Autonomous drones are moving from experimental trials into real-world emergency healthcare systems—reducing response times when every second matters.

From Pilot to Commercial Deployment

Swedish drone technology company Everdrone has raised SEK 36 million in a new funding round, signaling its transition into a commercial phase for emergency healthcare services.

The investment, led by Sciety, will support further development of Everdrone’s platform and enable expansion into additional European markets.

CEO Mats Sällström says the funding strengthens the company’s ability to scale:

“This funding gives us stronger conditions to continue building the company and expanding our services into more markets across Europe.”

Drones in the Emergency Chain

Everdrone is already operating what is believed to be the world’s first drone service integrated into an emergency response chain for cardiac arrest.

Its autonomous drones are dispatched in parallel with ambulances, delivering critical equipment—such as defibrillators—directly to the scene.

This approach addresses one of the most critical challenges in emergency care:

Response time

By delivering life-saving equipment before paramedics arrive, the system has the potential to significantly improve survival outcomes.

Everdrone CEO Mats Sällström with one of the company’s autonomous medical drones

A Proven Model Gaining Traction

Unlike many emerging technologies, Everdrone’s system is not theoretical—it is already operational.

• Active service in Västra Götaland Region (Sweden)

• Procured by Region Stockholm

• Expanded into Normandy (France)

The company has also been conducting operational flights since 2020, working closely with healthcare providers to validate its model.

Why Demand Is Growing

Healthcare systems are increasingly exploring new ways to:

• Reduce response times

• Improve coverage in rural and urban areas

• Optimize resource allocation

Drone-based delivery offers a compelling solution—particularly in time-critical scenarios such as cardiac arrest.

As Sällström notes:

“Interest in drone-based solutions in emergency healthcare is increasing as regions look for new ways to reduce response times.”

Beyond Defibrillators

While current deployments focus on delivering automated external defibrillators (AEDs), Everdrone is building a broader platform for emergency logistics.

Potential future use cases include:

• Delivery of additional medical supplies

• Real-time video support for dispatch teams

• Integration with wider emergency services

This positions the company not just as a drone operator—but as a critical infrastructure provider in digital healthcare systems.

Investment Signals Confidence

The funding round was led by Sciety, a Nordic investment firm focused on life sciences and digital health.

Andreas Lindblom, Managing Partner at Sciety, highlights the strategic fit:

“Everdrone addresses a clear and well-documented need in emergency healthcare and has already established partnerships with several regions.”

Beyond capital, the partnership brings:

• Industry expertise

• Strategic networks

• Increased visibility

—key factors for scaling across regulated healthcare markets.

A Broader Shift in Healthcare Innovation

Everdrone’s growth reflects a wider trend:

The convergence of autonomous systems and healthcare delivery

As technology matures, solutions that were once experimental are becoming embedded into real-world infrastructure.

This includes:

• AI-assisted diagnostics

• Remote monitoring

• Autonomous logistics (like drone delivery)

Together, these innovations are reshaping how healthcare systems operate under pressure.

Conclusion

Everdrone’s move into commercial deployment marks a significant milestone—not just for the company, but for the future of emergency response.

By integrating autonomous drones into healthcare systems, it is demonstrating how technology can directly impact outcomes in life-or-death situations.

As adoption expands across Europe, drone-based emergency response may soon become a standard part of modern healthcare infrastructure.

The post Scaling Drone Emergency Response appeared first on Tech Trends.

As we use our smartphones constantly every day, it is sometimes easy to forget how far we’ve come in just a few short decades. Who would have thought, after all, that it would be possible to walk around with tiny little supercomputers, permanently connected to unfathomable amounts of data, available at a touch? But we’re very far from the end of that journey. In fact, we’re only just getting started. Read on as we discuss the different sectors that have been most changed by technology, from medicine to education.

Education

Technology is used in education from a young age. It simplifies access to resources and makes education more affordable. Perhaps the biggest change in education has been the advent of online courses. Taking the example of nursing, every nurse in the UD has to become a Registered Nurse (RN) to start with. If they want to progress further in their nursing career, they need more qualifications, but this would have been difficult before online courses were introduced. Working and attending college was not always possible, but now if they want to achieve a nursing MSN online, for example, there are fewer obstacles in the way. Online courses have many advantages, including:

• Flexible hours so that studying can be fitted in around lifestyle and family commitments
• Cheaper fees as the educational facility have lower costs for the courses
• Location is irrelevant as visits to the college or university are not needed – courses are 100% online
• No commuting worries, you work from the comfort of your own home
• You can work at your own pace without any pressure to be faster or slow down

Although nursing was used as an example, online courses are available in all industries and professions. They mean that more people than ever are able to gain degrees and higher qualifications which has had the effect of many people earning better salaries, as well as the shortage of qualified people in the US becoming less of a problem.

The Finance World

Banks now have apps that you can use on your smartphone to make bill payments or transfer money in just a few seconds. You no longer have to wait in long queues at a branch. You have instant access to your accounts, and this makes managing your finances much simpler. There are other things in the world of finance that on easier on your digital device, such as:

• Trading on the stock market. There are software programs you can download to help you with this. Buying stocks and shares was something that used to be out of the reach of most people, but technology has meant that now it is available to everyone
• Lending online. If you need a loan for a new car or some other large item, it is now quick and simple to raise the money, and you generally get a decision in just a few minutes. There are also many more lenders online and borrowing is no longer restricted to banks
• Shopping has become easier too. There is very little you cannot buy online. Without the overheads of a high street store, retailers are often able to sell their products at lower prices. Hopefully, this means more money will stay in your bank account.
• Savings and investing. You can search online for all types of savings and investments and find something that suits you. This has encouraged more people to put money aside for the future, as they are not restricted to saving huge amounts every month but can save what they can afford when they can afford it.

The biggest worry for anyone dealing with their finances online are the security issues involved. However, all financial institutions and online stores have tight security in place. No one can promise that your details will never be compromised, but much of the security lies in your own hands. Never give your information to anyone, not even people you know, and it is far more likely to stay safe and secure.

The World of Medicine

The world of medicine has been changed greatly by technology, including things such as:

• Quicker and more accurate test results
• More precise surgery which means that patients recover quicker
• Better record-keeping
• Record sharing online so that all doctors and nurses treating a patient have access to the same medical records
• Doctors are able to deal with each patient in a shorter time, so they are able to see more people, which has cut waiting times
• New drugs and treatments that work more effectively and have fewer side effects

Innovations in the world of medicine have meant that most people are living longer and healthier lives, as many of the developments are related to the prevention of illnesses and health problems, and that has made a huge difference to the health of the nation.

Leisure Time

At one time, the only entertainment in the home was TVs or music, and perhaps playing board games. Now, the list of ways you can entertain yourself at home is endless. On your digital device you can:

• Play games of all types online, including playing in casinos and playing against other people
• Watch TV programs at a time to suit you and not when the TV company dictate
• Watch films and sports
• The internet is the largest library in the world and many books can be downloaded free of charge
• Interact with other people. Often this is through social media, but you can also connect with people through other platforms such as WhatsApp and Skype

There has always been the worry that digital devices will mean there is less interaction between family members and friends. However, recent research has shown that this is generally not the case. Families and friends watch films and programs together or play online games against each other. They chat on Facebook, LinkedIn, and the many other social media platforms, and it seems more interaction is taking place in this way over face to face.

