#and! they use a similar driver. but the driver for the readout device is customized and not signed

[relto]

had some work today with the group thats testing an ultracold sensor, and the cryostat was on and making its usual obnoxious noises. so i made a recording of the noise and. i cant fucken find the file.

[martynnx-blog]

Digital Radiography Market By 2026 Growth, Leading Trends, Challenges, Drivers, Restraints And Investment Opportunities

Digital radiography is a similar technique to conventional radiography, with the only difference being the former using a phosphor image plate instead of a conventional film. Currently, based on various detector and readout technologies, the medical devices and equipment manufacturers offer a variety of digital imaging solutions to their customers. There are various factors positively affecting demand for digital radiography such as digital detectors archiving of a fully digital picture and communication system, where images are stored digitally and can be shared without any risk of file loss during image distribution in hospitals through web-based technology.

Market Dynamics

Rise in number of accidents, growing prevalence of dental disorders, and increasing prevalence of breast cancer are some of the vital factors that are expected to fuel growth of the digital radiography market in the near future. Novel products and diagnostic systems in dentistry are projected to reshape the world dentistry market in the near future, with the utilization of the digital radiography technique expected to favor early detection of teeth related disease such as caries and cavities. This in turn is projected to favor growth of the digital x-ray market over the forecast period. According to Straumann CMD 2012, digitalization will further change value chain & workflows for dentists and laboratories along with the provision of digital scanning, which will provide a 3D-view of the oral situation. Furthermore, rising number of bone disorders due to increasing elderly population is expected to favor the digital radiography market over the forecast period.

Request For Customization of Research Report @ https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-customization/151

Rising aging population to increase consumer base of digital radiography market

Aging results in weakening of the immune system. Thus, the elderly population is at a major risk of chronic diseases such as chronic respiratory disease, cardiovascular disorders, dental issues, and orthopedic disorders. According to the World Population Prospects report (2015) by the United Nations (UN), the global population aged 60 years and above is projected to increase by 56% from 901 million in 2015 to 1.4 billion by 2050. This growth rate is faster than the growth of population in other age groups. The report mentions that Japan is home to world’s most aged population (33% in 2015). Aging population exerts pressure on the health budget of the nation leading to increase in demand for cost-effective solutions. This in turn, would generate a more positive digital radiography market outlook.

Key companies covered as a part of this study include 3DX-Ray, Anritsu Infivis, Bosello High Technology, COMET, GE Healthcare, Mettler-Toledo International, Nikon, North Star Imaging, VJ Technologies, Fujifilm Holdings, Philips Healthcare, Shimadzu Corporation, Toshiba Medical System Corporation, Carestream Health

[susnom]

Locating Your Way Employing GPS

Using the organization of logistics becoming more and more competitive, the usage of GPS systems in trucks is increasingly widespread. A GPS system fitted to a truck will mean that the transportation firm will probably be capable to track all their loads all through their journeys. This will likely make sure a clear image of where their autos are and they'll be capable of track their progress as they provide their goods. Customers waiting for deliveries can then be provided a trusted report of progress plus a definite expected time of delivery.

