With the ongoing push toward value-based care, providers are looking for ways to improve patient outcomes while also lowering health care costs. Los Angeles-based Dearhealth Inc.'s artificial intelligence-powered software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform aims to do meet that demand by helping physicians better manage patients with chronic conditions. Now Philips Health Technology Ventures and other large investors are putting their money behind the company, seeing an opportunity to generate real movement in advance population health.

Getting on top of the persistent HIV epidemic requires getting ahead of new cases, but only about 7% of at-risk patients have been advised of a prophylactic drug regime approved by the FDA seven years ago. Two new studies appearing in The Lancet HIV suggest that an algorithm that uses electronic health record (EHR) data can help physicians identify their at-risk patients who are good candidates for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), thus improving the odds that modern medicine might finally put an end to the scourge of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.

PARIS – Six months after opening its first Biome digital innovation lab in San Francisco, the Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis AG announces the opening of its first European digital innovation lab, located at the head office of its subsidiary in Rueil-Malmaison, France. The French hub Biome Paris boasts 250 square meters of space, allowing French or foreign-based startups to innovate and respond to specific challenges arising in the pharmaceutical sector. "It is a platform interface between ourselves as drug specialists, startups and internet giants. Biome Paris will make our treatments available to patients more quickly," Frédéric Collet, Novartis country president, France, told BioWorld MedTech.

Xealth Inc., of Seattle, closed a series A financing with an additional $3 million from new investors Atrium Health, Cleveland clinic and Memorialcare Innovation Fund. The proceeds, which now total $14 million, will go toward further developing and deploying the company's digital prescribing and analytics platform. The company focuses on helping health systems organize and utilize digital health tools to optimize workflow, patient engagement and financial results.

Cochlear Ltd., of Sydney, received U.S. FDA approval for its Nucleus Profile Plus cochlear implant and the Nucleus 7 sound processor's new built-in connectivity, enabling direct streaming with compatible Android smartphones. The implant will be commercially available in the U.S. later this month.

The digital therapeutics market is witnessing considerable growth globally thanks to the confluence of the development of new technologies, the increasing prevalence of chronic diseases and lifestyle-associated diseases and an aging population. Exactly how the technology will impact the health care milieu was the subject of a panel held at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization's 2019 international convention earlier this month, organized by Accel-Rx, Canada's health sciences accelerator that supports promising early stage companies developing therapeutics, diagnostics and medical devices.

Boston startup Beta Bionics Inc. is headed into a pair of ambitious pivotal trials in 2020: one starting for an autonomous bionic pancreas device with insulin only and another to follow for a bihormonal version that also includes glucagon. These are expected to offer more precise, easy-to-use blood glucose maintenance for type 1 diabetes patients.

KARACHI, Pakistan – Pakistan is running short of women doctors. That's not due to a lack of medical education facilities – 70% of all medical students are women – but because many of them leave midway through their careers. The Muslim-majority country now is looking to new medical technologies and telemedicine to address this issue. One startup that launched in 2017, Sehat Kahani, is relying on telemedicine to expand the reach of health care by, in large part, tapping into this pool of medical talent.

Netanya, Israel-based Theranica Bioelectronics Ltd., which is focusing on the development of advanced electroceuticals for migraine and other pain disorders, scored a win at the U.S. FDA, with the agency granting its de novo request for the smartphone-controlled Nerivio Migra.

PARIS – Six months after floating on the Euronext stock exchange in Paris, Predilife SA from Villejuif, France, is launching the Mammorisk predictive test for breast cancer risk in Europe and the U.S. "Mammorisk is the first multi-criteria test to use data mining, allowing it to combine medical imaging, genetic profile and family history," Pierre Verdet, assistant managing director of Predilife, told BioWorld MedTech.