed with an air tent. The multi-function panels can hold medical appliances such as ventilators, oxygen and bio-signal monitors. Positive air pressure devices supply fresh air from outside the tent. An air pump and controller maintain air beam pressure while filtering exhausted air. An internal air information monitoring system efficiently controls room air pressure and purifies the air.

While a conventional negative pressure bed is reported to cost approximately 3.5 billion KRW (50 billion won for a ward), this module is estimated to cost 0.75 billion won each (10 billion won for a ward), cutting the costs by approximately 80%. The MCM is designed to be easily transported and maintained. This module requires only one-fourth of the volume of existing wards and approximately 40% of their weight. The unit can be transported in a 40-foot container truck.

Retia Medical is the first company to utilize Capsule Technologies’ new Device Driver Interface (DDI) development strategy to integrate its Argos Cardiac Monitor, the companies announced.

Capsule’s new DDI development strategy uses the Integrating Healthcare Enterprise-Patient Care Device (IHE-PCD) framework to speed device connectivity to other systems, improve clinician workflow efficiency, and to protect patient safety through rapid and accurate identification.

IHE is a consortium of healthcare and industry experts focused on improving healthcare information sharing. The IHE framework fills the gaps between device communication standards such as HL7 without site-specific interface development so hospitals can more easily connect devices to their IT networks and capture data that drives safe and effective clinical decisions.

“Medical devices, such as Retia Medical’s Argos Cardiac Monitor, are indispensable for delivering safe and high-quality patient care,” said John McHutcheon, vice president of operations at Capsule Technologies. “Yet effectively capturing and protecting the data generated from these life-saving devices, while enabling them to access EHR data, can be complicated. That is why we are very pleased to collaborate with Retia Medical on this first utilization of our Device Driver Interface that helps speed the development of highly interoperable, easily connected medical devices using an industry-recognized standard.”

By leveraging the new DDI development strategy, Retia Medical expedited the integration of its updated Argos Cardiac Monitor, saving engineering time and improving customer satisfaction. Using this strategy also enables the Argos Cardiac Monitor to take advantage of Capsule Technologies’ Rapid Patient Identification (RPI) capability, which empowers clinicians at the point of care to more rapidly send patient demographic information to the device for faster identification confirmation, streamlining workflows, and promoting safer care.

Likewise, the agreement with Capsule also supports Retia Medical’s ability to develop its device output following Rosetta Terminology Mapping (RTM) and to receive patient demographics on its device using an IHE Patient Demographics Query (PDQ) request. Incorporating RTM and IHE profiles improves the interoperability of Retia Medical’s device across a variety of different IT systems while also enabling clinicians to identify patients accurately and easily to protect their safety.

“Our vision is to help prevent cardiovascular and other major complications from surgery and critical care by providing consistently accurate hemodynamic data to guide diagnosis and therapy. A key component of this approach is to help implement physiology-based, data-driven protocols through streamlined connectivity to the electronic health record (EHR) using modern communication protocols,” said Marc Zemel, co-founder and CEO of Retia Medical. “We are pleased to collaborate with Capsule to make this vision a reality.”

About Capsule Technologies

Capsule Technologies is a leading global provider of medical data technologies for hospitals and healthcare organizations. Our Medical Device Information Platform — comprised of device integration, vital signs monitoring, and clinical surveillance solutions — captures streaming clinical data from connected systems and transforms it into context-rich information for clinical documentation, alarm management, patient surveillance, decision support, predictive analytics, clinical research and more. End-to-end data management and connectivity supports better collaboration and communication between clinicians and departments. More than 2,700 global clients leverage our platform to improve patient safety, simplify workflows and raise overall satisfaction throughout the hospital and across care settings.

About Retia Medical

Retia Medical’s Argos Monitor, with its Multi-Beat Analysis (MBATM) algorithm, eliminates a critical problem with older cardiac output technologies. By analyzing multiple heart beats (MBA™) and not just one single beat at a time, the Argos provides consistently accurate hemodynamic measurements for critically ill adult patients, enabling clinicians to make more informed, data-driven decisions to improve end-organ perfusion. Additionally, the Argos system is unique in its class by not requiring costly disposables to monitor each patient, and is available at a low, fixed capital cost. Setting up the minimally invasive Argos requires a single cable connection and takes less than 2 minutes to start monitoring.

Diagnostic Imaging®, an omnichannel resource for radiology administrators, practicing radiologists and radiologic staff, is pleased to announce a partnership with radRounds Radiology Network. The collaboration will enable content exchange between Diagnostic Imaging® and radRounds.

