Masimo secures FDA clearance for neonatal RD SET Pulse Oximetry sensors with improved accuracy specifications

Masimo announced that RD SET sensors with Masimo Measure-through Motion and Low Perfusion SET pulse oximetry have received FDA clearance for improved oxygen saturation (SpO2) accuracy specifications for neonatal patients (< 3 kg). 

The updated RD SET sensors’ SpO2 accuracy specifications have improved significantly, from 3 percent to 1.5 percent ARMS (at 1 standard deviation), in conditions of motion and no motion, providing clinicians with even greater confidence when monitoring the oxygenation status of neonates. With this clearance, the improved performance specifications, which were incorporated into RD SET sensors for patients > 3 kg in 2018, are now available to all patient populations in the United States.

Masimo’s SET pulse oximetry has been shown in more than 100 independent and objective studies to outperform other pulse oximetry technologies – even before the revisions that achieved the improved accuracy specifications – providing clinicians with increased sensitivity and specificity to help them make critical patient care decisions. 

Crucially for newborn health, SET has been shown to help clinicians reduce severe retinopathy of prematurity in neonates3 and in multiple studies, including the largest critical congenital heart disease (CCHD) study to date, to improve CCHD screening in newborns.

In addition to offering improved accuracy, RD SET sensors are designed to enhance patient comfort, optimize clinician workflows, and help hospitals meet green initiatives. 

The sensors are lightweight and have a flat, soft cable with smooth edges, so that they lie comfortably on a patient’s hand or foot. In particular, RD SET NeoPt sensors with Velaid SofTouch use little to no adhesive, facilitating quick but gentle application and repositioning on the fragile skin of newborns and pre-term babies. 

RD SET sensors also feature an intuitive sensor-to-cable connection, while their lightweight design results in up to 84 percent less waste and their sleek, recyclable packaging reduces storage and shipping space.

“We’re delighted to announce the latest result of our continued innovation in our foundational SET pulse oximetry. We have long been dedicated to helping improve the lives of neonatal, infant, and pediatric patients, and this clearance significantly furthers that mission,” said Joe Kiani, founder and CEO of Masimo. “Thanks to the brilliance and dedication of our engineers and the continuing support of our customers, we’ve been able to once again raise the standard for pulse oximetry performance. Even though no one has been able to create pulse oximetry that outperforms SET, we have not allowed that to stop us from continuing our pursuit of perfecting pulse oximetry.”

HPE eHealth Centers facilitate over one million patient visits in India

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) announced that its eHealth Centers (eHCs) have collectively facilitated over 1 million patient visits across India. Offering a digital healthcare solution, the vast eHC network offers remote diagnoses free of charge in underserved communities, reaffirming HPE’s long-term commitment to the country and its mission to advance the way people live and work.

Many Indian citizens lack access to primary healthcare services, which are critical to reducing mortality rates from chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Recognizing the significant role of technology in improving access and effectiveness of primary healthcare in underserved areas, HPE launched its eHC initiative in 2012. 

The eHCs, designed to fit and deploy within a standard shipping container, connect patients with highly skilled medics. These centers also combine online training materials for remote healthcare workers with diagnostic tools that capture the patients’ vital statistics on a cloud-based application. Additionally, by leveraging data analytics, the eHCs facilitate health monitoring and management by identifying disease patterns in local communities.

In support of the government’s target of making India TB-free by 2025, HPE signed the USAID TB pledge. Under this pledge, the eHCs will screen symptomatic patients and target the “Missing TB” cases who carry the disease and go undiagnosed. The diagnosed patients will be referred to the nearest government recognized TB treatment center. The eHCs will provide free diagnostic services to over 50,000 TB patients by July 2020.

Currently, there are over 130 eHCs deployed across 18 states in the country. To further increase the reach of affordable and personalized healthcare services, HPE will set-up additional eHCs across the country. The success of eHCs in India has resulted in HPE launching such facilities in Bhutan and the Philippines.

