South Korea to Fund Medical AI Device Rollout and More Briefs
South Korea's Ministry of Health and Welfare will allocate 8 billion won ($5.3 million) from the AX‑Sprint programme to fund commercialization of AI‑based medical devices, supporting consortia with hospitals for clinical validation and reimbursement between 2026‑27. Singapore's Nanyang Technological University launched the second phase of its Future Health Technologies programme, backed by S$37.9 million ($30 million) to develop AI and robotics solutions for ageing, including digital twins and wearable sensors. In northern Thailand, Bangkok Hospital Chiang Mai signed an MOU with Chiang Mai University’s Science and Technology Park to co‑develop AI‑driven clinical workflow and patient safety tools. Together, these initiatives illustrate a regional push to integrate AI into healthcare delivery and create new market opportunities.
This Week in European MedTech and HealthTech: 10th April 2026
The European Commission released new guidance linking the AI Act to the MDR/IVDR, demanding higher data quality, risk management and human oversight for high‑risk AI medical software. The EU Health Technology Assessment framework is now fully operational, raising the evidence...
Iron‐Based Metal‐Organic Framework MIL‐100(Fe) Regulates Keloid Scarring in a Humanized Keloid Model
The study shows iron‑based metal‑organic framework MIL‑100(Fe) nanoparticles are highly biocompatible, rapidly taken up by keloid fibroblasts, and selectively inhibit the TGF‑β/SMAD pathway, reducing collagen I, collagen III, and P4HA1 expression. In vitro experiments maintained >90% cell viability and curtailed...

EBSCO Clinical Decisions Report: 80% of Clinicians Trust Evidence-Based AI Tools
EBSCO Clinical Decisions released a report showing a stark trust gap in AI‑driven clinical decision support. While 89% of clinicians believe AI‑CDS will improve outcomes, 64% of patients would rather see a doctor who does not use AI. Evidence‑based AI...
[Perspectives] Mammography Should Include Artificial Intelligence Support
The Mammography Screening with Artificial Intelligence (MASAI) randomised trial showed that a single radiologist assisted by an AI algorithm achieved higher sensitivity than the traditional double‑reading approach, while preserving specificity. Complementary studies from 2025‑2026 confirm AI’s scalability and equitable performance...
[Correspondence] Contemporary Non-Invasive Imaging for Coronary Artery Disease
The correspondence highlights three critical clarifications to a recent review on non‑invasive cardiac imaging. First, it stresses that patients with non‑obstructive coronary arteries can still experience angina and ischemia due to microvascular dysfunction or vasospasm. Second, it reinterprets the role...

Imagene AI Partners with Daiichi Sankyo to Advance Multimodal Biomarker Discovery in Oncology
Imagene AI has teamed up with Daiichi Sankyo to use its OI Suite, powered by the CanvOI foundation model, for multimodal biomarker discovery in oncology. The collaboration will integrate H&E and IHC whole‑slide images with molecular and clinical data to...

Dermatologists Show Highest Melanoma Diagnostic Performance with AI Support
A systematic review of 11 prospective studies involving over 2,500 patients found that AI algorithms detect melanoma with sensitivity (80.9%) and specificity (75.6%) comparable to dermatologists (78.6% and 75.2%). When dermatologists used AI assistance, performance jumped to 91.9% sensitivity and...
IBM Win NHS App Deal
NHS England awarded IBM a two‑year contract worth £160.1 million (about $203 million) to advance the NHS App. The deal, running from May 1 2026 to March 31 2028, focuses on expanding features, AI‑driven triage, and user‑centred pathways. It marks a shift from IBM’s previous operational...
New EPR Goes Live in Torbay and South Devon
The Epic electronic patient record (EPR) system has gone live across Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust, linking hospital and community sites. The rollout initially connects Royal Devon University Healthcare and Torbay and South Devon Trust, with University Hospitals...
AI-Designed Proteins Built From Scratch Can Recognize Specific Compounds
Researchers at KAIST, led by Gyu Rie Lee and David Baker, used an AI model to design artificial proteins from scratch that selectively bind specific compounds. The team experimentally validated six de novo binding proteins, including a cortisol‑responsive biosensor that functions as a chemical‑induced...