“As a professional social networking platform dedicated to radiology, radRounds’ mission aligns seamlessly with Diagnostic Imaging®,” said Mike Hennessy Jr., president and CEO of MJH Life Sciences™, the parent company of Diagnostic Imaging®. “Through this partnership, we look forward to broadening the reach of our editorial content as well as providing our audience with additional clinical perspectives shared by radRounds.”

radRounds will supply two images each week submitted by radiologists nationwide for Diagnostic Imaging®’s popular Image IQ, providing the radiologist-centered audience with visual content and facilitating access to real-life cases with the accompanying clinical and diagnostic information.

In exchange, Diagnostic Imaging® will supply radRounds with content from its most popular articles each month and, as applicable, with video content for wider distribution via radRounds’ separate social media network.

“Through this partnership, we hope to further advance the reach of radiology ‘rounds’ in the virtual setting,” said Garry Choy, M.D. and Susan Huang, M.D., co-founders of the Rounds Network. “Diagnostic Imaging® remains one of the most trusted and read resources focused on imaging, and we look forward to collectively keeping radiologists and imaging professionals informed on latest happenings within the industry.”

About Diagnostic Imaging®

Diagnostic Imaging® is an omnichannel resource for radiology administrators, practicing radiologists and radiologic staff. As a multimedia platform, Diagnostic Imaging® provides text, video and audio content on the key areas affecting daily practice, including current information on CT, X-ray, ultrasound, MRI, mammography and facility management news and developments. Diagnostic Imaging® is a brand of MJH Life Sciences™, the largest privately held, independent, full-service medical media company in North America dedicated to delivering trusted health care news across multiple channels.

About radRounds

radRounds, part of the Rounds Network, serves as a key resource for radiologists and imaging professionals. “Rounds” is a tradition in which medical professionals learn from one another through case sharing. radRounds aims to bring medical professionals together to do this anytime, anywhere.

Olympus Corporation and Hitachi have signed a five-year contract to jointly develop Endoscopic Ultrasound Systems (EUS). Hitachi will also continue to supply diagnostic ultrasound systems and related parts used in EUS to Olympus under this contract.

EUS consist of a diagnostic ultrasound system and ultrasound flexible endoscopes. They are used in examinations to evaluate the stage of cancer in the liver, pancreas, and bronchus, as well as in minimally-invasive care, contributing to the medical treatment.

Hitachi’s diagnostic imaging-related business is expected to be transferred to FUJIFILM Corporation, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. The agreement between Hitachi and Olympus will be valid after such transfer.

Mind Cure, a Canadian mental health company, has released a digital therapeutic tool designed to close the gaps between patients, clinicians and researchers.

Called iSTRYM, the app provides close to real-time data regarding patient care, procedures and protocols. It’s described as a centralized management system that can be used for a variety of mental health treatments, including those in psychedelic therapeutic research.

iSTRYM works by gathering data that arise outside of psychedelic-assisted therapy sessions, such as weather, location, mood or heart rate. With the help of artificial intelligence, the app generates insights found across the datasets to guide clinicians towards well-rounded diagnoses, treatments and personalized care experiences.

By converging these uncategorized data in the platform, Mind Cure hopes to empower patients to be more active in their care journey. It also creates a database of clinical practices and protocols for the psychedelic research community.

Mind Cure has a mission to identify, develop and commercialize products that enhance mental health and wellness, ease suffering and increase productivity. Part of the company’s approach is through the research and utilization of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy.

Even before the pandemic, the mental health of Americans was worsening, according to Mental Health America. It found that 19% of U.S. adults experienced a mental illness between 2017 and 2018, an increase of 1.5 million people from the previous year.

The growing burden of the country’s struggle with mental health has led some researchers to examine the effectiveness of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. Typically, this is the professionally supervised use of drugs such as ketamine, MDMA, psilocybin, LSD and ibogaine.

Studies have shown promising results of using psychedelics to treat psychiatric disorders, according to a review from The American Journal of Psychiatry. It says that, while there isn’t yet enough data to support FDA approval of psychedelics for routine clinical use, the existing data support continued research.

Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy gained speed in 2020 when Oregon became the first state to legalize the use of psilocybin for mental health treatment and decriminalize the possession of all illegal drugs.

Digital mental health services have also been on the rise, due in part to the added stressors of COVID-19 and the government-imposed social isolation requirements.

Modern Health’s employee-focused mental health platform received a $51 million raise towards the end of 2020 to grow its network and service options.