Just a few years ago, much of the technology we have today was only seen in Sci-fi films and it was hard to imagine that it would ever really happen. But it has, and no doubt in a few years there will be more developments we have not thought of at the present time.

The post From Medicine to Education: How Technology is Changing the World appeared first on Tech Trends.

Healthcare professionals are tasked with learning and retaining an enormous amount of knowledge and skills. Whether the task is to master human anatomy and physiology, the symptoms associated with a broad range of diseases and disorders, or the skills associated with performing some routine or non-routine medical procedure, healthcare professional undergo an enormous amount of training to ensure excellence when treating patients. In addition, healthcare professionals are expected to apply this knowledge and these skills under a broad range of challenging situations including time pressure, social stress, and other sub-optimal conditions.

As all healthcare professionals know, the brain is hardwired to forget
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Unfortunately, and as all healthcare professionals know first-hand, the brain is hardwired to forget. This has been known implicitly for centuries, but was formalized scientifically in 1885 when Hermann Ebbinghaus embarked on a journey to characterize and quantify the time-course of learning and memory, and in the process discovered the “forgetting curve”.

A typical forgetting curve is displayed below. The y-axis denotes the retention rate that ranges from 0 to 100%, and the x-axis denotes time. The blue dot in the upper left represents the initial level of learning. In this example, we assume that the learner obtained 100% of the knowledge initially. The red curve is the forgetting curve. Notice that the rate of forgetting is rapid initially and then tapers off over time. The retention rates of 60% after 20 minutes, 40% after one day, and 15% after a week are hypothetical but are in line with many scientific studies. Although the retention rates depend upon the nature of initial training and the type of information studied, the shape remains the same.

What this means is that you can train to perfection today, but you will immediately start to forget and ultimately will retain only a small portion of the information. This is a serious problem in any training setting, but is especially problematic in healthcare. The last thing that you want is for your healthcare professional to forget some critical piece of knowledge.

The neuroscience of information and skills retention and the problem of forgetting are fascinating. In this report, we discuss these issues and show how traditional approaches to training that rely predominantly on text, and some healthcare simulation or hands-on training exacerbate the problem. We then discuss the neuroscience of learning with immersive technologies like virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), and show why their grounding in experience is advantageous for guarding against forgetting. We show that the ability for endless study and practice enhances “Training for Retention”, and builds situational awareness in healthcare.

First, we need a brief primer on the neuroscience of learning.

“Learning is an experience. Everything else is just information”

Albert Einstein

This is an insightful quote from Albert Einstein that is supported by the neuroscience of learning. But why? What is it about experience that is so rich that it is fundamental to learning, and why is information so much less effective?

As outlined in the figure below, the human brain is comprised of at least four distinct learning systems. As Einstein so eloquently stated, the experience is at the heart of learning. Importantly, it is also at the foundation of VR and AR. The experiential system has evolved to represent the sensory aspects of an experience, whether visual, auditory, tactile or olfactory. Every experience is unique, adds rich context to the learning and is immersive. The critical brain regions associated with experiential learning are the occipital lobes (sight), temporal lobes (sound), and parietal lobes (touch).

You can train to perfection today, but you will immediately start to forget and ultimately will retain only a small portion of the information
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The cognitive system is the information system. It processes and stores knowledge and facts. Cognitive information comes in the form of text, graphics, or video and is processed using working memory and attention. Critically, these are limited resources and form a bottleneck that slows learning with more information coming in and available to the learner (the green arrows) than can be processed (the red arrow). This system encompasses the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus.

The behavioral system in the brain has evolved to learn motor skills. It is one thing to know what to do, but it is completely different (and mediated by different systems in the brain) to know how to do it. Processing in this system is optimized when behavior is interactive and is followed in real-time (literally within milliseconds) by corrective feedback. Behaviors that are rewarded lead to dopamine release into the striatum that incrementally increases the likelihood of eliciting that behavior again in the same context. Behaviors that are punished do not lead to dopamine release into the striatum thus incrementally decreasing the likelihood of eliciting that behavior again in the same context. Real-time feedback is critical because striatal activation decays quickly (within a few 100 milliseconds) following initiation of behavior. If a correct behavior is elicited, but feedback is delayed, even by a second or two, the dopamine will be released into the striatum, but striatal activation (driven by the behavior) will be so weak that no learning will occur. Similarly, if an incorrect behavior is elicited, but feedback is delayed, the striatal activation (driven by the behavior) will be so weak that the system won’t know what behavior to unlearn.

The behavioral system in the brain has evolved to learn motor skills
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The emotional learning system in the brain has evolved to facilitate the development of situational awareness — the ability to read nuance in a situation and the uncanny ability to know what comes next – as well as empathy and understanding of our and others’ behaviors. Whereas one can have all of the facts and figures available and can have a strong behavioral repertoire, in the end, one has to extract the appropriate information and engage the appropriate behavior in each distinct situation. The critical brain regions are the amygdala and other limbic structures. The detailed processing characteristics of this system are less well understood than the cognitive and behavioral skills learning systems, but emotional learning is at the heart of situational awareness, and strongly affects both cognitive and behavioral skills learning. An individual with strong situational awareness can accurately read any situation, adapts quickly and knows what to do in each situation, and has the behavioral repertoire to engage each situation with the appropriate set of behaviors.

Using anatomy and physiology training as an example, let’s explore the traditional approach to training. You start with textbook and classroom study, then transition to some hands-on training or a cadaver lab. Because of the cost associated with hands-on and cadaver lab training, invariably classroom and textbook training is emphasized.

From a neuroscience perspective, this traditional approach starts by engaging the cognitive system as you sit in class and study textbooks. The human body is a 3-dimensional structure that functions as a dynamic system. Thus, the goal is to obtain a 3-dimensional, dynamic representation in your brain. Although the best way to achieve this goal is to present the learner with a 3D dynamic training tool, instead you start with textbooks or slide shows that are filled with 2D static images. The learner must convert a series of 2D static images into a 3D dynamic mental representation in the brain that accurately reflects the human form. The cognitive effort needed to do this is enormous. Given the fact that working memory and attention are limited capacity resources, this process with is slow, challenging, and error-prone.

In the laboratory, further cognitive training occurs, and the behavioral system is also engaged as the healthcare professional practices particular tasks. At some point, the professional is deemed “ready” and they are sent out to a clinic or hospital where the real learning occurs, on-the-job. Healthcare professionals often lament at how little of their classroom and laboratory training actually transfers to the real world. The brain tells us why. All of the training has been sequential and disjointed. It would be much better to emphasize experience and to train knowledge and skills simultaneously.

The goal is to obtain a 3-dimensional, dynamic representation in your brain
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Now consider an immersive approach to the same training. Consider an AR or VR tool for teaching anatomy and physiology where a highly accurate 3D dynamic representation of the 3D dynamic human form is presented. The learner can move and rotate the virtual body and when certain body parts are “touched” a description of the part and its function is provided. Layers of virtual tissue can be removed so that the inner workings of the body can be explored.