Maggu AI Raises $3.7M to Scale Its AI Platform for Pharmacies
Maggu AI, a Brazilian AI platform for pharmacy retail, secured $3.7 million in a round led by DGF Capital. The startup integrates real‑time recommendation tools into existing pharmacy management systems, helping staff suggest products and care instructions without workflow disruption. Its...

CMS Launched First Wave of Its Health Technology Ecosystem
On April 9, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) launched the first wave of its Health Technology Ecosystem, showcasing interoperable digital tools from more than 50 companies. The rollout introduces a "Kill the Clipboard" initiative, digital Medicare cards, and...
AI-Based Monitoring Reveals Protein Deficiencies in People Taking GLP-1 Receptor Agonists for Weight Loss
A new real‑world study used an AI‑driven nutrition‑tracking app to examine dietary habits of adults on GLP‑1 receptor agonists semaglutide and tirzepatide. Participants ate significantly fewer calories, with notable drops in protein and micronutrient intake. The AI analysis flagged nutritional...

Which Health Plans Rank Highest In Digital Experience?
The JD Power U.S. Healthcare Digital Experience study evaluated 7,687 members across the 17 largest Medicare Advantage and 16 largest commercial health plans. Cigna Healthcare topped the commercial segment with a 684‑point score, while UPMC Health Plan led Medicare Advantage...
AI Model Suggests CPAP Can Massively Swing Heart Risk in Sleep Apnea
Mount Sinai researchers developed a machine‑learning model that predicts how continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy will affect cardiovascular risk in patients with obstructive sleep apnea. Using data from the SAVE trial and more than 100 baseline variables, the algorithm...
CPR Goes High-Tech: Transesophageal Echocardiography Turns Blind Compressions Into Precision Hits
Researchers conducted the first randomized clinical trial testing transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) to guide cardiopulmonary resuscitation. While overall survival rates were similar to standard care, TEE‑guided compressions produced significantly higher end‑tidal CO2, a proxy for blood flow quality. The study, published...
FDA Denies Exemption Request for Radiology AI Devices
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration denied a petition seeking partial exemption of radiology artificial‑intelligence devices from 510(k) premarket review. The request, filed in October 2025, aimed to waive requirements for computer‑aided detection, diagnosis, triage and notification software. After reviewing...

AI Grief Bots Present ‘New Complexities’ in Bereavement Care
Artificial intelligence is entering bereavement care through "grief bots" that recreate a deceased loved one’s voice, likeness, and mannerisms from audio, video, texts and social‑media data. Companies such as Hereafter.ai, You, Only Virtual, StoryFile and Uare.ai are already offering interactive...
Meet Abi, the AI-Powered Robot Companion for Senior Care
Andromeda Robotics unveiled Abi, a 4‑foot, brightly colored AI companion robot designed for senior living facilities. Abi leads group activities such as dance, tai chi, and music quizzes, while also offering one‑on‑one interactions in up to 90 languages and remembering...
How Advances in Nuclear Medicine Are Changing Patient Care
Advances in nuclear medicine are reshaping patient care by delivering faster, lower‑dose imaging and highly personalized radiopharmaceutical therapies. Modern PET and SPECT scanners provide clearer images in half the time, while hybrid systems combine modalities for earlier disease detection. Theranostic...
Luminai Lands $38M Series B Round
AI‑native automation startup Luminai closed a $38 million Series B round, bringing its total capital to $60 million. The round was led by Peak XV Partners, with new investor Define Ventures and continued support from General Catalyst and Y Combinator. Luminai’s platform transforms fragmented healthcare...
UMass Memorial Health Expands Epic EHR to Milford Regional
UMass Memorial Health expanded its Epic electronic health record system to Milford Regional, which went live on April 1. The integration follows Milford’s 2024 affiliation with UMass Memorial and a 2025 implementation effort that included extensive staff training. A single, uniform...
E2 Raises $80M to Market Thrombectomy Platform
Endovascular Engineering (E2) closed a $80 million Series C round to launch its Hēlo mechanical thrombectomy platform for pulmonary embolism. The funding, led by Norwest and Gilde Healthcare, will expand E2’s commercial team and sustain R&D after FDA clearance was secured last...
Petwealth Nabs $1.7M Pre-Seed Round
Petwealth, a pet‑health diagnostics startup founded in 2025, announced a $1.7 million pre‑seed round to fund its clinical‑grade testing platform. The company unveiled an exclusive diagnostic partnership with Kennel Connection and a telehealth integration with Pawp, extending its reach to veterinarians...
AI Can Provide a Concierge for Every Patient
Google’s AI team unveiled an “always‑on” virtual concierge designed to guide patients through care coordination and insurance coverage questions. Powered by large language models, the assistant can schedule appointments, explain benefits, and provide real‑time answers, delivering a personalized experience akin...