WellDoc, which already had digital health offerings for diabetes, hypertension, heart failure and diabetes prevention, recently added behavioral health programming to its platform. With it, users can get assistance in improving their problem-solving capabilities, developing better social skills, getting a better night’s sleep, reducing anxiety and changing their attitude.

People struggling with mental health are now able to get help in between binging their favorite shows with mindfulness and meditation app Headspace coming to Netflix. The first of three series from Headspace aired on the first of 2021 and teaches viewers the foundations of meditation.

“As a life sciences and digital therapeutics company, providing speed to market with novel psychedelic therapies through deeper data analytics is a strength we are developing with iSTRYM,” said Kelsey Ramsden, the president and CEO of Mind Cure, in a statement.

“Further, as we build out our database for mental wellness, both therapists and individuals will get mental wellness protocols for wellness optimization and support. iSTRYM exists to become the source that individuals turn to for science-backed, personalized mental health support at scale.”

The Kingdom of Bahrain has reportedly become the very first country in the world to allow COVID-19 vaccine appointments via a mobile app.

All citizens and residents of the Gulf nation are able to schedule their free vaccination via the BeAware smartphone application, which was launched at the beginning of the pandemic as the country’s COVID-19 contact tracing offering. During booking, users can choose between either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Sinopharm vaccination, reported Arabian Business.

Those who cannot, or would prefer not to use the app can alternatively book their appointment through the Bahraini Ministry of Health’s website.

In early December, Bahrain confirmed it would provide the COVID-19 vaccine free of charge to all of its citizens and residents, with distribution taking place across 27 medical centres.

The Kingdom first approved the Sinopharm vaccine in November for use by frontline workers, followed by the Pfizer-BioNTech version, also for emergency use.

As of now, Bahrain has the second-highest vaccination rate in the world, the first being Israel, with a reported rate of 3.49 vaccination doses per 100 individuals.

The government has confirmed that it has plans to vaccinate at least 5,000 individuals per day, with plans to eventually reach a daily rate of 10,000 individuals.

There are currently five main vaccines circulating in the region aimed at protecting the population from the coronavirus that is causing COVID-19.

In the wider GCC, Kuwait has authorised the emergency use of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, while Oman has started to offer the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine as well. It is, however, said to be also negotiating with AstraZeneca for an estimated 850,000 doses of its vaccine.

Qatar first opted for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, but the country has also confirmed a deal with Moderna. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has opted for Pfizer/BioNTech.

Finally, in the United Arab Emirates, Sinopharm’s vaccine was the first approved for use, followed by Pfizer-BioNTech’s version.

While Bahrain has been praised for its advances in utilising technology to control the spread of COVID-19, its response to the coronavirus pandemic hasn’t come without controversy. In June, Amnesty International claimed that the country’s BeAware app was amongst “some of the most invasive COVID-19 contact tracing apps around the world, putting the privacy and security of hundreds of thousands of people at risk.”

According to the NGO, BeAware – along with Kuwait’s “Shlonik” and Norway’s “Smittestopp” – emerged as the “most alarming mass surveillance tools” with the three reportedly carrying out live or near-live tracking of users’ locations by frequently uploading GPS coordinates to a central server at the time.

A Bahraini government spokesperson responded via the BBC, stating: “The BeAware app was designed for the sole purpose of advancing contact tracing efforts and saving lives. It is an entirely voluntary opt-in app… and all users are informed of its use of GPS software before downloading.”

More than 820,300 coronavirus vaccinations have been administered in the UAE so far, equivalent to about eight percent of the country’s population.

The National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority, better known as NCEMA, said about 47,000 jabs have been carried out per day so far.

It added that it aims to reach more than 50 percent of the country’s population during the first quarter of this year. In a series of tweets, NCEMA said: “This will help us reduce cases in general, reduce critical cases in particular, and control the disease better in the next phase.”

NCEMA added that it has noticed a marked increase in the number of Covid-19 cases in the UAE due to the increase in commuting between emirates, in addition to the presence of cases coming from outside the UAE arriving at various airports.

“Our goal in the next stage is to control the increase in the number of cases by reviewing the precautionary measures applied in establishments and institutions and emphasising the commitment of all members of society to preventive measures,” the authority added in another tweet.

“We aim to focus on vaccination for the largest possible percentage of society, and access to the acquired immunity resulting from vaccination, which will help reduce the number of cases and control the disease,” it said.

NCEMA stressed that taking the vaccine is optional, not compulsory, with two doses administered with a three to four week gap.