From a neuroscience perspective, this immersive approach engages the experiential, cognitive and behavioral learning systems in synchrony. This broad-based neural activation leads to a highly interconnected, context-rich set of learning and memory traces. These highly interconnected memory traces will be slower to decay over time leading to better long-term retention. Because immersive training tools are available 24/7 the healthcare professional can have unlimited practice, and can test themselves under adverse conditions such as time pressure that will engage the emotional learning centers in the brain to begin to build situational awareness.

Immersive technology trains for retention and builds situational awareness that is critical in healthcare
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Immersive tools can also be used to train the behavioral skills necessary in healthcare. These can range from something simple like the care and maintenance of a central line, to something complex like heart surgery. Although any tool of this sort must be vetted with extensive clinical testing, the potential is clear. Imagine a VR or AR system in which a virtual patient is present. You go through the steps of central line care or heart surgery. The haptics are such that you “feel” the skin push back against your scalpel.

Much like with the anatomy and physiology training tool, this immersive approach engages the experiential, cognitive and behavioral learning systems in synchrony. This broad-based neural activation leads to a highly interconnected, context-rich set of learning and memory traces that are slow to decay and lead to better long-term retention. Because immersive training tools are available 24/7 the healthcare professional can have unlimited practice and can train and test themselves under a broad range of environmental conditions. This engages emotional learning centers and builds the situational awareness that is so critical in healthcare. Imagine training for the rare, but potentially life-threatening, situation in which an emergency medical technician needs to deliver a baby in the back of a van with minimal medical equipment available. Imagine training under chaotic conditions in which a healthcare professional must perform some medical procedure in a crowded hotel lobby with dozens of panicked onlookers. Imagine time is of the essence.

Immersive tools can be used to train behavioral skills in healthcare
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Although these may be rare situations, training under these conditions is critical for developing a broad-based knowledge and skill set. The best healthcare professional is one who is confident in their abilities and knows that they can handle almost any challenge. This instills confidence in the professional, but more importantly, this confidence shows and enhances patient satisfaction and confidence in the healthcare profession.

Gone will be the days of on-the-job training. With immersive technologies, healthcare professionals can start day 1 on the job with a strong knowledge-based and behavioral repertoire that has been honed and testing in immersive environments. Immersive technology trains for retention and builds situational awareness that is critical in healthcare.

For companies looking to get into Immersive technologies, our VR Consultancy service offers comprehensive support in the strategic deployment of Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality

Todd Maddox is Science, Sports and Training Correspondent at Tech Trends, and the CEO of Cognitive Design and Statistical Consulting. Follow him on Twitter @wtoddmaddox

The post Immersive Training for Retention appeared first on Tech Trends.

Soylent lets you dodge those pesky food cravings.

We’ve all been there. As the long months of winter drag on, getting home after another long commute through the cold and the rain. You turn on the news, and switch it straight off, because Brexit is still not a bad dream after all. It’s ever so tempting to dial for that takeaway or reach for the comfort food, but it’s only January and you’re trying hard to be good.

As @Schwarzenegger will tell you, there is simply no magic pill where it comes to keeping fit
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As Arnold Schwarzenegger will tell you, there is simply no magic pill where it comes to keeping fit, but there are things that can help you stay on the right track. One of those things is not being hungry while making decisions about what to eat, and that’s where drinks like Soylent come in handy. It’s a ready-to-drink high protein concoction that has been specially designed to give you the nutrients you need while avoiding those pesky cravings.

There is no magic pill. There are no shortcuts. There are only reps, reps, reps. To be your best, you’re going to have to work your butt off. But we are here to help at @weareladder. Join us: https://t.co/O45VLvWEXt #lifeisaworkout #thereisnomagicpill pic.twitter.com/HsTAkDpIjy

— Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) January 3, 2019

I like it specially because it doesn’t need be refrigerated, so you can keep an emergency bottle in your bag or car for whenever the need arises. I took it with me on a massive road trip a while back and was pretty fine with not eating anything else, plus it’s available in a coffee blend that helped to keep me alert without resorting to energy drinks, most of which I can’t stand. As a bonus, it’s also a really environmentally-friendly product.

“Soylent has been developed with the planet in mind. A vegan and nut-free drink, it uses plant-based protein to ensure less water is utilized and less CO2 is produced compared to the process to source protein from livestock. The innovative drink design also reduces food waste – with a year-long shelf life from the manufacture and no need for refrigeration until opened, Soylent is able to stay fresh and tasting great for longer,” explained Andrew Thomas, VP of Brand Marketing for Soylent.

Soylent has been developed with the planet in mind. A vegan and nut-free drink, it uses plant-based protein to ensure less water is utilized and less CO2 is produced compared to the process to source protein from livestock
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Now Soylent announced a partnership with Endpoint team, supporting them in their campaign to become the first UK esports league team to reach the global top 30. Just a few days ago, the team competed in the ESL CS:GO Premiership Winter Finals, the world’s longest-running professional CS:GO league which they’ve dominated for the past two years and saw them pip top esports teams to the post in the Counterstrike tournament.

“Soylent was developed to help people dodge food voids, which is our way of describing those situations in which you make unwise food decisions you’ll likely regret. Food Voids are usually borne out of a lack of time to find a healthy meal, so it was a natural fit for us to help fuel the Endpoint’s success with our ready-to-drink meals, which contain the nutrition they need when training and competing,” says Thomas. “The Endpoint team is on the cusp of becoming one of the most successful esports teams in the UK, so this partnership was a no-brainer.”

Research conducted by Soylent in the UK  uncovered that almost a quarter of gamers skip one meal every day, especially when in the heat of (an online) battle or the midst of an epic quest. Currently Endpoint have a gaming house in the north of England which they use as a boot camping facility, and last year Soylent fuelled an Endpoint boot camp which took place 10 days before Insomnia Gaming Tournament 2018 in which the team championed.

It’s ever so tempting to dial for that takeaway or reach for the comfort food, but it’s only January and you’re trying hard to be good
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Research conducted by Soylent in the UK uncovered that almost a quarter of gamers skip one meal every day
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Soylent was originally developed in Silicon Valley and has been doing really well in the U.S. (In January it was the top grocery product on Amazon.com) being stocked by Walmart, 7-11, Kroger and other retail giants. You can now also order Soylent in the UK via Amazon priced at £39.00 for a case of 12 bottles (£3.25 per bottle).

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Healthy High-Tech Fuel For Your New Year’s Resolutions appeared first on Tech Trends.

Globally, 5 Billion people don’t have access to safe surgery due to lack of trained professionals. In the U.S. alone, over $15 billion a year is spent on medical training, but much of that is wasted in antiquated, expensive, and non-repeatable methods which offer students little chance of hands-on practice.

The truth is that the way surgeons are trained
has changed very little over the past 150 years, and much of hands-on practice still relies on using cadavers, which cost $13,000 or more and can only be used to train between 4-6 students. Reusable, synthetic cadaver cost in excess of $40,000.