Department of Energy, Shine Working on $263M Deal to Establish Mo-99 Supply in US
The U.S. Department of Energy is preparing a conditional loan of up to $263 million to Shine Technologies to complete its Chrysalis facility, which aims to produce molybdenum‑99 (Mo‑99) domestically. Mo‑99 is a critical medical isotope used in tens of thousands...
Shape‐Memory Collagen/Silk‐Fibroin Scaffold for Dura Sealing and Skull Base Regeneration
Researchers have engineered an injectable, shape‑memory scaffold combining collagen, silk‑fibroin and α‑tricalcium phosphate for skull‑base reconstruction. The composite features a silk‑fibroin‑rich outer layer that creates a watertight seal against cerebrospinal fluid, while an inner α‑TCP layer encourages bone growth and...

New Jersey Uses Data to Improve Population Health
New Jersey’s Integrated Population Health Data (iPHD) project, created by statute in 2016, now links more than 90 million person‑level health and administrative records. The initiative, funded by the state Department of Health, breaks down data silos across agencies to support...

b.well Announces Partnerships with Noom, Humana, Welldoc
b.well Connected Health announced strategic integrations with Noom, Welldoc and Humana, linking each to its national health data network under the CMS Health Technology Ecosystem. Humana will receive real‑time member data to streamline claims and provider queries. Welldoc’s AI‑driven cardiometabolic...
AI Security Starts with Awareness and Governance, CISO Says
Healthcare AI promises efficiency and clinical gains, but introduces fresh security risks. Akron Children's Hospital’s CISO Deepesh Randeri outlines a structured governance model that forces every AI initiative through committees, due‑diligence vetting, and continuous oversight. The hospital mandates centralized IT...

WakeMed Takes New Approach to Enterprise Clinical Asset Management
WakeMed Health & Hospitals has signed a multi‑year deal with PartsSource to consolidate visibility, service orchestration, and supply‑chain data for more than 38,000 medical devices across its three North Carolina hospitals. The new Asset Uptime platform delivers real‑time telemetry, predictive...
AMA CEO Outlines Key Goals As New Digital Health/AI Center Staffs Up
American Medical Association CEO John Whyte announced the staffing of a new Center for Digital Health and AI, positioning it to shape policy as digital medicine expands. The center will convene a meeting next month with a leading digital‑medicine coalition...

GE HealthCare, Medtronic Integrate Intraoperative Ultrasound System and Surgical Navigation System
GE HealthCare announced that its bkActiv intraoperative ultrasound system is now digitally integrated with Medtronic’s Stealth AXiS surgical navigation platform. The plug‑and‑play solution provides real‑time ultrasound imaging alongside pre‑operative MRI or CT, helping surgeons address brain shift during cranial procedures....

Chapter Secures $100M to Bridge Seniors and AI Tech
Chapter, a New York‑based AgeTech startup, closed a $100 million Series E round led by Generation Investment Management, with participation from Fifth Down Capital, 8VC, Stripes, Addition and Susa Ventures. The funding backs its AI‑native platform that scans more than 24,000 Medicare...

FDA’s 2026 General Wellness Policy and What It Means for Manufacturers of Wearable Devices
The FDA finalized its General Wellness Policy for low‑risk devices on Jan. 6, 2026, setting clear criteria that wearable products can avoid medical‑device regulation if they are limited to general‑wellness purposes and pose low safety risk. The guidance follows a July 2025 warning...

Luminai Secures $38M, Inks Enterprise AI Partnership with Cleveland Clinic
Luminai announced a $38 million Series B round led by Peak XV Partners, lifting its total capital to $60 million. Simultaneously, the company unveiled an enterprise AI deployment with the Cleveland Clinic to automate the routing of faxed referrals. By embedding hospital‑specific standard operating procedures...