The technology which permits the usage of GPS systems in trucks is now commonplace plus the value of such gear is decreasing all the time. In fact, you might now obtain a lot of automobiles fitted with similar devices in an attempt to combat theft. Numerous logistics providers have now decided that the price of the equipment is justifiable as the rewards are clear. These benefits go well beyond just figuring out the whereabouts of their trucks. A GPS system may also feed facts back to base with regards to the speed that the cars are travelling. This can be important in lowering speeding and as a result lowering the danger of fines. Yet another essential benefit of fitting GPS systems in trucks is as an help to navigation. As the information and facts concerning the whereabouts of the fleet is fed for your central dispatch workplace, you will be able to provide detailed directions for your drivers. This could be very important for those who have info regarding road closures or traffic hold ups. Such particulars may very well be the distinction between generating a delivery on time and suffering the consequences of being late. If you are accountable for the lengthy distance movement of perishable goods, by way of example, this could save your load getting spoiled. Facts on navigational systems are fed in to the computer, which includes the size from the vehicles. Information such as this could be significant as allowances can be created for manoeuvrability though small town. Details like car size are also essential with regards to narrow roads, low bridges or stretches of road with weight restrictions. A satellite navigation and positioning program is going to be of fantastic aid within the direction of automobiles in such situations. Now that technologies is moving on at such a rate, some organizations are installing GPS systems in trucks that not merely track the whereabouts of their fleet but are also letting the central dispatch workplace know of difficulties that the cars could possibly be suffering. Some are fitted towards the trucks key systems and can give a technical readout straight for the office or automobile upkeep workplace. Despite the fact that that is definitely much more costly than a straightforward tracking program, it can be deemed to be a worthwhile investment for many on the bigger companies. Despite the initial outcry on the drivers to accept the usage of GPS systems in trucks, as a result of attainable invasion of privacy, they may be a all-natural step on from the old cardboard tacho systems that they replace. They're, nonetheless, an enormous step when it comes to the efficient operating of a logistics division. Visit here to learn more about truck gps reviews

[illegals-before-war-vets-blog]

Locating Your Way Employing GPS

With all the small business of logistics becoming a lot more competitive, the use of GPS systems in trucks is increasingly prevalent. A GPS system fitted to a truck will imply that the transportation organization are going to be in a position to track all their loads throughout their journeys. This will likely assure a clear picture of exactly where their vehicles are and they are going to be able to track their progress as they provide their goods. Customers waiting for deliveries can then be provided a dependable report of progress and a definite expected time of delivery.

The technology which makes it possible for the use of GPS systems in trucks is now commonplace and also the price tag of such gear is decreasing all the time. The truth is, you can now uncover numerous cars fitted with similar devices in an try to combat theft. Lots of logistics firms have now decided that the price of the gear is justifiable as the benefits are clear. These positive aspects go effectively beyond just figuring out the whereabouts of their trucks. A GPS program will also feed facts back to base concerning the speed that the cars are travelling. This could be vital in reducing speeding and consequently lowering the risk of fines. A different critical benefit of fitting GPS systems in trucks is as an help to navigation. As the information concerning the whereabouts of one's fleet is fed to your central dispatch workplace, you will be able to give detailed directions for your drivers. This may very well be essential if you have data regarding road closures or website traffic hold ups. Such particulars could possibly be the distinction amongst making a delivery on time and suffering the consequences of becoming late. Should you be responsible for the extended distance movement of perishable goods, for instance, this could save your load getting spoiled. Particulars on navigational systems are fed in to the laptop or computer, including the size from the cars. Details for instance this can be vital as allowances is usually made for manoeuvrability though compact town. Details for example automobile size are also vital in relation to narrow roads, low bridges or stretches of road with weight restrictions. A satellite navigation and positioning technique will probably be of terrific aid in the direction of autos in such situations. Now that technology is moving on at such a rate, some providers are installing GPS systems in trucks that not only track the whereabouts of their fleet but are also letting the central dispatch workplace know of complications that the vehicles may very well be suffering. Some are fitted to the trucks main systems and will give a technical readout straight to the office or automobile maintenance office. Despite the fact that this can be definitely additional pricey than a straightforward tracking method, it truly is regarded as to become a worthwhile investment for a lot of from the bigger businesses. In spite of the initial outcry of your drivers to accept the use of GPS systems in trucks, as a result of doable invasion of privacy, they are a organic step on in the old cardboard tacho systems that they replace. They are, having said that, a massive step when it comes to the efficient running of a logistics division. Visit here to learn more about best rates truck gps

[oftheseafoam-blog]

Acquiring Your Way Applying GPS

Together with the organization of logistics becoming more and more competitive, the use of GPS systems in trucks is increasingly common. A GPS system fitted to a truck will imply that the transportation firm will likely be in a position to track all their loads all through their journeys. This may make sure a clear picture of where their automobiles are and they may be able to track their progress as they deliver their goods. Customers waiting for deliveries can then be given a trustworthy report of progress plus a definite anticipated time of delivery.

