More than a dozen robotics researchers expressed the need for robots to play a greater role in managing the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, as well as in future preparedness. They pointed to three broad medical areas where robots can make a difference: clinical care with applications such as telemedicine and decontamination; logistics for delivery and handling of medical waste; and reconnaissance such as quarantine enforcement.

LONDON – Behold.ai Ltd. has secured U.S. FDA 510(k) approval for use of its Red Dot image recognition algorithm in the automatic diagnosis of life-threatening pneumothorax (collapsed lung). The product completes the analysis immediately, sending an alert to the radiologist as soon as an X-ray is taken. “It does in 30 seconds what would normally take up to 30 minutes,” said Simon Rasalingham, CEO of London-based Behold.ai.

TORONTO – Complain to your doctor about shortness of breath, chest pain or a rapid or irregular heartbeat and chances are you’ll end up on a treadmill to check for the presence of coronary artery disease or CAD. The conventional treadmill stress test is a time-consuming process that could change with patented, AI-driven sensor technology developed by Ottawa, Ontario-based Ausculsciences Inc. and bankrolled by US$10 million from investors anxious to see the CAD-det System approved for sale by the end of the year.

Swiss researchers set out to identify and analyze vital sign data that could offer a window into predicting circulatory failure, which could enable more effective prevention of catastrophic events in the ICU.

Looking to help blind and visually impaired patients, Envision, of The Hague, Netherlands, has unveiled its plans to integrate its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered software technology into Google Glass.

LONDON – Ibex Medical Analytics is preparing for commercial rollout in Europe after receiving CE-IVD marking for its artificial intelligence (AI) decision support system for automated interpretation of prostate cancer biopsies. Galen Prostate, trained on more than 60,000 samples from multiple institutions, is intended to give a second opinion on digitized slides, following initial assessment by a pathologist.

In an effort to gain new insights about the novel coronavirus sweeping the globe, Boston-based Biofourmis Inc. is leveraging its artificial intelligence (AI)-driven remote monitoring platform to monitor Hong Kong patients diagnosed or suspected of having COVID-19. The remote monitoring and disease surveillance program, which kicked off just a few days ago, is being administered by the University of Hong Kong and includes Biofourmis’ Hong Kong-based joint venture, Harmony Medical Inc.

An artificial intelligence (AI) platform developed by Naperville, Ill.-based Physiq Inc. gave researchers a mean of 10.4 days warning of an impending heart failure exacerbation that would require hospitalization or an emergency department visit, according to a study published in Circulation – Heart Failure.

San Diego-based Cortechs Labs Inc. has developed an automated PET image analysis tool that identifies changes in specific brain structures associated with Alzheimer’s disease, vascular dementia, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and other neurological disorders.

Artificial intelligence still has a lot to prove when it comes to its relevance in improving health care. But one bright spot was a deal last July between Dublin-based Medtronic plc and San Francisco-based startup Viz.ai Inc. to use the latter’s AI system that’s designed to spot a large vessel occlusion automatically in CT angiogram images.