Trisalus Life Sciences Inc. agreed to merge with Medtech Acquisition Corp. (MTAC) in a deal that allows the drug/device company’s management to meet three out of three goals: quick cash, retained control and faster completion of key clinical trials.

Six minutes of walking data collected by a smartphone sensor could provide population level health screening, researchers reported in PLOS Digital Health. The study tracked more than 100,000 people as they went about their day wearing activity monitors similar to motion sensors used in smartphones. The sensors captured information on intensity from short burst of walking to predict five-year mortality risk, independent of age and sex.

Researchers at the Neurorestore research center created a device that allows paralyzed patients with no sensation in their legs to walk again, providing hope for others with complete spinal injury. More remarkably, the team discovered the specific neurons that take over the signaling function between the brain and muscles to permit movement in response to the device’s electrical stimulation, offering a path forward for researchers, clinicians and patients affected by a wide range of neurological disorders.

Tivic Health Systems Inc. agreed to acquire the assets of Reliefband Technologies LLC for $33.5 million. Reliefband makes a line of wearable electronic nerve stimulators for treatment of nausea and vomiting, while Tivic’s portfolio of bioelectronic products centers on its Clearup device, which has FDA approval for relief of sinus pain and congestion. The deal is expected to close in either late 2022 or early 2023.

The 2022 Vascular Interventional Advances (VIVA) medical meeting, which concluded on Nov. 3 in Las Vegas, focused on advances in interventional cardiology and devices to improve vascular health with the expected studies comparing drug-eluting balloons, new stents and less invasive procedures. One Boston Scientific Corp. presentation put the rest into context, however, with one of the most critical advances in cardiology, enrollment in the Drug-Eluting Registry: Real World Treatment of Lesions in the Peripheral Vasculature (ELEGANCE) registry.

Private equity firm TPG Inc. validated rumors circulating since August that it was seeking a buyer for Immucor Inc. with the announcement of an agreement to sell the diagnostics company for $2 billion to Werfen SA. Immucor offers transfusion and transplantation diagnostics making it a natural fit for Werfen, which develops specialized diagnostic instruments, reagents and data management solutions. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2023.

Femasys Inc. revised the design for its Femaseed pivotal trial to focus on couples experiencing male factor infertility, which accounts for about half of all cases of infertility today. Femaseed delivers sperm directly to the fallopian tube where an egg is released. As a result of the redesign, the Femaseed trial will need just one-quarter the number of treatment cycles originally anticipated.

Just as the U.S. FDA gathered industry leaders to address the issues posed by pulse oximeters that provide inaccurate measurements for individuals with darker skin, Biointellisense Inc. released its own FDA-cleared technology that provides accurate readings regardless of skin tone. The challenge of inaccurate readings for people with darker skin came to the fore with the COVID-19 pandemic as fingertip pulse oximeters emerged as a convenient method of monitoring for hypoxia at home and in clinics, but frequently overreported oxygen levels in the blood of people of color, leading to delayed treatment.