5 Billion people don’t have access to safe surgery
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All this adds up to the fact that currently less than 0.5% of the world’s surgeons have access to simulations. Something that FundamentalVR is on a mission to change by democratizing surgical training through low-cost, safe and immersive experiences.

The way surgeons are trained
has changed very little over the past 150 years, and much of hands-on practice still relies on using cadavers
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Users can feel the movement and interaction of tissue, muscle and bone as they would in an actual procedure
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Headquartered in London with offices in Boston, the company provides enterprise training solutions to medical device and pharmaceutical companies as well as curriculum-based immersive training experiences to medical institutions, hospitals and learning centers. So far it has raised over $2.6M in funding, capitalizing on the fact that the global MedEd is projected to
reach $38BN by 2024.

Until recently, affordable virtual reality solutions in this area had been limited to game-like experiences without the touch sensation that is so critical in surgical procedures, while current VR haptic solutions that use specialist equipment cost over $100K to purchase and thousands more to maintain, as they require specialist “Sim-Tech” staff and a dedicated space.

The FundamentalVR platform on the other hand, offers subscription licenses starting $350, and the software works in conjunction with any modern PC or laptop, a standard VR headset and two haptic arm devices that can be easily purchased online to conduct procedures.

Users can feel the movement and interaction of tissue, muscle and bone as they would in an actual procedure within a sub millimeter of accuracy of resistance, something that I experienced first-hand when “performing” a procedure at the Global Education and Skills Forum in Dubai earlier this year.

Less than 0.5% of the world’s surgeons have access to simulations
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Until recently, affordable virtual reality solutions in this area had been limited to game-like experiences without the touch sensation that is so critical in surgical procedures
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Its proprietary Surgical Haptic Intelligence Engine (SHIE) draws upon an extensive library of tools and tissue variants that mimic real life sensations which were carefully calibrated by a leading team of surgeons. Over two years of development, more than 500 surgeons have tested the system, which constantly adapted around the feedback. Just as pilots train for bird strikes or engine failure, surgeons are confronted with varying scenarios ranging from abnormal anatomy to rare complications that can happen during live procedures, such as unexpected bleeding.

The healthcare sector has been among the earliest adopters of immersive technology, as the benefits – most evident in the ability to train students and allow professionals to hone their skills in a safe and realistic environment – were clearly quantifiable. Which is why the interest they’re attracting from major players in the industry is not really surprising. FundamentalVR have just announced a three-year strategic alliance with the Mayo Clinic, one of the leading academic medical centers in the U.S. This includes a joint development agreement for its Surgical VR Simulator, Fundamental Surgery.

Healthcare has been among the earliest adopters of immersive technology
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The proof of the pudding lies in whether the use of VR simulations will eventually improve patient outcomes
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But this will go further than allowing current trainee and qualified surgeons to experience surgical procedures and will include both companies sharing clinical and technical expertise to develop new immersive training products. The objective is to create new simulation content as well as assessment criteria based on the Mayo Clinic’s substantial body of research and in partnership with its surgeons, clinical practitioners, and data scientists.

This agreement will see the two parties collaborating on a range of simulations with an initial focus on the General Surgery area. They will then move into growth areas including robotic and patient specific simulation derived from DiCom (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) data and 3D modeling.

The objective is to create new simulation content as well as assessment criteria based on the Mayo Clinic’s substantial body of research
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The proof of the pudding, however, lies in whether the use of VR simulations will eventually improve patient outcomes, something that Richard Vincent, FundamentalVR’s CEO believes is possible.

“Our haptic + immersive VR platform has already proven to offer a new way to allow skills development, and we share the belief that the comparative data insight and measurement will have a profoundly positive impact on the wellbeing of people around the world,“ he says.

The platform’s initial training packages are focused on Orthopedic Surgical disciplines including Spinal Pedicle Screw Placement, Posterior Hip Replacement and Total Knee Arthroplasty. Further orthopedic procedures will be added during Q4 2018 with other disciplines, including general surgery and cardiovascular slated for 2019.

This article appeared originally on VRScout

FundamentalVR Partners With Mayo Clinic To Develop Haptic VR Surgery Simulations via @alicebonasio https://t.co/yIIs1cD1IK pic.twitter.com/v07p5OPnPh

— VRScout (@VRScout) November 2, 2018

Want to leverage Augmented, Virtual and Mixed Reality to take your brand to the next level? Tech Trends offers comprehensive Immersive Technologies Consultancy to help you get there.

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Cutting Edge VR appeared first on Tech Trends.

The healthcare industry is ripe for embracing immersive xR learning technologies in training professionals and informing patients.

After a 25-year career as a learning scientist and the last 3 years “immersed” in the private sector, my  opinion is that xR technologies have the potential to improve the quality and quantity of training, to reduce training costs and to enhance patient satisfaction through better care from healthcare professionals and a deeper understanding for patients.

To support this claim, I outline a framework for understanding how the brain learns. It derives from some of my own research supported by over $10 million in federal grants to support my laboratory, and a huge body of research conducted across the world over the past 100+ years focused on learning.

xR technologies have the potential to improve the quality and quantity of training, to reduce training costs and to enhance patient satisfaction
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This report focuses on a learning science evaluation of xR technology’s potential in the healthcare sector. xR technologies come in two major forms: virtual reality (VR) in which the learner is immersed in a completely new virtual environment and augmented reality (AR) in which the learner is in a combined real and virtual environment where digital information is overlaid onto the learner’s field of view.

Healthcare professionals must be trained on anatomy and physiology and a broad range of physiological systems both healthy and diseased, and learn to perform a wide range of procedures in their speciality. Additionally, they must learn situational awareness which involves the ability to perform effectively under stressful and high-pressure conditions.

Analogously, patients must learn what pills go in their pill box, or a patient or caregiver might need to learn how to care and maintain a central line. Patients must learn about an upcoming medical procedure, how to prepare and what to expect following the procedure. They might also learn about several medical options so that they can choose the one that is right for them, as is the case when a dialysis patient receives training on in-clinic and in-home dialysis so that they can make an informed decision on which suits them best. The more effective the training, the less stress on the patient, the higher likelihood of success.

Learning to perform medical procedures is about acquiring a technical or behavioral skill - this is best done through physical repetitions
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Learning Science of Healthcare Training

Learning science—the marriage of psychology and brain science— teaches us that different types of learning tasks are mediated by distinct brain system and psychological processes and thus are best trained with different training tools. For example, anatomy and physiology is about obtaining knowledge and facts to be remembered and available for recall at a later date. This is learned through mental repetitions and by the cognitive skills learning system in the brain. On the other hand, learning to perform medical procedures is about acquiring a technical or behavioral skill. This is best done through physical repetitions and uses the behavioral skills learning system in the brain. Finally, situational awareness—the ability to perform under a broad range of conditions and to reasonably anticipate the future–involves mental and physical repetitions across a broad range of scenarios and is mediated by the emotional learning system in the brain.

Dissociable Learning Systems in the Brain

The human brain is comprised of at least three distinct learning systems. Gaining a solid knowledge base (e.g., anatomy and physiology or what pills go in your pill box) relies on the cognitive skills learning system in the brain. The cognitive skills learning system in the brain has evolved to obtain knowledge and facts and to tie those to specific situations. I refer to this as the “what” system. Cognitive skill learning is mediated by the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and associated medial temporal lobe structures in the brain and relies heavily on working memory and attention.

