wearables

By  Dave Muoio 10:48 am September 3, 2020
Biofourmis, a Boston-based predictive-care startup that's leaning more and more into digital therapeutics, has wrapped up $100 million in Series C financing. The raise was led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, and also saw contributions from prior backers Openspace Ventures, MassMutual Ventures, Sequoia Capital and EDBI. With this major jump from last May's $35 million Series B, the company is now...
By  Tammy Lovell 05:12 am August 19, 2020
Work is underway to create a specification which would enable wearable devices to utilise COVID-19 contact tracing technology. More than 130 Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) member companies have joined a working group, which aims to define a standardised method to add wearables to the existing smartphone-based Exposure Notification System (ENS), while preserving privacy and security...
By  Dave Muoio 10:01 am August 6, 2020
Alongside yesterday's reveal of the Galaxy Watch3, Samsung announced that it has received regulatory clearance from the FDA for its ECG monitoring app. But while the watch – which also has built-in sensors enabling blood pressure and blood oxygen saturation – is slated for release on Aug. 6, the company did not say specifically when the new Samsung Health Monitor app that enables these features...
By  Dave Muoio 02:05 pm August 5, 2020
The University of California, Los Angeles announced yesterday the launch of an Apple-backed study that will use the tech company's devices to measure how sleep, physical activity and heart rate relate to depression and anxiety. The three-year effort launches this week. It will recruit 150 UCLA Health patients for its pilot phase, the university wrote in an announcement. Another 3,000 participants...
By  Dave Muoio 11:52 am August 4, 2020
It's been about nine months since Google officially announced plans to acquire Fitbit. The deal was expected to close in Q2 2020, but antitrust concerns from U.S. and E.U. regulators have so far stalled the purchase. That delay will likely run a fair bit longer with the European Commission announcement that its preliminary probe of the purchase will now expand into a full-scale investigation...
By  Dave Muoio 03:00 am July 28, 2020
Withings, a maker of several consumer and B2B connected health devices once owned by Nokia, has announced the close of a $60 million Series B round. The raise was co-headed by Gilde Healthcare, Idinvest Partners and Bpifrance. BNP Paribas Développement, ODDO BHF Private Equity and Adelie Capital also participated. The company has also appointed a new global medical advisory board that includes Dr...
By  Sara Mageit 06:05 am July 13, 2020
Swedish medtech startup, Doccla, has announced a partnership with Northampton General Hospital NHS trust (NGH) to trial remote smart patient monitoring, which will aim to free up NHS capacity. Doccla is providing virtual wards, built around the use of connected medical wearables in the home, to allow NGH clinicians to remotely monitor the vital signs of recovering COVID patients and those living...
By  Dave Muoio 03:16 pm June 30, 2020
Garmin announced today that it has purchased Firstbeat Technologies' Firstbeat Analytics, its business unit responsible for physiological-measurement algorithms for use with consumer health and wellness devices. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Headquartered in Jyvaskyla, Finland, Firstbeat Analytics has been providing software that interprets various data collected from sensors. It has...
By  Sara Mageit 04:23 am June 24, 2020
With the aim to improve how sites are managed and to promote wellbeing in the construction sector, national framework organisation Pagabo has partnered up with health tech company Moodbeam to launch a wearable device called Moodbeam One, enabling construction workers to capture mood in real-time. The wearable wrist band will allow workers to log how they feel by pressing yellow when they’re...
By  Dave Muoio 11:59 am June 17, 2020
An unusual summer playoff format will once again have NBA superstars competing for their championship rings, but behind the scenes all players entering the Disney World "bubble" will have the option to monitor their via health sensor-laden smart rings, The Athletic reports. Citing a health-and-safety manual distributed to players by the National Basketball Players Association, the sports...