Labcorp Holdings Inc. launched its new H5N1 bird flu molecular test for humans in the U.S. as an international outbreak of the disease continues to spread in cows and poultry – and people. As BioWorld reported recently, just one mutation would make the flu variant highly transmissible in humans.

Heartbeam Inc. received U.S. FDA 510(K) clearance for its portable, non-invasive electrocardiogram system that enables on-the-go recording of heart signals. The cable-free, credit card-sized device uses five electrodes to capture signals from three directions and can be used whenever a patient feels symptoms, overcoming the challenge of identifying intermittent arrhythmias, which are often not experienced during scheduled appointments, without requiring patients to wear a device continuously.

Capstan Medical Inc. closed an oversubscribed series C fundraising round that brought in $110 million for the structural heart-focused company. Capstan aims to combine valve implants, advanced catheter technology and a robotic platform to facilitate expanded minimally invasive treatment options for patients with heart valve disease.

Bring your dog to work day looks a little different at Spotitearly. The Tel Aviv-based company asks its canine workers to bring their whole selves to the job – particularly their finely trained noses – to help suss out cancer in breath samples. The dogs’ unique capabilities are interpreted by AI to capture canine indicators humans might miss and the combo has remarkably high accuracy, 93% or better in three of the four common cancers tested.

The force is with Field Medical Inc. as it celebrates the U.S. FDA’s decisions to grant breakthrough device designation (BDD) to its Fieldforce ablation system and to accept it into the agency’s Total Product Life Cycle Advisory Program pilot. Field Medical designed the Fieldforce pulsed field ablation catheter specifically to treat ventricular tachycardia. The BDD applies to its use in monomorphic scar-related VT.

A federal jury awarded Insulet Corp. $452 million against Eoflow Co. Ltd., concluding that Eoflow and other defendants stole trade secrets to create the Eopatch, a device with striking similarities to Omnipod, Insulet’s market-dominating tubeless insulin pump.

Beacon Biosignals Inc. can rest easy now that it has received U.S. FDA authorization of its predetermined change control plan for the Dreem 3s, a wearable sleep monitor that conducts electroencephalograms as users sleep. The authorization allows Beacon to incorporate updates to the Dreem 3S sleep-staging algorithm acquired through machine learning without submitting a new 510(k) application.

At long last, the U.S. FDA finalized guidance on using predetermined change control plans in submissions for medical devices that include artificial intelligence. The guidance, “Marketing Submission Recommendations for a Predetermined Change Control Plan for Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Device Software Functions,” aims to support the iterative improvement central to many algorithms while minimizing potential issues with safety and efficacy.

In breaking news, Wave Neuroscience LLC received breakthrough device designation from the U.S. FDA for its magnetic electroencephalogram resonance therapy for adjunctive treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), making its technology the first medical device approved to treat the debilitating condition, the company said.

Movano Inc., dba Movano Health, added some clinical-grade glitz to its Evie ring with a U.S. FDA clearance for the built-in pulse oximeter. Movan’s stock shot up from an all-time low within minutes of the announcement on Dec. 2, as the clearance breathes new life into Movano’s plans to position the ring as a medical device.