Although digital health technologies are being developed at breakneck speed, policies to reimburse these new technologies are lacking and are desperately needed if Australia is to be competitive in the digital health space, said speakers during the Andhealth Digital Health Summit in Adelaide on May 23.

The €15 million (US$16.45 million) loan Smart Reporting GmbH recently received from the European Investment Bank (EIB) will take the company a “long way” as it looks to expand the use of its artificial intelligence (AI)-based medical documentation technology which “helps clinicians improve their workflow and patients to get better care,” co-CEO Peter Vanovertveld, told BioWorld.

The Ministry of Health and Prevention has just published a decree introducing the anticipated coverage by the National Health Insurance Fund of digital medical devices and remote medical monitoring activities.

Accyourate Group S.p.A has stepped up the commercialization of its e-shirt, a 100% textile smart T-shirt which enables continuous real-time monitoring of biomedical and vital body signals. Accyourate joins a host of companies releasing products in the wearable device market as different technologies for health care including heart rate monitoring, fitness, breathing, temperature levels and fall detection get more sophisticated and grow in popularity.

Huma Therapeutics Ltd. received the first EU Class IIb approval for a software as a medical device (SaMD) product, winning the certification for its system for collecting and analysing patient data across multiple disease indications, the company reported. The approval will open up the market for digital health apps, with customers now able to link into Huma’s underlying technical platform to develop their own digital health apps and companion diagnostics, avoiding the need to then get their own, separate EU medical device certification.

One way to strike fear into patients and cardiologists alike is to merely mention the abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), an event that claims more than 10,000 lives per year in the U.S. alone. That death count might fall substantially going forward thanks to the U.S. FDA’s award of a 510(k) for the AAA algorithm by Viz.ai Inc., a new algorithm which may help clinicians address imminent rupture quickly enough to save the lives of thousands of American patients each year.

Early-stage venture capital firm Karista SAS reported the third edition of its European digital health funds mapping report. This mapping included all funds with global headquarters in France, Germany, Spain, Italy, the U.K., Netherlands, Austria, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Nordics.

Methinks Software SL (dba Methinks.AI), a digital health company, is working on the U.S. FDA submission for its artificial intelligence (AI)-based stroke triage software, which will aid in the detection of acute stroke, after recently receiving CE mark certification.