Obtaining a strong behavioral repertoire (e.g., drawing blood, performing surgery, or caring for your own central line) relies on the behavioral skills learning system in the brain. It is one thing to know what to do, but it is another to know how to do it. I refer to this as the “how” system. Behavioral skill learning is mediated by the basal ganglia and gradual, incremental dopamine-mediated changes in behavior. Interestingly, this system does not rely on working memory and attention. In fact, there is strong scientific evidence that “overthinking it” hinders behavioral skills learning. Processing in this system is optimized when behavior is interactive and is followed in real-time (literally within milliseconds) by corrective feedback. Behaviors that are rewarded will be more likely to occur in the future, and those that are punished less so.

The human brain is comprised of at least three distinct learning systems
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The ability to “read” a situation and to have strong situational awareness (e.g., an ability to perform under non-ideal conditions and to reasonably predict the near-term future) relies on emotional learning. The emotional learning system in the brain has evolved to facilitate the development of a nuanced understanding of situations and people that is critical to success. Whereas one can have all of the facts and figures available, and have a strong behavioral repertoire, in the end one has to extract the appropriate information and engage the appropriate behavior in each distinct situation. I refer to this as the “feel” system. The critical brain regions are the amygdala and other limbic structures. The detailed processing characteristics of this system are less well understood than the cognitive and behavioral skills learning systems, but emotional learning is at the heart of situational awareness. Emotional processing strongly affects both cognitive and behavioral skills learning. An individual with strong situational awareness can accurately read any situation, adapts quickly and knows what to do in each situation, and has the behavioral repertoire to engage each situation with the appropriate set of behaviors.

The ability to read a situation and to have strong situational awareness relies on emotional learning
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Cognitive Skills Learning System

Gaining a solid knowledge base such as understanding the anatomy and physiology of the human body, or knowing what medication to take, how much and when, relies on the cognitive skills learning system in the brain. This system learns the “what,” and is mediated by the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and associated medial temporal lobe structures in the brain and relies heavily on working memory and attention.

The prefrontal cortex is where working memory and attention reside. The goal is to use focused study and mental rehearsal to transfer fleeting and poorly represented knowledge from the prefrontal cortex to long-term memory stores in the hippocampus and associated medial temporal lobe structures.

Suppose you are a medical student faced with the problem of learning the anatomy and physiology of the human body. The human body is a 3-dimensional structure that functions as a dynamic system. The ultimate goal of training is to facilitate the formation of a 3D dynamic mental representation of the human body in the learner’s brain that perfectly mimics the actual form. The best way to achieve this is to present the learner with a 3D dynamic visualization, yet most traditional teaching methods use textbooks or slideshows filled with 2D static images. Thus, the learner must convert a series of 2D static images into a 3D dynamic mental representation in the brain that accurately reflects the human form.

Attempting to construct a 3-dimensional dynamic representation of the human body from a series of 2-dimensional static images requires a huge amount of cognitive effort. First, you have to hold a mental representation of a series of 2-dimensional static images in short-term (working) memory. Second, you have to hold these 2-dimensional static mental representations in your working memory and combine them on the fly to construct an accurate 3-dimensional static representation. Finally, you have to infer and impart the dynamic nature of the human form onto this 3-dimensional static representation. Each of these steps requires an enormous amount of cognitive capacity (in the form of working memory), and an enormous amount of cognitive energy (in the form of executive attention). Any time working memory load and executive attentional demands are taxed, you are more likely to make an error and generate an inferior mental representation.

Now consider an xR solution in which you place a Microsoft HoloLens on your head and a 3-dimensional, dynamic representation of the human body appears in front of you. You can walk around the body and can rotate it so that you can see it from all angles. You can select a skeletal view and when you touch a bone its name appears. In this case, you have a highly accurate 3-dimensional dynamic xR visualization tool that is intuitive and facilitates the development of a highly accurate 3-dimensional dynamic representation in the learner’s brain. A tool like this engages the visual representation learning system in the brain that recruits occipital and temporal lobe structures. By removing the need to construct a 3-dimensional dynamic mental representation from a series of 2-dimensional static images, the working memory and executive attention load on the learner has been slashed. Those resources can be used to learn the names of the bones, muscles, arteries, etc., but with a rich visual mental representation upon which to attach them.

Constructing a 3-D dynamic representation of the human body from a series of 2-D static images requires a huge amount of cognitive effort
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The same logic holds for other cognitive skills learning problems. Suppose you are a patient or caregiver who needs to care for and maintain a central line. The most common approach to central line care and maintenance training is to have learners read documents describing in detail all of the required steps. From a psychological and brain science perspective translating this abstract text-based representation into a rich visual representation that you can use to guide your behavior is challenging. Yet putting on a HMD (Head Mounted Display) and being transported into an immersive setting in which you are watching someone care and maintain a central line in a virtual world in real-time instantly reduces the areas in the brain which are engaged. Learning will be enhanced, quicker and more robust.

Suppose you are a patient with a hefty medication regimen. You have a long list of medications that you take at different times and in different amounts. You have a pill box that facilitates the process but you struggle to use you list of medications when filling the pill box. Now imagine an augmented reality solution where all of your medication information is in the application. It knows what you take, when and how much. It also knows what each pill looks like and monitors the process with a small camera on your mobile device or tablet. Finally, the tool has information about the medication available that can be overlaid on the screen. The AR application prompts you with text, audio and a visual representation of each pill to facilitate loading the pill box. As with the xR solution to anatomy and physiology training and central line care and maintenance, this AR solution significantly reduces the cognitive load on the learner, which is especially critical in older adults.

AR solutions can significantly reduce the cognitive load on the learner, which is especially critical in older adults
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The Behavioral Skills Learning System

The behavioral skills learning system has evolved to learn behaviors. I refer to this as the “how” system because it allows you to learn how to do things. The behavioral skills learning system resides in the basal ganglia of the brain that is a subcortical structure deep in the center of the brain. Behavioral skill learning does not rely on working memory and attention, in fact, there is strong anecdotal evidence, and basic science research to suggest that “overthinking it” hinders behavioral skills learning. Behaviors are learned through gradual, incremental, dopamine-mediated reward/punishment learning in the basal ganglia of the brain. Processing in this system is optimized when behavior is interactive and is followed in real-time by corrective feedback.

Suppose you are a surgeon in training learning how to perform heart surgery. The patient’s vital signs, your hand on the scalpel, the sensation associated with breaking the skin all represent a collection of sensory inputs (e.g., visual, auditory, tactile; red arrow). Collections of neurons that represent the current situation are active and project down into the basal ganglia (in purple). There they connect with neurons that project from the basal ganglia to motor regions (red arrow) that initiate a specific behavior associated with the surgery. If the behavior was successful that behavior is rewarded. In this case, dopamine will be released into the basal ganglia, the neural connections that drove that behavior will be strengthened, and the likelihood that behavior will be elicited again under the same surgical situation will increase. On the other hand, if the behavior was incorrect that behavior is punished. In this case dopamine will not be released, the neural connections that drive that behavior will be weakened, and the likelihood that behavior will be elicited again under the same surgical situation will decrease.

