The competitive din in the vocal sound diagnostic space rose to new levels as Sonde Health Inc. launched a developer portal to enable other companies to incorporate its vocal biomarker-based health check technology into their apps. Sonde joins a growing number of companies and academic labs around the world talking up the ability of voice recordings to detect a surprising range of diseases.

Regulation of the digital health space is in some respects fundamentally different from traditional hardware medical devices, a fact that was highlighted during a Nov. 12 webinar hosted by the U.S. FDA. Nonetheless, several participants in the webinar made the point that the twin problems of coverage and reimbursement are critical issues for digital health as well, a problem that some see as requiring more collaboration between the FDA and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

Varian Medical Systems Inc. has invested $10 million in and inked a collaboration agreement with Cota Inc., a Boston-based curator of oncology clinical data. The radiation oncology company will now offer its customers access to Cota’s oncology real-world analytics and data curation services, which aggregate electronic health record (EHR) data to yield meaningful insights.

As cases skyrocket and more questions arise about the high rate of false negatives returned by rapid testing in COVID-19 cases, a simple, new diagnostic test offers far greater accuracy. Researchers around the globe have found that artificial intelligence can detect coronavirus infections in recorded forced coughs, with nearly 100% accuracy in asymptomatic or presymptomatic cases, making it an ideal quick screening test. Forced cough or voice analysis shows strong results in other conditions, too, including pulmonary hypertension and, surprisingly, Alzheimer's disease.

The U.S. FDA has given its nod to a new solution that aims to help with the temporary reduction of sleep disturbance related to nightmares in certain people. Specifically, the agency reviewed the device, from Minneapolis-based Nightware Inc., through the de novo premarket review pathway and now is permitting its use in patients aged 22 years of age or older who are suffering from nightmare disorder or have nightmares from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The agency previously granted the solution breakthrough device designation.