HPE’s commitment to further improving global access to healthcare helped inspire the launch of Tech Impact 2030 last year. Along with the World Economic Forum, HPE announced the initiative focused on bringing together technology, industry and government to power meaningful change by the year 2030. 

Under this initiative, HPE introduced a challenge to enable real-time, personalized medical care for patients by 2030. Looking forward, HPE envisions emerging technology to radically improve the cost, speed and accuracy of medical research and patient care.

“At HPE, we believe technology can play a significant role in addressing rapidly-evolving healthcare needs. Being a purpose-driven organization, we strive to develop innovative models such as eHCs to make our world better,” said Som Satsangi, MD – India, HPE. “The one million eHC patient visits is a significant milestone in reaffirming our commitment to build a culture of innovation that positively impacts local communities across the country.”

GigaSpaces Version 15.0 set to operationalize and optimize machine learning; gain actionable insights from data

GigaSpaces announced this week availability of GigaSpaces Version 15.0, including InsightEdge Platform and XAP, to operationalize and optimize machine learning with the required speed, scale, accuracy and management tools. GigaSpaces Version 15.0 powers machine learning operations (MLOps) initiatives, helping enterprises maximize the business value derived from big data. 

Deploying machine learning models in production remains a major challenge for many enterprises. The Gartner Accelerate Your Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence Journey Using These DevOps Best Practices says that, “according to the 2019 Gartner CIO Survey, AI and ML continue to be viewed as the No. 1 game-changing technology by CIOs. However, most organizations underestimate how long it will take to move AI and ML projects into production.”

GigaSpaces delivers fast in-memory computing platforms for real-time insight to action and extreme transactional processing.  With GigaSpaces, enterprises can operationalize machine learning and transactional processing to gain real-time insights on their data and act upon them in the moment.  

The always-on platforms for mission-critical applications across cloud, on-premise or hybrid, are leveraged by organizations across various verticals, including financial services, retail, transportation, telecom and healthcare. GigaSpaces offices are located in the US, Europe and Asia.

GigaSpaces Version 15.0 simplifies integrating AI workloads with the organization’s core infrastructure, accelerating machine learning deployment and enabling enterprises to more readily experience the business benefits of machine learning models.

GigaSpaces Version 15.0 introduces a new enterprise-grade monitoring and administration tool, Ops Manager, that provides visibility into the components of systems running models including logs, inputs, outputs and exceptions, using different performance visualization techniques. 

The Ops Manager enables continuous monitoring of machine learning pipelines, starting at the cluster level and drilling through to individual services so users can maintain accurate data models and ensure that problems are resolved before they affect overall performance. 

The new AnalyticsXtreme Batch Indexing included in GigaSpaces InsightEdge Version 15.0 optimizes and automates data access and storage with the added ability to move data between the more frequent (cold data) access and infrequent (archive data) access tiers on data lakes and data warehouses.  

The performance of ML models is enhanced since frequently accessed cold data can be retrieved 80 times faster directly from data lakes and processing costs are reduced as data access patterns change. 

GigaSpaces Version 15.0 also provides a native smart space client in Kubernetes that supports remote CRUD operations, task execution, and event-driven analytics providing high throughput and fast serialization, as well as automatic load balancing. Writing and updating of data without a predefined schema allows easy changes to the data model, while ensuring compatibility with JDBC and BI tools so code can be integrated more reliably and faster with lower administrative overhead.

“Machine learning is becoming an essential component of mission critical applications to optimize operations and deliver superior real time customer experiences,” said Yoav Einav, VP product at GigaSpaces. “GigaSpaces Version 15.0 provides enterprises with the machine learning model management capabilities, speed and scale that they need to accelerate their machine learning and artificial intelligence journey.”

Wave Neuroscience completes brain treatment technology asset purchase to deliver improved care access to patients

Wave Neuroscience, vendor of non-invasive neuromodulation technology, announces this week the completion of an asset purchase from Newport Brain Research Laboratory (NBRL). In June 2019, Wave Neuroscience purchased substantially all of the assets from the many different onshore and offshore holding companies under NBRL. 