Establishing behavioral skills requires learning a set of motor behaviors to be completed in a specific sequence. Although a common approach is to start by reading textbooks and slideshows or watching someone else complete the task, in the end the only way to learn a behavioral skill is to actually do it.

Because behavioral skills are learned gradually and incrementally via dopamine-mediated, error-correction learning in the basal ganglia of the brain, they require extensive practice, yet traditional real-world approaches are limited due to difficulty and expense.

xR medical training technologies are being developed which bypass these difficulties, however. Some of the more advanced platforms include realistic artificial cadavers that provide the appropriate haptic feedback, for example. When implemented correctly, technologies like this will speed the training of medical procedures and will give learners enough practice that they will be job-ready before entering a medical facility to see patients.

These xR technologies could also be used for patients and their caregivers. Instead of watching someone perform in-home dialysis once, the patient and caregiver could train in xR until they reach some level of proficiency. This would increase their confidence, reduce risk and reduce the likelihood of a hospital visit due to preventable errors.

When implemented correctly, technologies like this will speed the training of medical procedures and will give learners enough practice that they will be job-ready before entering a medical facility to see patients
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The Emotional Learning System

The emotional learning system has evolved to facilitate the development of situational awareness. I refer to this as the “feel” system because it is all about “reading” individuals and groups, and situations, in general. Emotional learning involves the amygdala and associated limbic system structures. This system is critical to situational awareness through its effects on processing in both the cognitive and behavioral skills learning systems in the brain. Emotional learning affects how one processes and links the cognitive and behavioral aspects of a situation. A nurse or doctor with strong situational awareness knows what to say and do when appropriate. They know how to be compassionate or firm – only after years of exposure to multiple situations do medical personnel gain the expertise and situational awareness necessary to respond effectively in all situations. With xR technologies though, the medical practitioner and the patient can receive training in a broad range of routine, but also non-routine situations.

The broad-based training available with an xR medical training platform can increase generalization and transfer of the trained information
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Although the three learning systems in the brain are distinct and involve different cognitive and emotional processes, they ultimately all reside within a single brain with massive interconnections. Thus, the optimal method for training situational awareness is to combine the cognitive skills associated with gaining facts and knowledge with the behavioral skills associated with appropriate action in all situations. xR technologies offer an ideal medium for achieving these goals and engaging all three systems simultaneously.

The broad-based training available with an xR medical training platform can increase generalization and transfer of the trained information, but most importantly can increase preparedness. Imagine, for example, the EMT who must deliver a baby in the back of the ambulance, without some critical piece of equipment and with a mother whose blood pressure is dangerously low.

xR technologies offer an ideal medium for engaging all three systems of the brain simultaneously
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The same goes for medical patients. More and more in-home medical options are available. To be effective though patients need extensive training. Imagine an xR experience that leads a patient through the process of in-home dialysis step by step, tests the patient’s knowledge throughout and is readily available 24/7 for follow-up training. In addition, suppose the xR training tool puts the patient-in-training under time pressure sometimes.

All these examples exist today or the solution is in development, so the future looks bright for xR applications in healthcare-related cognitive skills learning and the healthcare industry is ripe for the introduction of immersive technologies, which have the potential to improve all aspects of healthcare training, reduce costs, increase healthcare professionals’ readiness, and most importantly, instill confidence in patients thus enhancing patient satisfaction.

Todd Maddox is Science, Sports and Training Correspondent at Tech Trends, and the CEO of Cognitive Design and Statistical Consulting. Follow him on Twitter @wtoddmaddox

The post Report: Using Extended Reality in Healthcare appeared first on Tech Trends.

How a speech therapy app is helping children to overcome their impediments, and have fun in the process.

Speech Blubs uses technology to trigger sound and word production in toddlers, late talkers, children with Apraxia, Autism, Down Syndrome, ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) and SPD (Sensory Processing Disorder) progressively encouraging children to generate new sounds.

One in Four children will need professional help at some stage of their speech development
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One in four children need professional help at some stage of their speech development, and that number is increasing at an average rate of 10% each year, says Mitja Mavsar, Co-founder of Slovenian startup BlubBlub.

During a “pitch the media” workshop at the Pioneers conference in Vienna last May Mavsar explained to a panel of journalists – including myself – how he himself struggled with a speech impediment all the way through his childhood, which is what inspired him to found the company in 2016:

The Founder of @weareblubblub struggled with a speech impediment himself as a child
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“Therapists simply can’t keep up with this growing number of patients. In some countries, parents and their children have to wait up to 24 months for their first appointment. That’s two years, think about what that means in terms of a child’s delayed development!”

The app is based on the video modeling learning methodology and includes an assessment tool where the parent can easily test their child to see what stage they best fit in. The Snapchat-style app uses play to boost the children’s speaking skills, but the content is curated by speech therapists so the clinical outcomes are clear.

“Inspiring a child to overcome their speech disabilities begins with teaching them how to mimic the sounds of animals, machines and other objects. Using facial recognition and augmented reality technology, the child becomes what he/she is practicing, so they can role-play and have fun.”

One interesting feature of the app is that it uses videos of real kids to demonstrate the exercises. This sort of visual feedback is crucial for children when learning, specially where speech is concerned, as they’re not only listening to sounds but observing the shapes that facial muscles, lips, teeth and tongue take while producing those sounds. It also makes them feel like they are engaging in play with another child, something that Mavsar feels is somewhat missing in a world where children spend so much time interacting with their devices. It’s a sort of “if you can’t beat them, join them” approach.

Speech Blubs uses technology to trigger sound and word production and progressively encouraging children to generate new sounds
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One interesting feature of the @weareblubblub app is that it uses videos of real kids to demonstrate the exercises
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In order to smile, chew, swallow and speak properly, children need to develop all sorts of motor skills using their tongue, lips and cheeks, so the app has a “mouth gym” where practice exercises are designed to increase oral muscle awareness, coordination, strength, range of motion and endurance.

They operate a subscription model where parents pay a fee to access content, but therapists can use the Speech Blubs app in clinics and schools for free. Currently 10,000+ therapists take advantage of that, while over 100,000 individual users have been helped by their services.

Currently over 10,000 therapists are using the app
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BlubBlub’s success isn’t an anomaly though, as technology often takes on enabling or therapeutic roles in all manner of contexts. Virtual platforms such as Second Life have proven to be fantastic tools for enabling users with all manner of disabilities to interact with others, and technologies like Virtual Reality have been successfully used in the treatment of phobias.

BlubBlub’s success isn't an anomaly though, as technology often takes on enabling or therapeutic roles in all manner of contexts
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There is a growing focus amongst tech giants such as Microsoft of the need to make product design more inclusive
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There is also a growing focus amongst tech giants such as Microsoft of the need to make product design more inclusive. There is, after all, a market of around a billion people who are currently marginalized from this process, and from a business perspective (even if one is not necessarily bothered about the moral implications) that just doesn’t make any sense. And as Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella himself has pointed out, by making products which are more accessible, all users stand to benefit, not just those with a particular impediment or disability.

