• Fitbit has launched a new Device Connect service to give doctors your data
  • Wellnex Life has raised $2.8m to progress its goal to offer OTC medicinal cannabis in Australia
  • Microba expands agreements with Europe’s largest pathology company out to Dec 2028

 

Most of Fitbit’s revenue has historically come from selling its wearables — but its new Device Connect service is targeting healthcare professionals, doctors and hospitals looking for “accelerated analytics and insights” into patients and customers.

Basically, healthcare providers would be able to monitor the data and provide care outside the doctor’s office, like monitoring a patient’s condition before and after surgery, managing chronic conditions or as part of a clinical research study.

Device Connect is already in operation at the Haga Teaching Hospital in The Hague, Netherlands, where researchers are using the data to help conduct a study for the early identification and prevention of vascular disease.

And because Google owns Fitbit, the plan is to use Google Cloud tech with prebuilt dashboards, including a patient enrolment and consent app which enables Fitbit data to be accessed by medical professionals and businesses.

But don’t worry, apparently, you’ll still be able to control what data you share and how it’s used.

You trust Google, right?

 

Who’s got health news out today?

 

WELLNEX LIFE (ASX:WNX)

The company has raised $2.815 million at $0.075 under a Share Purchase Plan (SPP) plus nabbed a $3.15 million strategic investment – $3 million of which was from cornerstone investor Homart Pharmaceuticals to provide Wellnex with manufacturing and product expertise as well as export network and contacts. 

The company says the funds will be used to progress the JV with OneLife Botanicals with the goal to be one of the first companies to offer an over-the-counter medicinal cannabis product in the Australian market.

“The total funds raised of $5.965 million will enable us to progress on our goal to be one of the first companies to offer an over-the-counter medicinal cannabis product in the Australian market,” CEO George Karafotias.

Funds will also be used to finance the inventory required for launching new brand and product launches.

 

MICROBA (ASX:MAP)

In 2020, Microba entered into agreements with Europe’s largest pathology company SYNLAB (ETR:SYAB) to pursue a multi-phased distribution strategy for Microba’s microbiome testing technology throughout Europe – and they’ve now expanded that deal out to Decemeber 2028.

The agreement also provides a new framework for SYNLAB’s affiliate countries to rapidly expand distribution across Europe and Latin America 

 

OPYL (ASX:OPL)

Opyl’s clinical trial prediction and protocol design software has delivered a world-first in mapping and linking global clinical trial outcome data.

The AI-based software has accurately traced a random subset of clinical trials reported to global registries through to their outcomes, with 92% accuracy.

The company says this is significant because only around 13% of the circa 431,000 clinical trials registered on the US government website, ClinicalTrials.gov, have posted their results to the site and no trials are linked over time as they progress between clinical phases.

The huge information gap is a major problem for the medical research sector as no one benefits from past learnings and often repeat protocol (trial plan) design mistakes made in previous trials – which contributes to high trial failure rates and the unnecessary waste of time and money on research destined to fail. 

“The scalable TrialKey Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution overcomes this issue by using machine learning/AI and natural language processing (NLP) to link trials across multiple global databases and sources, reducing failure bias and thereby improving predictive and protocol design accuracy and value of the software,” the company says.

 

PROTEOMICS INTERNATIONAL (ASX:PIQ)

Proteomics has nabbed a $2 million funding boost via the expansion of the WA Proteomics Facility to accelerate the development of precision diagnostic tests in partnership with The University of Western Australia (UWA) and Bioplatforms Australia. 

“There are clinical samples sitting in biobanks and sample repositories all over Australia that can be used to help combat chronic diseases,” MD Dr Richard Lipscombe said.

“Similarly, analysing seeds in national and international seed stores could help make breeding decisions that boost the world’s agricultural output. 

“All these biological samples are a precious and limited resource. 

“By analysing them faster and at greater scale we can accelerate the development of new precision diagnostic tests that could improve patient care or transform agriculture production.” 

The expanded facility is expected to be fully operational in 2023.

 

WNX, MAP, OPL and PIQ share prices today:

 

At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While Wellnex Life and Opyl are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.