Now a wholly owned and operated U.S. corporation chartered in Delaware, Wave Neuroscience is focused on its position in brain health and its restoration.

In addition, key NBRL personnel – all U.S. persons – were hired into new roles at Wave Neuroscience. The company is concentrating growth efforts on aiding those who are candidates for its patented treatments – including veterans and active military service members. Since June, Wave Neuroscience’s military commitment is exemplified by more than US$500,000 of free treatments pledged to U.S. military members. 

The crux of Wave Neuroscience’s research revolves around the premise that the brain can be treated by non-pharmaceutical and non-surgical means. It asserts that with the exploration of the relationship between cognition and neural activity, an innovative and informed approach to non-invasive neuromodulation is possible. The company’s dedicated team of neuroscientists and physicians has put their talents towards delivering individualized treatment aimed at achieving a healthier life for people with various neurological issues.

Wave Neuroscience offers a personalized treatment platform for addressing neurological abnormalities and has treated more than 7,000 patients using its patented, non-invasive, drug-free MeRT process, which is licensed by a network of independently owned medical facilities.

The MeRT process involves recording a patient’s EEG/EKG; processing this biometric data with computational neuroanalytics; generation of an individualized treatment protocol delivered by a technician using FDA-cleared equipment; and continual progress evaluation using sequential measurements to inform protocol adjustment. 

At present, Wave Neuroscience has five ongoing clinical trials, including an FDA-grade trial for persistent post-concussion syndrome (PCS), and strategic partnerships with organizations including the USC Neurorestoration Center and Cedars-Sinai Center for Sports Neurology at Kerlan-Jobe. The company’s work is fueled by ten wholly owned and U.S.-held patents with six applications pending.

Nokia Bell Labs prize awarded to new processor technology, pioneered by student and professor team from University of California at Berkeley

Nokia announced this year’s Nokia Bell Labs Prize, the global competition to recognize game-changing innovations that attracted more than 250 applications from 31 countries around the world. The 2019 prize has been awarded to a student and Professor team from the University of California at Berkeley. 

PhD student Tianshi Wang and Prof. Jaijeet Roychowdhury received US$100,000 for winning the competition, and the opportunity to pursue an expanded collaboration with Nokia Bell Labs. 

The pair won the prize for their work on “A Classic Spin on Quantum Computing." Their innovation is in a new type of processor element that will be significantly more efficient in computing the answers to discrete optimization problems. Their innovation will complement conventional digital processors (CPUs and GPUs) by tackling a variety of computationally hard problems of importance in many diverse areas, including 5G communication systems; complex tasks in planning, scheduling and control; and even the discovery of new drugs.

“The Bell Labs Prize is a unique opportunity for innovators around the world to collaborate with Bell Labs researchers to expand the potential of their innovations,” said Marcus Weldon, Nokia Corporate CTO and president of Nokia Bell Labs. “The competition is highly competitive, reducing more than 250 applicants to 5 finalists, who must convince their Bell Labs mentors and the judging panel that their innovation has the potential to change the world. This year’s winners have certainly met that criteria, by pioneering a new processor technology that will allow a large set of complex optimization problems to be solved with unprecedented efficiency and at low cost. It is truly impressive work and we will be closely collaborating with the team to help them realize this potential.”

The 2019 Nokia Bell Labs Prize competition was launched in April. Proposals were reviewed by Nokia Bell Labs researchers and evaluated based on three criteria, including whether the idea has a "10X innovation potential" to change the world; the proposal's technical merit; and the overall feasibility of the proposed idea.

The proposals were narrowed down to a select group of outstanding candidates who were given the opportunity to partner with Nokia Bell Labs experts to help expand the impact of their proposals. Five finalists were invited to the final judging event held this week at Nokia Bell Labs headquarters in Murray Hill, New Jersey. 

The judging panel was comprised of Weldon, Nobel Laureate Robert Wilson, world-renowned computer scientist and Bell Labs alum Al Aho, as well as previous Nokia Bell Labs Prize winners Samory Kpotufe (2018) and Kaushik Sengupta (2017).