This article originally appeared on the Forbes website

How Tech As Therapy Can Be Big Businesshttps://t.co/8V8B8PtOuQ

— Forbes Tech News (@ForbesTech) June 22, 2018

For companies looking to get into Immersive technologies such as VR/AR/MR/XR our Virtual Reality Consultancy services offer guidance and support on how best to incorporate these into your brand strategy.

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Therapeutic Tech Helping Kids Find Their Voice appeared first on Tech Trends.

Learning Science shows that there are added benefits to using Virtual and Augmented Reality with young and elderly people.

It is well established that high-quality VR and AR technologies can be used for healthcare – in the treatment of phobias for example – and are superior tools in training adults in disciplines such as surgery. VR and AR training tools lead to better initial learning of medical procedures for adult patients and medical personnel, and greater reductions in stress and anxiety in adult patients, thus increasing patient satisfaction.

VR and AR can be used as healthcare tools
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Immersive technologies can also significantly increase retention by slowing the brain’s natural tendency to forget – something I recently wrote about here on Tech Trends. So in this article I will now move on to explain how these technologies are even more effective with children and older adults.

Immersive technologies can significantly increase retention by slowing the brain’s natural tendency to forget
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Limitations of Traditional Tools

When presenting patients with information, the most common scenario is to give them a page or two of text or printed slides from a Powerpoint deck which describe a certain medication regimen or medical procedure. The patient’s brain is then charged to convert these 2D static materials into a 3D visual representation of the actions required on their part – a mental simulation if you will.

Learning Science – the marriage of psychology and brain science – refers to this as Cognitive Processing, which requires a number of steps: First, the patient has to generate and hold in short-term memory a mental representation of each step derived from this series of 2D static mental images. Second, the patient must combine these 2D static mental representations (on the fly) to construct an accurate 3D static mental representation. Finally, the patient has to infer and impart the dynamic nature of the procedure onto this 3D static mental representation.

If a 3D dynamic representation is the ultimate goal it makes sense to utilize a 3D dynamic representation as the training tool
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To achieve this the patient recruits the cognitive skills learning system in the prefrontal cortex of the brain where working memory and executive attention processes reside. Each of these steps requires an enormous amount of cognitive capacity (in the form of working memory), and cognitive energy (in the form of executive attention). Any time working memory load and executive attentional demands are taxed, patients are more likely to make errors and generate inferior mental representations. Add stress and anxiety into the mix, as is common in such medical settings, and the likelihood of an error increases many-fold.

Augmented reality (AR) in which digital information is overlaid onto the learner’s field of view can also be utilized effectively to reduce cognitive load
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Reducing Cognitive Load

If a 3D dynamic representation is the ultimate goal, then it makes sense to utilize a 3D dynamic representation as the training tool. This is exactly how well-constructed VR training environments work. An accurate dynamic 3D representation is filmed and presented to the patient.

Critically, because the patient is fully immersed in the simulation, they have a feeling of presence in that experience. From a learning science standpoint this means that stimulation of the prefrontal cortex is optimized and cognitive load is therefore reduced. In addition, this immersion recruits other brain regions such as the visual representation areas in the occipital lobes of the brain.

Augmented reality (AR) in which digital information is overlaid onto the learner’s field of view can also be utilized effectively to reduce cognitive load. Suppose one is being trained on a medication regimen in which they are required to take specific numbers of different pills, some once and some twice each day.

One could construct a written table to guide pill taking or to facilitate loading pills into a pill box, thus engaging muscle memory as part of that process. Imagine though if the medication information was loaded into a smartphone and virtual pills were overlaid onto the pill box using the smart phone camera to guide the patient. This approach effectively scaffolds prefrontal cortical processing by significantly reducing working memory load and attentional requirements.

This approach effectively scaffolds prefrontal cortical processing by significantly reducing working memory load and attentional requirements
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Given the aging population of baby boomers hitting the healthcare industry, the time to start developing and mainstreaming this technology is now
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VR and AR for Children and the Elderly

Human development and normal aging have fascinating effects on the prefrontal cortex – the region of the brain associated with working memory and executive attention.

The prefrontal cortex is slow to develop in humans, not reaching full capacity until an individual is in their mid-20s. In addition, prefrontal cortical function declines with normal aging, in many cases starting in middle age. This means that children and older adults are generally going to be less effective learners when content is presented in text or slideshow format, leading to an increase in errors and serious medical consequences in these populations.

Given the fact that baby boomers are now older adults, this has the potential to escalate into a serious crisis. Fortunately, visual representation areas in the occipital lobes are quicker to develop and slower to decay, boosting the advantage of using immersive technologies to present this information to children and older adults.

The emerging technologies of VR and AR are ripe to disrupt the medical sector as we are already seeing with a number of creative teams developing innovative tools. This disruption will be significant in adults but has the potential to be even greater in children and older adults. Given the aging population of baby boomers hitting the healthcare industry, the time to start developing, deploying and mainstreaming this technology is now.

Visual representation areas in the occipital lobes are quicker to develop and slower to decay, boosting the advantage of using immersive technologies to present this information to children and older adults
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For companies looking to get into Immersive technologies such as VR/AR/MR/XR our Virtual Reality Consultancy services offer guidance and support on how best to incorporate these into your brand strategy.

Todd Maddox is Science, Sports and Training Correspondent at Tech Trends, and the CEO of Cognitive Design and Statistical Consulting. Follow him on Twitter @wtoddmaddox

The post Immersive Technologies Helping Children and Older Patients appeared first on Tech Trends.

Can deep learning and blockchain technology help us slow or even reverse the ravages of the aging process?

Longevity research has momentous implications for our lives, because it goes beyond merely living longer. We’re talking about living better, healthier lives, and potentially also shifting the goalposts where it comes to the “ticking biological clock.” Just think for a second about what that could do for gender equality in levelling the career playing field for women considering whether or not they want to – or can afford to – have children. It quite literally changes the rules of the game.

So it’s no wonder there was such buzz around Insilico Medicine – a Baltimore-based AI company specialized in the application of deep learning for drug discovery and aging research – at the Pioneers Conference in Vienna last month. As Dr. Alex Zhavoronkov, Founder and CEO of Insilico says in the video below:

“Modern artificial intelligence now has the ability to capture some of the most important biological features that change during aging and we can now use it to reverse some of those processes.”

Longevity research has momentous implications for our lives, because it goes beyond merely living longer
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“More than 90% of the molecules discovered the traditional techniques and tested in mice fail in human clinical trials. Our goal at Insilico Medicine is to develop advanced end-to-end AI solutions to discover the optimal pre-clinical candidates,” explains Zhavoronkov. “Our collaboration with WuXi AppTec enables us to focus on artificial intelligence without the need to invest in the expensive laboratory infrastructure. It also enables us to collaborate with some of the world’s brightest medicinal chemists and biologists to optimize the drug development process.”

Now Insilico has just announced a new research collaboration with WuXi AppTec, which will enable the company to perform the rapid experimental validation of the molecules discovered using AI and generate the valuable data to advance its AI research.