Populus Health Technologies Partners with Patients, Physicians and Pharma Marketers to Create the First Comprehensive Report on Virtual Care in...
Populus Health Technologies, a Princeton‑based virtual‑care media firm, has partnered with DHC Group, PM360 and Researchscape to produce “Virtual Care in America: The Populus Report.” The study surveyed more than 1,250 patients, healthcare providers and pharmaceutical marketing executives to capture...
Meta-Analysis Supports Efficacy, Cost Savings of In-Home Vitiligo Therapy
A new meta‑analysis of four controlled studies confirms that home‑based narrowband UVB phototherapy delivers comparable repigmentation outcomes to traditional in‑office treatment for vitiligo. The analysis, covering 148 patients using home devices and 143 receiving clinic care, found odds ratios of...

Talkiatry Launches Talkiatry Connect for Cloud-Based EMR Psychiatric Referrals
Talkiatry, the largest private employer of psychiatrists in the United States, has introduced Talkiatry Connect, a browser‑based overlay that integrates directly with more than 30 cloud‑based EMR systems. The tool places a small icon in the clinician’s workflow; when clicked,...

STAT+: 5 Years After Lupus Breakthrough, CAR-T Is Still Surprising Autoimmunity Researchers
Five years after a pioneering CAR‑T treatment rescued a teenage lupus patient, the therapy has sustained remission and reshaped expectations for autoimmune disease management. The case, led by German rheumatologist Georg Schett, proved that engineered T cells could safely target...
Healthcare CIOs See AI Integration as a Competitive Necessity
A new Qventus report reveals a widening execution gap as health systems move from AI pilots to enterprise‑wide deployments. While 42% of respondents are actively rolling out AI across multiple use cases, only 4% have achieved measurable scale, and 74%...

Siemens Healthineers, Onvida Health Sign 10-Year 'Value Partnership'
Siemens Healthineers and Onvida Health have signed a 10‑year Value Partnership to modernize the Yuma‑based health system’s imaging and therapy equipment. The agreement includes upgrades to CT, MRI, ultrasound and radiation therapy platforms and joint strategic planning with Siemens affiliate...
CDRH Targets Hospital Readmissions with Home Device Innovation Challenge
The FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) launched the Reducing Readmissions through Device Innovation for the Home Innovation Challenge to spur home‑based medical devices that can lower hospital readmissions. Nine devices will be chosen by Dec 4, 2026, and the...

The Invisible Implementation: Why Healthcare IT Needs to Shift From Vendors to Partners
The article urges healthcare IT leaders to treat implementations as partnerships rather than vendor transactions. It stresses that successful rollouts begin weeks before the kickoff with detailed mapping of services, requirements, and dependencies. By using transparent roadmaps, parallel workstreams, and...

EClinicalWorks Launches Production Support for CMS ‘Kill the Clipboard’ Initiative
eClinicalWorks announced production support for the CMS “Kill the Clipboard” initiative, enabling paper‑less patient intake through QR‑code scanning with its eClinicalMobile app. When patients arrive, a secure QR code pulls verified medical records from interoperability networks and populates the EHR...

AI-Driven Precision Care Is the Fix for Our Health System’s Failures
Primary care physicians face chronic time constraints, often resorting to rushed exams and delayed specialist referrals that exacerbate patient outcomes. AI‑driven precision care tools act as intelligent clinical assistants, surfacing relevant chart data, suggesting differential diagnoses, and drafting evidence‑based treatment...

Mount Sinai Unveils Real-Time Intraocular Pressure Monitoring in Glaucoma Surgery
Mount Sinai researchers unveiled miDOC, a micro‑interventional device that continuously measures intraocular pressure, flow, outflow facility and ocular compliance during glaucoma surgery. In the first 20 first‑in‑human cases, surgeons accessed real‑time biometric feedback and could adjust their technique on the...

Algorithm Drives Blood Pressure Control Across UC Health Centers
The University of California’s six academic medical centers deployed the UC Way Hypertension Medication Algorithm, raising blood‑pressure control from 68.5% to nearly 74% among roughly 90,000 patients. A two‑year BMJ Open Quality study showed the improvement translates to about 4,860 additional...

Blockchain For Impact Launches $50-M Innovation Platform for Medtech Ecosystem
Blockchain For Impact (BFI) has unveiled a $50 million Innovation Full Stack platform aimed at accelerating biomedical and MedTech development in India. The initiative, anchored by the Nailwal MedTech Acceleration Hub, offers early‑stage innovators access to prototyping facilities, engineering expertise, material‑science resources, and...