E-health

• Digital apps could help patients self-monitor and manage their health, according to a study published in JAMA. However, the researchers found that the apps did not significantly reduce the rate of hospitalizations in people with multiple chronic diseases. The single-blind randomized study, conducted in British Columbia, gave patients with two or more chronic conditions a digital intervention led by a full-time nurse with the support of a dietitian and exercise specialist. Patients reported their symptoms and answered questions about their lifestyle and adherence.
• The measurement of physiological constants by camera, home support services and augmented surgery are the major trends of French start-ups present at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which is held in Las Vegas from January 4 to 7, 2022,
• Health Data Hub has withdrawn its request for authorization from the CNIL "pending the finalization of the CNIL's instruction of the decree defining the composition of these bases," said the director of the device Stéphanie Combes. A withdrawal that signs the death warrant of this health database, according to the interhop association that promotes free software in health and strongly contests the hosting by Microsoft Azure of the Health Data Hub.
• A strategy endowed with 2.3 billion euros to promote the development of "industrial and deep tech start-ups" is put in place, explained the offices of the Minister Delegate for Industry, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, and the Secretary of State for Digital Transition and Electronic Communications, Cédric O, during a telephone press conference on 19 January.

3D printing

• In France, like COP Chimie, which offers 3D printable silicones dedicated to the orthopedic sector, initiatives combining care and additive manufacturing are multiplying. Among them, we find the Skincasts splints, developed by the Arlesian studio Vr'tig.0 and fully printed in 3D. In order to obtain a personalized and tailor-made splint, the manufacturing process begins with a scan of the injured body part. The scanned file is then sent to the Skincasts teams to be imported into software to be adjusted to maximize patient comfort. Finally, once exported, the printing of the orthosis begins. According to Skincasts, the entire manufacturing process would average 4 hours, a duration that may vary depending on the size of the splint requested.
• After more than a year of research, a team of scientists from Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) has developed a 3D printable antiviral material. According to the researchers, this new material would be able to effectively fight against Covid-19, regardless of the variant, but also against other bacteria.

Artificial intelligence

• Ziad Obermeyer, a physician and machine learning scientist at the University of California, Berkeley, launched Nightingale Open Science last month — a treasure trove of unique medical datasets, each organized around an unsolved medical mystery that artificial intelligence could help solve.
• Child and adolescent mental health, palliative care and clinical AI are some of the opportunities that investors should take a close look at this year and in the future. At the dawn of a new year, this seems like the perfect time to reflect on what has been an exciting 12 months of investing in digital health and explore what will follow in 2022. A total of $21.3 billion was invested between Q1 and Q3 2021, up from $14.6 billion invested in 2020.
• The alert system to detect high-risk variants of SARS-CoV-2 presented on January 14 by InstaDeep and BioNTech combines artificial intelligence and biostructural modeling. Called the Early Warning System, it has identified over the past year 12 of the 13 variants monitored by the WHO, on average two months before their report, claim its designers

Robotics

• New feat in surgical robotics. A team from johns hopkins University in the United States has successfully performed an intestinal anastomosis, an operation that involves attaching two parts of the small intestine to a pig tissue, without human assistance. It is the "Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot" that was used to perform this delicate act.

Digitization of clinical trials

• The new European regulation on clinical trials adopted in 2014 enters into force on 31 January and will take the form of the launch of the single information system allowing study sponsors to centralise their applications for authorisations, representatives of the European authorities shared on 25 January at a press conference, highlighting the contributions of the new system to stimulate clinical research in the EU.

Telemedicine

• An amendment to the bill transforming the health pass into a vaccination pass, adopted this Thursday, December 30, proposes to extend until July 31, 2022 the 100% reimbursement of teleconsultation acts. The objective is to provide easier recourse to care in the context of pandemic recovery while facilitating the administrative management of physicians.
• Google overhauled its strategy this year, eventually dismantling its health division. However, it still released a variety of tools for both consumers and clinicians, with a particular focus on healthcare accessibility and managing COVID-19 as the pandemic moved into its second calendar year.

Life of companies

Digitalization of pharmaceutical laboratories

Johnson & Johnson

• Johnson & Johnson Medical Device Companies (JJMDC) is partnering with big tech to strengthen its digital surgery solutions. The New Brunswick, NJ-based company said on Monday it is collaborating with Microsoft to expand its digital surgical ecosystem.

Biogen

• On the occasion of Choose France, the American company Biogen collaborates with TheraPanacea as part of a financing of 49.3 million euros. This spin-off of Université Paris-Saclay specializes in AI applied to medical imaging. Together with the American giant, she will be responsible for developing several models capable of improving the care of patients with multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. The Digital Factory was able to talk with Shibeshih Belachew, Medical Director of Biogen Digital Health, and Nikolas Paragyios, CEO of TheraPanacea, to understand the challenges of this collaboration.avec Shibeshih Belachew, directeur médical de Biogen Digital Health, et Nikolas Paragyios, CEO de TheraPanacea, pour comprendre les enjeux de cette collaboration.