“We devised series of experiments to test the capabilities of the novel molecular generators and generate valuable data for the AI-powered drug discovery. The results we saw so far look very promising and provide some confidence that artificial intelligence and deep learning can be helpful for drug discovery,” said Dr. Tao Guo, Vice President, Head of International Discovery Service Unit of WuXi AppTec. “The compounds generated by Insilico’s approaches to artificial intelligence have the potential to shorten cycle times and improve the quality of pre-clinical candidates.”

The amount of their latest investment round (which also included Pavilion Capital, BOLD Capital and longevity therapeutics company Juvenescence) was not disclosed, but the Insilico had previously raised over $14 million according to Crunchbase.

Modern artificial intelligence now has the ability to capture some of the most important biological features that change during aging and we can now use it to reverse some of those processes
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Insilico is headquartered at the Emerging Technology Centers at the Johns Hopkins University Eastern campus in Baltimore, with R&D and management resources in Belgium, Russia, UK, Taiwan and Korea sourced through hackathons and competitions. Their work is dedicated to extending human productive longevity and transforming every step of the drug discovery and drug development process through excellence in biomarker discovery, drug development, digital medicine and aging research.

More than 90% of the molecules discovered the traditional techniques and tested in mice fail in human clinical trials
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Insilico devised experiments to test the capabilities of the novel molecular generators and generate valuable data for the AI-powered drug discovery
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It pioneered the applications of the generative adversarial networks (GANs) and reinforcement learning for generation of novel molecular structures for the diseases with a known target and with no known targets. Since 2016, Insilico Medicine published multiple research papers, demonstrating the capabilities of GANs and RL systems for de novo generation of diverse molecules with the desired molecular properties, and preliminary experimental validation uncovered the most promising research directions.

“What impressed us the most about Insilico Medicine was the breadth of its technological capabilities and applications, ranging from target identification and small molecule generation using next-generation artificial intelligence to expertise in blockchain and aging research,” explained Mr. Edward Hu, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Investment Officer of WuXi AppTec.

In addition to working collaborations with the large pharmaceutical companies, the company is pursuing internal drug discovery programs in cancer, dermatological diseases, fibrosis, Parkinson’s Disease, Alzheimer’s Disease, ALS, diabetes and many others, so needless to say Tech Trends will be monitoring their progress with great interest, watch this space.

Insilico Medicine is pursuing internal drug discovery programs in cancer, dermatological diseases, fibrosis, Parkinson's Disease, Alzheimer's Disease, ALS and diabetes
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For companies looking to get into Immersive technologies such as VR/AR/MR/XR our Virtual Reality Consultancy services offer guidance and support on how best to incorporate these into your brand strategy.

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Fighting Aging with Artificial Intelligence appeared first on Tech Trends.

A new epilepsy consortium believes technology could improve patient treatment and reduce NHS costs by £250 million a year.

Today, up to one in 100 people in the UK are believed to suffer from epilepsy, leading to three per cent of all Accident and Emergency visits and a total of 1.3 million days in hospital a year. It’s a challenging condition to manage, particularly as existing medication only works for up to 70 per cent of sufferers.

This approach has the potential to revolutionise the management of epilepsy by optimising the use of currently available treatments
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Up to one in 100 people in the UK are believed to suffer from epilepsy, leading to three per cent of all Accident and Emergency visits and a total of 1.3 million days in hospital a year
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Of those who do not respond to medication, most are not suitable for invasive surgery, leaving many to continue to experience unpredictable and potentially life-threatening seizures. New research by Public Health England (PHE) has found a 70% rise in the number of deaths of epilepsy patients between 2001 and 2014. PHE said there was a need to improve the clinical management of patients and make improvements to their wider health by tackling smoking, alcohol intake and poor diet.

The consortium estimates that it could significantly reduce costs to the NHS in treating epilepsy patients by as much as £250 million
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MyCareCentric patients reported a three-week reduction in response to seizure notification time and 30% fewer hospital admissions
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This is what myCareCentric Epilepsy consortium – funded by Innovate UK and comprised of Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, the University of Kent, System C & Graphnet Care Alliance and Shearwater Systems – is hoping to do by equipping people with the ability to self-manage their condition. Running on Microsoft’s cloud platform Azure, the programme provides patients with wearable technology that records vital health data to help clinicians build a tailored record of a patient’s condition and seizure patterns. It has the potential to learn to classify seizures; to alert clinicians and carers in real-time so they can consult patients remotely; and provide essential lifestyle recommendations and drug prescriptions.

“For Epilepsy sufferers life can often feel uncontrollable and unpredictable. MyCareCentric is empowering patients to regain control of their treatment and their lives, helping them to significantly reduce the number of seizures they experience. As hospital Trusts across the UK continue to face growing pressures, it’s more important than ever to invest in the right tools that focus on the patient as a person rather than the condition, delivering the most effective care and the best outcomes for patients and their families,” says Suzy Foster, Director of Health at Microsoft UK.

Since launch in 2016, myCareCentric Epilepsy has seen extremely positive results, with patients reporting a three-week reduction in response to seizure notification time, an 80 per cent cut in the time taken for medical professionals to respond to individuals and 30 per cent fewer admissions to hospital. The programme is empowering patients with the data they need to manage and monitor their condition, with an understanding of the severity of their seizures. As a result of this reduction in seizures, the consortium estimates that it could significantly reduce costs to the NHS in treating epilepsy patients by as much as £250 million, as well as slash the number of outpatient appointments, easing up time for patient and medical professionals alike.

“This approach has the potential to revolutionise the management of epilepsy by optimising the use of currently available treatments,” says Dr Rupert Page, Chief Clinical Information Officer and Consultant Neurologist at Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. “Simultaneously, the powerful insights gained from the much deeper awareness of the myriad of lifestyle and other factors which affect seizure frequency may open up entirely new areas of research or treatment. The timely, expert support that can be provided through this solution helps patients manage their own condition and restores to them some of the control that the diagnosis of epilepsy all too often takes away.”

In response to the success of the pilot, Microsoft and the consortium behind the solution recently launched a hack to gain insights into the data captured by the programme to help advance epilepsy treatments. Through this, they have confirmed relationships between lifestyle factors such as poor sleep and seizures, potentially enabling more accurate seizure prediction. Additionally, they found that even capturing seemingly innocuous background information could be useful in detecting seizures and improving patient outcomes.

“Putting data into secure Azure environments gives us huge scale and ability to leverage machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities as services and ultimately to improve patient outcomes,” says Dr Jon Shaw, Director of Clinical Strategy at System C & Graphnet Care Alliance, explaining that this is a ‘first of type’ project that combines smart wearables, patient-facing applications and enterprise communication technology, which gets messages out to the care team in real time.

Now, the team are looking to expand the programme to more volunteers to empower them with the data they need to self-manage and understand epilepsy. They are also considering where it could drive new models of care for other conditions.

In response to the success of the pilot, Microsoft and the consortium behind the solution recently launched a hack to gain insights into the data captured by the programme to help advance epilepsy treatments
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Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Wearables Enabling Better Healthcare appeared first on Tech Trends.