Vaccinated individuals are exempt from home quarantine after completing 28 days from receiving the second dose of the vaccine.

Optum, a diversified health services company and part of UnitedHealth Group , and Change Healthcare, a health care technology leader, have agreed to combine. Change Healthcare will join with OptumInsight to provide software and data analytics, technology-enabled services and research, advisory and revenue cycle management offerings to help make health care work better for everyone.

This combination unites two technology and service companies focused on serving health care. Their combined capabilities will more effectively connect and simplify core clinical, administrative and payment processes – resulting in better health outcomes and experiences for everyone, at lower cost. Change Healthcare brings key technologies, connections and advanced clinical decision, administrative and financial support capabilities, enabling better workflow and transactional connectivity across the health care system. Optum brings modern analytics, comprehensive clinical expertise, innovative technologies and extensive experience in improving operational and clinical performance.

“Together we will help streamline and inform the vital clinical, administrative and payment processes on which health care providers and payers depend to serve patients,” said Andrew Witty, President of UnitedHealth Group and CEO of Optum. “We’re thrilled to welcome Change Healthcare’s highly skilled team to create a better future for health care.”

“This opportunity is about advancing connectivity and accelerating innovations and efficiencies essential to a simpler, more intelligent and adaptive health system. We share with Optum a common mission and values and importantly, a sense of urgency to provide our customers and those they serve with the more robust capacities this union makes possible,” said Neil de Crescenzo, President and CEO of Change Healthcare. Upon closing, Mr. de Crescenzo will serve as OptumInsight’s chief executive officer, leading the combined organization.

Some of the key opportunities to enhance the health care system include:

The combined company will help clinicians make the most informed and clinically advanced patient care decisions, more quickly and easily. Change Healthcare brings widely adopted technology for integrating evidence-based clinical criteria directly into the clinician’s workflow, while Optum’s clinical analytics expertise and Individual Health Record can strengthen the evidence base needed to deliver effective clinical decision support at the point of care. This can ensure appropriate sites of care and consistently achieve the best possible health, quality and cost outcomes.

Complexities across the health system result in significant levels of administrative waste. The combined company will be well positioned to make health care simpler, more efficient and more effective. A key opportunity is to enhance with insights drawn from billions of claims transactions using Change Healthcare’s intelligent health care network, combined with Optum’s advanced data analytics. This will support significantly faster, more informed and accurate services and processing.

Change Healthcare’s payment capacities combined with Optum’s highly automated payment network will simplify financial interactions among care providers, payers and consumers and accelerate the movement to a more modern, real-time and transparent payment system. This will ensure physicians get paid more quickly, accurately and reliably, and provide consumers the same simplicity and convenience managing their health care finances they experience with other transactions. Change Healthcare brings deep patient communication capabilities, engaging more than 200 million unique individuals each year. Integrating these engagements with people’s health financial benefits will make it simpler for consumers and enhance alignment with incentive programs which reward healthy behaviors.

“Change Healthcare has made significant progress executing its strategic objectives, including advancing innovation, accelerating growth and improving the effectiveness of the U.S. health system,” said Howard Lance, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Change Healthcare. “We are delighted to have in Optum a partner that shares a common vision of creating a better future for health care for the people and communities we serve and see this combination as in the best interests of all of our stakeholders.”

The agreement calls for the acquisition of Change Healthcare’s common stock for $25.75 per share in cash and is expected to close in the second half of 2021, subject to Change Healthcare shareholders’ approval, regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. Private equity funds affiliated with The Blackstone Group, which own approximately 20% of the common stock of Change Healthcare, have agreed to vote the shares they control in favor of the combination.

The acquisition is expected to be accretive to UnitedHealth Group’s net and adjusted earnings per share by approximately $0.20 and $0.50 respectively in 2022, advancing strongly in subsequent years, inclusive of investments to accelerate technology, system and product integration and development activities to more quickly deliver the value of this combination to all health care system stakeholders. Adjusted earnings exclude from net earnings only the after-tax non-cash amortization expense pertaining to acquisition-related intangible assets.
About Optum

Optum is a leading information and technology-enabled health services business dedicated to helping make the health system work better for everyone. With more than 190,000 people worldwide, Optum delivers intelligent, integrated solutions that help to modernize the health system and improve overall population health.

About Change Healthcare

Change Healthcare is a leading independent healthcare technology company, focused on accelerating the transformation of the healthcare system through the power of the Change Healthcare Platform. We provide data and analytics-driven solutions to improve clinical, financial, administrative, and patient engagement outcomes in the U.S. healthcare system.