The technologies which allows the usage of GPS systems in trucks is now commonplace and also the cost of such equipment is decreasing all the time. In actual fact, you are going to now locate many automobiles fitted with similar devices in an try to combat theft. Many logistics firms have now decided that the cost of the equipment is justifiable because the positive aspects are clear. These added benefits go nicely beyond just figuring out the whereabouts of their trucks. A GPS system may also feed information and facts back to base regarding the speed that the automobiles are travelling. This can be vital in reducing speeding and consequently minimizing the threat of fines. One more crucial benefit of fitting GPS systems in trucks is as an help to navigation. As the information and facts regarding the whereabouts of your fleet is fed for your central dispatch office, you'll be capable to offer detailed directions to your drivers. This could be crucial if you have information with regards to road closures or website traffic hold ups. Such details may be the distinction between making a delivery on time and suffering the consequences of being late. If you are responsible for the lengthy distance movement of perishable goods, for example, this could save your load being spoiled. Details on navigational systems are fed into the laptop, like the size on the automobiles. Info which include this can be crucial as allowances is usually created for manoeuvrability though little town. Facts which include car size are also vital on the subject of narrow roads, low bridges or stretches of road with weight restrictions. A satellite navigation and positioning method are going to be of good help in the path of automobiles in such circumstances. Now that technologies is moving on at such a price, some businesses are installing GPS systems in trucks that not only track the whereabouts of their fleet but are also letting the central dispatch workplace know of troubles that the autos may very well be suffering. Some are fitted to the trucks primary systems and will give a technical readout directly to the workplace or vehicle maintenance workplace. Even though that is of course additional expensive than a simple tracking system, it is actually regarded to be a worthwhile investment for many from the larger businesses. Despite the initial outcry from the drivers to accept the use of GPS systems in trucks, because of the feasible invasion of privacy, they may be a natural step on from the old cardboard tacho systems that they replace. They are, nonetheless, a huge step in terms of the effective operating of a logistics department. Visit here to learn more about best rates truck gps

[kristinsimmons]

A Health Tech’s Secret Weapon: The People Under The Hood

By DAVID SHAYWITZ, MD

The recently-announced acquisition of the oncology data company Flatiron Health by Roche for $2.1B represents a robust validation of the much-discussed but infrequently-realized hypothesis that technology entrepreneurs who can turn health data into actionable insights can capture significant value for this accomplishment.

Four questions underlying this deal (a transaction first reported, as usual, by Chrissy Farr) are: (1) What is the Flatiron business model? (2) What makes Flatiron different from other health data companies? (3) Why did Roche pay so much for this asset? (4) What are the lessons other health tech companies might learn?

The Flatiron Business Model

To a first approximation, Flatiron has a model that can be seen as similar to tech platforms like Google and Facebook – delight (or at least offer a useful service to) front-end users, and then sell the data generated to other businesses. For Flatiron, the front-end users are oncologists (mostly community, some academic), and the data customers are pharma companies. In contrast to Google (and also in contrast to the less successful Practice Fusion, recently acquired at a loss), Flatiron doesn’t sell access to front-end users themselves (e.g. through targeted ads), but rather access to de-identified, aggregated clinical information.

Success of this model requires that the Flatiron platform is attractive to oncology practices, who must feel that they’re getting distinct value from it and believe that it helps them fulfill their primary mission of taking care of cancer patients. If this is true, then the Flatiron platform will enjoy continued traction from its current base, and may more easily win over new users (including practices that use a different EMR system, like Epic, but still want access to the Flatiron network and analytics).