Abbott

• U.S. pharmaceutical, medical device and nutrition group Abbott won four pri at CES Las Vegas 2022..The top prize goes to its portable rapid test for the detection of head injuries (CBT), i-Stat TBI Plasma, intended to help clinicians assess mild head injury situations, including concussions. The lab also won an Innovation Award for its BinaxNOW Covid-19 self-test.The portable test provides results in 15 minutes without equipment and it is also aimed at asymptomatic patients. The third prize was awarded to Abbott for its FreeStyle Libre 3 continuous blood glucose measurement system. Abbott's flagship therapeutic area, the diabetes segment as a whole is expected to reach 1.1 billion, up more than 30% in 2021, it is recalled. Abbott's last award during this 2022 edition of CES went to its Ultreon 1.0 imaging software.§
• During his historic keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week, Abbott CEO Robert Ford unveiled a new product category that the company is developing: biowearables dubbed Lingo. Like the company's FreeStyle Libre continuous glucose monitoring device for diabetes management, the Lingo products will enable consumers to track key biomarkers in the body such as glucose, ketones, lactate, and alcohol levels

Pfizer

• On 6 January, Pfizer France's "Pfizer Healthcare Hub" acceleration programme launched the call for applications for the third edition of its acceleration programme via an unprecedented partnership with WILCO, which specializes in supporting start-ups.

Lab/start-up partnerships

• Sanofi signs a collaboration agreement with the British start-up Exscientia to discover promising new molecules in oncology and immunology. The work will be based on the medical platform, developed by the start-up, which uses artificial intelligence for drug discovery, translational research and patient selection for clinical trials.
• Digital health company Verana Health has raised $150 million. The company said it will use the new capital to expand its technology, which is used by physicians and pharmaceutical companies. Verana’s pharmaceutical industry partners include Janssen Research & Development, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson. Nearly a year ago, Verana and Janssen began working together to develop new and better treatments in ophthalmology and urology. The two diseases of focus are diabetic retinopathy and early-stage prostate cancer.

Medtechs

• I-Virtual is developing software to "measure physiological parameters from a video selfie," the executive said. From 30 seconds of video streaming, heart rate, breathing rate, heart variability and stress level are measured with a score of 1 to 5. We're working to add oxygen saturation and blood pressure." I-Virtual's solution was built on video-based technology for measuring the stress of autistic people, which has been improved and extended.
• The start-up Grapheal intends to "provide a response to the health crisis" thanks to this digital test that aims to detect the presence of viruses "in five minutes". Specifically, the TestNPass detects the presence of biomarkers in body fluids and delivers an encrypted RFID tag with timestamp, protected against falsification by facial recognition control.
• The French start-up Circular is launching a connected ring of the same name capable of collecting data related to well-being (heart rate, sleep cycles, oxygen levels in the blood, etc.). Its marketing at 289 euros is scheduled for February 27, 2022. Nearly 20,000 rings have been pre-ordered in North America and Europe. In addition to the consumer market, Circular also wants to address medical institutions and insurance.
• Withings presents Body Scan, its new connected scale whose marketing date is set for the second half of 2022 after obtaining the CE marking. In addition to data related to weighing and body composition, the scale offers the detection of peripheral neuropathies, one of the complications related to type 2 diabetes, thanks to the non-invasive technology "Sudoscan" developed by Impeto Medical, discreetly acquired by Withings last November.
• Founded in 2021 in Tel Aviv, Israel, the start-up Protai has developed a platform that maps the evolution of a disease at the protein level. The goal is to accelerate the discovery of promising drugs. It has just raised $8 million to deploy its technology and forge partnerships.
• The start-up Intertio, develops a video platform to promote medicines, medical devices and digital solutions to doctors and pharmacists. It aims to be "the third channel of communication of industrialists" to prescribers, with medical delegates and press relations. Prescribers can consult free videos of about three minutes, "which present the modes of action of therapeutic solutions", and ask questions or make an appointment with manufacturers,
• Quantiq, a French startup, has developed a technology that allows the camera of a smartphone filming a face to measure blood pressure, respiratory rate... A possible revolution for home medicine or medical deserts.
• Doctolib presents its plan for the year 2022. An envelope of 300 million euros of investment is planned to develop existing services and create new ones to attract more and more health professionals. There are now 300,000 of them using Doctolib, including 100,000 new ones in 2021. In particular, a new suite of services for hospitals, secure messaging and administrative software are planned. Doctolib continues its strategy of securing health data. It has just bought the start-up Tanker, which is behind an end-to-end encryption technology that can be integrated as an SDK. The amount of the transaction was not disclosed.
• Wandercraft, at the origin of a self-balancing walking exoskeleton, completes a C series of 40 million euros. With these funds, the company wants to accelerate the launch of a new exoskeleton for use in the city and at home for patients with partial or total walking impairments.
• A first for Epione, the medical robot developed by Quantum Surgical, Bertin Nahum's local Medtech created in 2017 in Montpellier. This ultra-modern device has been adopted by a cancer center, the large Parisian center Gustave-Roussy, located in Villejuif, which thus becomes the first anticancer center in the world to adopt Epione.
• The start-up Resilience completes a series A of 40 million euros. It has developed a mobile application dedicated to the remote monitoring of people with cancer, in collaboration with the Gustave Roussy Center. Patients can thus better understand and experience their treatments. For its part, the healthcare team can collect real-time data to adjust the follow-up.
• The start-up SeqOne Genomics has completed a series A of 20 million euros. It wants to conquer the international market with its genomic analysis software for cancers, rare and hereditary diseases, and genetic screening.

January 2022

E-health

3D printing

Artificial intelligence

Robotics

Digitization of clinical trials

Telemedicine

Life of companies

Lab/start-up partnerships

Medtechs