Second place and $50,000 went to Dr. Sheng Xu, Assistant Professor in the Department of Nanoengineering at University of California at San Diego for his submission, “There is plenty of room under the skin: A wearable’s perspective.” His team have developed an easy-to-use ultrasonic patch that can provide noninvasive, continuous and unobtrusive monitoring of deep tissues. This innovation will not only impact consumers, who will have access to data on their hearts, lungs, livers, and GI tracts, but also healthcare systems allowing non-invasive continuous patient monitoring and ultrasonic imaging.

Third place and $25,000 were presented to Maximilian Arnold, Sebastian Cammerer, Sebastian Dörner, Stephan ten Brink of Stuttgart University in Germany for their innovative work on “Leveraging 5G Infrastructure for a Robust Positioning System.” Their indoor positioning system uses existing wireless communications networks to determine location which will allow ubiquitous, low cost tracking of all things, with simpler calibration than existing systems, and therefore has the potential to become a foundational part of the next industrial revolution.

Synack report showcases rapid growth, almost four times, in crowdsourced security testing for compliance

Synack released a new report Wednesday detailing a major cultural shift taking part among some of the world’s largest organizations and institutions. The 2020 State of Compliance and Security Testing Report reveals that a large percentage of organizations and institutions are moving toward a rigorous, continuous testing model to ensure compliance. 

As part of this shift toward continuous testing, organizations are utilizing crowdsourced security testing to achieve regulatory compliance and real security, with adoption expected to increase four-fold in 2020.

With new compliance frameworks such as GDPR and CCPA increasing the cost of a breach, organizations are racing to protect their data. In an increasingly connected, highly regulated and digital world, business leaders and decision makers are turning to outside vendors that can ramp up quickly in a cost effective manner. 

As a result, the crowdsourced security testing space--which has already gained credibility for its significantly better ROI than more traditional, less frequent, and less secure methods--has surpassed all estimates and will continue to do so in 2020 and beyond.

For the report, Synack surveyed leaders from more than 300 organizations representing a number of industries and verticals, including technology, government, healthcare, information technology, and financial services. 

In addition to helping identify a set of security and compliance best practices for a diverse set of industries, the report found security testing is becoming part of an organization’s normal routine rather than a once-a-year check of the box focused only on compliance. 

44 percent of organizations and institutions surveyed are performing security tests on a monthly or weekly basis, which suggests they are moving toward the more effective continuous model that crowdsourced solutions enable.

Other findings include 63 percent of organizations agree that the most common use case for external vendors is to identify and reduce vulnerabilities, which is encouraged by different compliance frameworks and best practice standards; 52 percent of organizations experience unwanted cost and complexity due to overlap in functionality from using multiple security vendors, which is caused by poor budget allocation and overlap in vendor capabilities; and 32 percent of compliance testing processes are expensive and difficult to scale, yet crowdsourced security testing solutions provide 147 percent higher ROI than a typical pen test and may decrease the burden of testing on organizations by reducing signal-noise ratio.

Kaspersky releases its financial threat predictions for 2020, as fintech, mobile banking and e-commerce are likely to intensify

According to Kaspersky experts, financially motivated cyberthreat actors may start to target investment apps, online financial data processing systems and upcoming cryptocurrencies in 2020. Additionally, experts predict they may offer paid access to banks’ infrastructures and develop new strains of mobile banking malware based on leaked source code.

Financial cyberthreats are considered to be some of the most dangerous, as their impact usually results in direct financial losses for victims. 2019 has seen some significant developments in the industry and also in how financial attackers operate. 

These events allowed Kaspersky researchers to suggest several important potential developments for the financial threat landscape for 2020. 

Fintech is under attack. Mobile investments apps have become more popular among users around the globe, and this trend won’t go unnoticed by cybercriminals in 2020. Not all of these apps utilize best security practices, like multi-factor authentication or protection of the app connection, which may give cybercriminals a potential way to target users of such applications

Kaspersky research and monitoring of underground forums suggests that the source code of some popular mobile banking Trojans was actually leaked into the public domain. Previous similar cases of malware source code leakage such as Zeus and SpyEye that resulted in an increased number of new variations of these Trojans. In 2020 this pattern may repeat.