By all accounts, the oncologist-facing Flatiron platform (originally a mediocre oncology EHR that Flatiron acquired and serially refined) remains a work in progress; the company appears determined to continue to improve the quality of this application, even (especially) post-acquisition, as oncologists are foundational to this model, and the more delighted oncologists are with it, the more traction it stands to achieve.

On the back end, Flatiron has created a dataset thats seems largely distinct in the industry – a meticulously assembled oncology dataset that pulls information from the electronic health records and organizes it in a fashion that approaches the quality of clinical research, enabling investigators (and regulators) to ask questions of the data that might normally require a dedicated, stand-alone study to resolve.

What Makes Flatiron Different?

Flatiron’s key insight wasn’t so much recognizing the foundational need for a robust, clinical research-grade dataset, but rather, realizing that creating this required meticulous, artisanal data curation – largely done by hand, Mechanical Turk style.

The Mechanical Turk was a fake chess-playing machine from the late 18th century, presented as an intelligent device, but actually powered by hidden human players. Amazon (and indeed, many other tech companies) use a version of this approach to solve problems, generally problems that seem like they should be addressable by a computer but which in fact may be most efficiently or economically addressed by actual people.

Flatiron recognized that, at least in cancer, half or more of the most important data in health records isn’t in structured data fields, but rather in unstructured data, the free text fields of pathology reports and clinical notes. While technology can in theory “read” these fields, actually pulling out the most useful aspects, at least today, requires people, and Flatiron has hired and trained an army of them, generally health professionals who painstakingly read through unstructured data and extract the relevant aspects. Technology tools assist in this process (hence “technology-enabled”), and the quality of the extraction is closely and systematically monitored, but the essential work is still done by human beings.

A. Abernethy

Amy Abernethy, MD, PhD, Chief Medical Officer, Chief Scientific Officer, and Senior Vice President, Flatiron Health

The key driver of this approach was Dr. Amy Abernethy, a physician-scientist who spent her career at Duke focused on the question of how to upgrade the quality of EHR data so that it could be more useful for both clinicians and researchers.

When my co-host Lisa Suennen and I interviewed Abernethy on our Tech Tonics podcast last year, she told us that when she was first introduced to the young Flatiron founders Nat Turner and Zach Weinberg, and explained to them the need to painfully extract data from unstructured fields, “they listened and weren’t scared off by fact that it was a really hard problem to solve.” In the interview prep, Abernethy also told me, “what Flatiron did was not be scared off by doing the hard stuff – everyone else says ‘That is someone else’s problem to solve.’”

On the podcast, Abernethy explained,

“As we imagine the data in electronic health records, it’s easy to think about structured data and how we might make use of it. For example, using glucose or HbA1c values to monitor what’s going on in diabetes. But in cancer, many of the critical data points reside in documents that are not structured at all. For example, histology. If a cancer is an adenocarcinoma or a squamous cell cancer is something that’s in a pathology report, and sometimes it’s really distinct, and it’s pretty easy to pull that information out. But a lot of the times, it’s contextual, and includes a lot of the other information that a pathologist is seeing. And this is not just histology, but information like biomarkers, and what’s in the radiology report, and what’s in the clinical case notes . We estimate that 50% or more the critical data points you need for research live in these PDF representations of data.” [Comments lightly edited for clarity.]

Indeed, a fascinating publication from Flatiron and Pfizer compared the composition of two theoretical cancer research cohorts, one identified by using just structured data from an EHR, and a second identified by using the combination of structured and unstructured data. The profound conclusions were how different the composition of these cohorts were, how much larger the second cohort was, and how surprisingly little overlap there was between the two cohorts. In other words, if you’re trying to draw conclusions on the basis of extracting data from structured fields alone, you’re going to make a lot of mistakes, and you may miss a lot of patients.

