Biofourmis, a startup developing digital therapeutics and artificial intelligence to remotely monitor patients, said its valuation hit $1.3 billion after raising a $300 million Series D funding round led by General Atlantic. The Boston-based company said CVS Health joined the round, along with existing investors, and also announced Omar Ishrak, chairperson of Intel and former CEO of Medtronic, will chair its board. Biofourmis had previously raised a $100 million round in September 2020 led by SoftBank Investment Advisers at an undisclosed valuation. This Series D round brings the company's total funding to $445 million. Originally based in Singapore, Biofourmis moved its headquarters to the United States in 2019.

As we navigate the post-pandemic world (and grapple with Covid's continual resurgence), voice technology supported by AI will be healthcare's next big tool. Artificial intelligence rocketed up the hype cycle during the pandemic, but no ascension is more fascinating than voice technology. With use cases in multiple industries, including the one on everyone's mind--healthcare, voice tech investments, and deployment will only increase as we navigate a post-Covid world. Voice tech has multiple use case potentials even outside the common customer service applications. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon, for example, pioneered voice tech to identify potential Covid infections from the sound of someone's voice and breathing patterns.

Able to monitor multiple patients in separate rooms simultaneously; staying on top of their blood pressure, pulse and vital signs; and spotting signs of deterioration even before the patients feel it themselves. This medical superhero is not human, but rather a product of artificial intelligence, advanced software algorithms, sensors and cameras. And it's being assembled right now at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center. The creation of an AI-powered "super nurse" is the result of a decade of steady work by Ahuva Weiss-Meilik and her team in the hospital's I-Medata center. "Our doctors and nurses can't be everywhere," Weiss-Meilik tells ISRAEL21c.

Scientists are now working to apply artificial intelligence (AI) to psychiatry, with a speech-based mobile app that can categorise a patient's mental health status as well as or better than a human can. "We are not in any way trying to replace clinicians," said Peter Foltz, research professor at the Institute of Cognitive Science at University of Colorado at Boulder. "But we do believe we can create tools that will allow them to better monitor their patients," he added in a paper published in Schizophrenia Bulletin. Even when a patient does make it in for an occasional visit, therapists base their diagnosis and treatment plan largely on listening to a patient talk – an age-old method that can be subjective and unreliable, notes paper co-author Brita Elvevåg, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Tromsø, Norway. They can get distracted and sometimes miss out on subtle speech cues and warning signs.

New York, Nov 13 (IANS) Scientists are now working to apply Artificial Intelligence (AI) to psychiatry, with a speech-based mobile app that can categorize a patient"s mental health status as well as or better than a human can. "We are not in any way trying to replace clinicians," said Peter Foltz, research professor at the Institute of Cognitive Science at University of Colorado at Boulder. "But we do believe we can create tools that will allow them to better monitor their patients," he added in a paper published in Schizophrenia Bulletin. Even when a patient does make it in for an occasional visit, therapists base their diagnosis and treatment plan largely on listening to a patient talk – an age-old method that can be subjective and unreliable, notes paper co-author Brita Elvevåg, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Tromsø, Norway.

I'm publishing this series to discuss a topic that I follow closely - cloud stocks, trends, strategy, acquisitions, and more. Please subscribe to my Cloud Stock Analysis series and never miss an article. Earlier this week, IBM (Nasdaq: IBM) declared its third quarter results that exceeded earnings expectations despite missing revenue estimates. The stock fell nearly 5% post the result announcement in the after-hours session. Revenues for the third quarter fell 3.9% over the year to $18.03 billion, missing the Street's forecast of $18.23 billion for the quarter.

The intensive care unit is quite possibly the most intense part of any hospital, with those patients with the severest illnesses and injuries being treated. It's an environment where decisions are literally life and death, and this places incredible pressure on staff, who place among the highest in terms of stress and burnout. A recent study by Stanford University proposes using technology, and specifically AI, to try and ease the burden. The paper highlights an AI-driven system to monitor the patients in ICU around the clock, with a particular focus on monitoring their movements from day to day. The rationale was that movement is a good indicator of physical and mental health and helps to prevent muscle atrophy and improve healing.

Snap40, a Scottish startup that has developed an AI-enabled wearable device to help health professionals monitor patients either on the hospital ward or at home, has raised $8 million in seed funding. The round is led by ADV, with participation from MMC Ventures, and brings total funding to $10 million. Originally launched as a clinical pilot in August 2016, the Snap40 hardware and software platform initially set out to enable hospitals to monitor patients whose health is at risk of rapidly deteriorating while on ward, but has since expanded to increasingly focus on what happens after a patient is discharged, in addition to monitoring clinical trials. Claiming to have the same accuracy as ICU monitoring, the wearable device captures oxygen saturation, respiration rate, pulse rate, temperature, movement and posture. In addition to onboard sensors, the Snap40 platform offers integrations with other devices e.g. a BP cuff, weighing scales, a glucose monitor.

Artificial intelligence is already being put to use in the NHS, with Google's AI firm DeepMind providing technology to help monitor patients. And a new study suggests that Google could soon be meeting with Genomic England - a company set up by the Department of Health to sequence 100,000 genomes – to discuss whether DeepMind could get involved. In an article for The Conversation, Edward Hockings a researcher at the University of the West of Scotland, explains the risks of letting a private company gain access to sensitive genetic data. In Google's case, he says, it could allow them to target users with personalised advertising based on their preferences and health risks. It could also create profiles of people based on their DNA data, which may provide details such as their risk of becoming a criminal.