In 2020, Kaspersky experts expect an increase in the activity of groups specialised in criminal-to-criminal sale of network access to banks in the African and Asian regions, as well as in Eastern Europe. Their prime targets are small banks as well as financial organizations recently bought by big players who are rebuilding their cybersecurity system in accordance with the standards of their parent companies. it is also expected that the same banks may become victims of targeted ransomware attacks, as banks are among those organizations that are more likely to pay a ransom than accept the loss of data.

Magecarting 3.0 features more cybercriminal groups will target online payment processing systems. Over the past couple of years, so-called JS-skimming (the method of stealing of payment card data from online stores) has gained immense popularity among attackers. 

Currently, Kaspersky researchers are aware of at least 10 different actors involved in these type of attacks and experts believe that their number will continue to grow during the next year. The most dangerous attacks will be on companies that provide services such as e-commerce as-a-service, which will lead to the compromise of thousands of companies.

“This year has been one of many important developments,” says Yuriy Namestnikov, a security researcher at Kaspersky. “Just as we predicted at the end of 2018, it has seen the emergence of new cybercriminal groups like CopyPaste, new geography of attacks by Silence group and cybercriminals shifting their focus to data that helps to bypass antifraud systems in their attacks. Behavioral and biometrics data is on sale on the underground market. Additionally, we expected JS-skimmer base attacks to increase and they did. With 2020 on the horizon, we recommend security teams in potentially affected areas of the finance industry to gear up for new challenges. There is nothing inevitable in potential upcoming threats, it is just important to be properly prepared for them.”

In addition to financial sector, Kaspersky researchers identified other industries that will face new security related challenges in the upcoming year, such as the healthcare industry is advised to focus on protecting medical records and connected medical devices, as they are becoming the target of threat actors. 

Corporate security teams should pay more attention to cloud infrastructure and also to addressing growing risks of insiders accessing their networks. There are groups of criminals specializing on recruiting insiders through various techniques, including blackmail. 

Telecommunications and other industries that vastly use cellular communications should be prepared to assess and address risks that will come with wider adoption of 5G, which is expected to start in 2020. 

International Medical Solutions launches CloudSync for Google Cloud healthcare customers transitioning to the cloud

International Medical Solutions (IMS), a Google Cloud Partner, announced a solution that will enable radiologists and other healthcare clinicians to transition to the cloud. 

The IMS CloudSync enables radiology sites to transition to the cloud and continue to use their legacy on-premise workstations and DICOM viewers. The front-end solution designed with the needs of initial Google Cloud Platform (GCP) users in mind uses an implementation that enables GCP to be added to an on-premise legacy viewing workflow, where GCP would act as the archive. 

The plug-and-play solution works out-of-the-box and allows PACS sites to sync their on-premise storage of medical images with their cloud storage. The added benefit is the sites can continue to use their legacy PACS workstations to view images stored in the cloud. 

"IMS has been working closely with Google Cloud to solve unmet needs for customers who are starting to transition to the cloud. CloudSync™ is an out-of-the-box, cost-effective solution that improves clinician workflows while enabling them to use on-prem legacy systems at the same time," says Vittorio Accomazzi, CTO of International Medical Solutions. Accomazzi adds, "Also, CloudSync inherently provides image sharing as it allows multiple sites to share and exchange images on GCP."

IMS CloudVue will also be featured at RSNA this year. The solution, which launched earlier this year, is a cloud-based viewing platform that provides the experience of an installed application on any device or workstation. CloudSync and CloudVue can also be used as a disaster recovery solution since CloudSync will upload the on-premise data onto GCP, which can be accessed using CloudVue. At any given time, the user has two copies of the data and at least two ways for accessing it.

Over the last year, IMS has worked closely with Google Cloud to enhance the integration with the Google Cloud Healthcare API, including integrating with machine learning backend.