The pandemic outbreak of novel coronavirus has taken the world by storm. It has created a huge stir across the socio-economic landscape of various countries. Out of 195, the reports say, COVID-19 has infected 192 nations across the globe. While the death toll is rising in other countries like Italy, China is recovering from Wuhan-origin virus with no new domestic cases registered recently, since the outbreak. But how is China recovering while others are getting deep into the unhealthy mess?

The drug development lifecycle is long and fraught with heavy risk -- it takes a staggering 10 – 15 years on average, with ultimately only 12 percent of drugs in clinical trials gaining approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) [1]. To put this in perspective, 22.7 percent of all global research and development spending in 2017 was in the healthcare industry, second only to 23.1 percent spent in the computing and electronics industry, yet the product lifecycle is longer, and costs are much higher [2]. For example, the original iPhone took two and a half years to develop from concept to launch, and an estimated $150 million spent in research and development [3]. In contrast, the average cost of new drug and biologics is $2.87 billion when factoring in the post-approval research and development costs, according to figures released in May 2016 by The Tufts Center for the Study of Drug development (CSDD) [4]. For pharmaceutical companies that have launched more than four drugs, the median cost is closer to a staggering $5.3 billion according to analysis by industry expert Matthew Herper of Forbes [5].

Police in China are using Robocop-style helmets embedded with AI to spot someone with a fever from 16 feet away. A restaurant in L.A. has been checking people's temperatures at the door with an infrared noncontact thermometer. And a hotel near Texas Medical Center in Houston just deployed germ-zapping robots to sanitize guest rooms and common areas. In the war against the spread of the coronavirus, tech gadgets and telemedicine services are getting fast-tracked to the front lines. It's been a whirlwind few months for Dr. Samir Qamar.

WIRE)-- Canon Medical Systems USA, Inc. has received 510(k) clearance on its Advanced intelligent Clear-IQ Engine (AiCE) for the Vantage Galan 3T MR system, further expanding access to its new Deep Learning Reconstruction (DLR) technology. This technology, which is also available across a majority of Canon Medical's CT product portfolio, uses a deep learning algorithm to differentiate true MR signal from noise so that it can suppress noise while enhancing signal, forging a new frontier for MR image reconstruction. AiCE was trained using vast amounts of high-quality image data, and features a deep learning neural network that can reduce noise and boost signal to quickly deliver sharp, clear and distinct images, further opening doors for advancements in MR imaging. "AiCE utilizes a next generation approach to MR image reconstruction, further proving Canon Medical's leadership and commitment to innovation in diagnostic imaging," said Jonathan Furuyama, managing director, MR Business Unit, Canon Medical Systems USA, Inc. "With the expansion of this unique DLR method across modalities and into MR, we're elevating diagnostic imaging capabilities for our customers by bringing the power of AI to routine imaging to provide more possibilities in improving patient care than ever before." Canon Medical Systems USA, Inc., headquartered in Tustin, Calif., markets, sells, distributes and services radiology and cardiovascular systems, including CT, MR, ultrasound, X-ray and interventional X-ray equipment.

Alphabet is using its dominance in the search and advertising spaces -- and its massive size -- to find its next billion-dollar business. From healthcare to smart cities to banking, here are 10 industries the tech giant is targeting. With growing threats from its big tech peers Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon, Alphabet's drive to disrupt has become more urgent than ever before. The conglomerate is leveraging the power of its first moats -- search and advertising -- and its massive scale to find its next billion-dollar businesses. To protect its current profits and grow more broadly, Alphabet is edging its way into industries adjacent to the ones where it has already found success and entering new spaces entirely to find opportunities for disruption. Evidence of Alphabet's efforts is showing up in several major industries. For example, the company is using artificial intelligence to understand the causes of diseases like diabetes and cancer and how to treat them. Those learnings feed into community health projects that serve the public, and also help Alphabet's effort to build smart cities. Elsewhere, Alphabet is using its scale to build a better virtual assistant and own the consumer electronics software layer. It's also leveraging that scale to build a new kind of Google Pay-operated checking account. In this report, we examine how Alphabet and its subsidiaries are currently working to disrupt 10 major industries -- from electronics to healthcare to transportation to banking -- and what else might be on the horizon. Within the world of consumer electronics, Alphabet has already found dominance with one product: Android. Mobile operating system market share globally is controlled by the Linux-based OS that Google acquired in 2005 to fend off Microsoft and Windows Mobile. Today, however, Alphabet's consumer electronics strategy is being driven by its work in artificial intelligence. Google is building some of its own hardware under the Made by Google line -- including the Pixel smartphone, the Chromebook, and the Google Home -- but the company is doing more important work on hardware-agnostic software products like Google Assistant (which is even available on iOS).

Last month, the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved nearly half a dozen of their algorithms designed to detect heart murmurs and atrial fibrillation, irregular heartbeats that could lead to stroke or blood clots. And in December, the FDA granted a "breakthrough" device designation to an algorithm that analyzes data from the heart's electrical impulses for evidence of heart failure. Such a designation allows the agency to fast track significant innovations for approval.

The rapid entry of artificial intelligence is stretching the boundaries of medicine. It will also test the limits of the law. Artificial intelligence (AI) is being used in health care to flag abnormalities in head CT scans, cull actionable information from electronic health records, and help patients understand their symptoms. At some point, AI is bound to make a mistake that harms a patient. When that happens, who -- or what -- is liable?

We have seen some of the most promising use cases of the Artificial intelligence system in the healthcare field recently. In one such example, Google's AI lab DeepMind employed the futuristic tech to accurately detect the disease in Breast Cancer patients. Bacteria has increasingly become resistant to antibiotic drugs over the years as infections have become more dangerous. This has been amply manifested in the recent COVID-19 outbreak. Efforts seem to be gathering pace to find a vaccination or cure for the disease which has rocked the World.

After returning from summer vacation in September 1928, bacteriologist Alexander Fleming found a colony of bacteria he'd left in his London lab had sprouted a fungus. Curiously, wherever the bacteria contacted the fungus, their cell walls broke down and they died. Fleming guessed the fungus was secreting something lethal to the bacteria--and the rest is history. Fleming's discovery of penicillin and its later isolation, synthesis, and scaling in the 1940s released a flood of antibiotic discoveries in the next few decades. Bacteria and fungi had been waging an ancient war against each other, and the weapons they'd evolved over eons turned out to be humanity's best defense against bacterial infection and disease.

Caption Health, a leading medical AI company, announced that its flagship product, Caption AI, the first AI-guided medical imaging acquisition system, is now available for pre-order by healthcare providers. Caption AI is a transformational new technology that enables healthcare practitioners--even those without prior ultrasound experience--with the ability to perform ultrasound exams quickly and accurately, by providing expert guidance, automated quality assessment, and intelligent interpretation capabilities. Caption AI comes equipped with Caption Guidance software, which uses artificial intelligence to provide real-time guidance and feedback on image quality to enable capture of diagnostic quality images. This announcement follows the recent groundbreaking marketing authorization of Caption Guidance software by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The safety and effectiveness of Caption Guidance was clinically validated in a multi-center prospective pivotal trial at Northwestern Medicine and Minneapolis Heart Institute at Allina Health with registered nurses with no prior ultrasound experience.