Drug diversion in hospitals is a serious concern, facilitated in part by inadequate security controls that allow unauthorized staff to access the pharmacy stock. To help thwart this problem and improve medication management, Taipei, Taiwan-based Cyberlink Corp. and Imedtac Co. Ltd. are teaming up to bring facial recognition technology to the hospital medicine cabinet.

BOGOTA, Colombia – A startup in Mexico has developed an intelligent glove to diagnose cardiac diseases in seconds just by touching a patient’s chest. The invention could become available on the market by the end of 2020, when Soluciones Kenko, from Jalisco, Mexico, expects to hit the Mexican market with a futuristic solution for the health care sector.

Health care-associated infections (HAI) pose a constant challenge for hospitals and health systems, resulting in increased morbidity and mortality and billions in costs each year. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 1 in 31 patients has at least one HAI at any given time. In 2016, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services set a 2020 goal of reducing HAIs by 50% below a 2015 baseline. To that end, Biotia Inc. plans to launch an artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled test to detect harmful bugs and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) early in the new year.

Will the digital transformation in health care start to benefit consumers in 2020? That was one of the challenges addressed in a recent report from PwC Health Research Institute titled “Top health industry issues of 2020: Will digital start to show an ROI?” The report predicts that in the next year, health system leaders will tout their investments in technology and transformation.

PARIS – Diabnext SAS, of Versailles, France, has launched Clipsulin 3XS, a sensor intended to monitor and manage diabetes that the company says is compatible with all insulin pens on the market. “This is the first sensor that automatically reports insulin doses injected by the pen, in both children and adults,” Laurent Nicolas, co-founder and CEO of Diabnext, told BioWorld MedTech.

HONG KONG – South Korea’s Medical IP Co. Ltd., an artificial intelligence (AI)-based medical 3D printing and software company, has won the FDA’s nod for its medical imaging analysis solution Medical Image Processing (Medip).

HONG KONG – Pentax Medical Co., of Tokyo, has gained CE marking for its artificial intelligence-based polyp detector Discovery. The detector assists endoscopists in finding potential polyps during a colorectal examination. The software has been trained using more than 120,000 files from about 300 clinical cases.

Augmedics Inc., a Chicago-based startup focused on augmented reality (AR) applications in health care, has scored a 510(k) clearance from the U.S. FDA for its Xvision Spine system. The company launched the device, which provides surgeons with X-ray quality insights into a patient’s anatomy and real-time surgical navigation, on Monday, with distribution slated to begin in the new year. While the FDA has cleared other AR products, Xvision Spine (XVS) is the first to be indicated for guided surgery.

Heart failure is a leading cause of disability and death in the U.S., but many cases are diagnosed late due to limited access to echocardiography, the primary method of detecting the condition. To address that need, the U.S. FDA has granted breakthrough device designation to Eko Devices Inc., of Berkeley, Calif., for an electrocardiogram (ECG)-based algorithm that could serve as an easily accessible screening tool for heart failure during routine physical exams.