In some ways, the vast quantities of data in hospital EHR systems has tempted and frustrated researchers for ages. On the one hand, it’s tantalizing – with so much data in these systems, surely this information can be mined for clinical and scientific insight? While there have been discrete examples of success, the process has proved maddeningly frustrating, and it seems, stubbornly resistant to automation – especially since both pharma researchers and practicing clinicians are exquisitely sensitive to data utility, not data volume. Moreover, even some examples of apparent automation success – such as the genotype/phenotype data integration that underlies the Regeneron drug discovery engine – owe much to artisanal curation of phenotype, the so-called “phenotype whispering” capability I’ve discussed at a number of conferences (in a previous role).

Why Did Roche Pay So Much For Flatiron?

The $2.1B total acquisition price caught the attention of investors and entrepreneurs alike, begging the inevitable question, why? A thoughtful discussion of this transaction has been written by Andrew Matzkin of the consultancy Health Advances – see here.

From what I’ve been able to piece together, it appears the answer is that Roche, through Flatiron, is embracing an evolving vision of clinical trial validation, a world in which real world data, extractable in nearly-real time from a network of oncology practices, can be used to provide a trusted, clinical-research grade readout of drug efficacy and utility. This would offer the possibility of obtaining regulator-worthy data with unprecedented ease, potentially saving significant money both from clinical study costs and by delivering the relevant data with the speed of a database query, which (if accepted by regulators) could lead to quicker decisions, and a faster time-to-market. Given Roche’s commitment to oncology at a global level, it’s not difficult to imagine how reduced trial costs and more rapid time to market could quickly translate into billions of dollars of value for the pharmaceutical giant.

An indication of this can be found in Pfizer and Flatiron poster presented at a breast cancer conference last year, in which the authors argue that data obtained from a cohort of Flatiron patients match data from the active control arm (representing existing standard of care) of a formal phase 3 study. The implication is that if active control arm data can be obtained reliably from a trustworthy database, then soon one might ask whether (and under what circumstances) it’s ethical to randomize patients to standard of care.

(As an aside, while some have suggested the Roche acquisition was motivated, at least in part, by the pharma company’s desire to directly access the Flatiron provider network, there is every indication by the way the transaction has been structured that this is explicitly not the case, and that Roche intends to maintain Flatiron as an independent subsidiary. For Roche, the value is likely in the clinical research-grade quality real world data generated by the Flatiron network, and they’re likely to keep their hands off, and do everything they can to keep the data flywheel spinning.)

Lessons Learned

Perhaps the most significant takeaway from the Flatiron story – what Flatiron figured out and what so many other health tech companies miss – is the importance of viscerally understanding what your customers want. In the case of Flatiron, it means truly understanding what practicing oncologist actually view as meaningful, and what oncology researchers actually view as meaningful. Flatiron didn’t say “here’s our amazing technology, let’s hire a sales team and see where we can jam it,” but instead, aligned around “here’s the goal, we’re recognize it’s hard, let’s own this challenge and see what it takes to get us there.”

As former FDA Commission Robert Califf pointed out on Twitter last week, “People should pay attention to the [Flatiron] strategy–relentless curation of data–an army of “data janitors” transforming EHR data into analyzable, actionable information. Congrats to the Flatiron team–this was hard work paying off–not slogans and glitz.”

Notably, Flatiron seems to have achieved a level of physician-engineer collaboration that most health tech companies fail to approach. From the outset, it seems clear that Flatiron didn’t just want to be a software vendor, delivering tech services to providers and pharma researchers, but wanted to be an empathetic partner, wanted to, on the deepest level, grok healthcare and the problems faced by those in the trenches. This aspect of the Flatiron culture was nicely captured by this Fast Company article from last year, which noted, correctly, “this is an entirely different style of work for the engineering talent.”

Flatiron also strategically and intelligently partnered closely with regulators, providing FDA with complimentary access to data, and publishing together the results of such analyses. As Abernethy discussed on Tech Tonics, this helped Flatiron refine their platform, better understanding the questions they should be addressing, while also providing referenceability for pharma companies: if Flatiron data is good enough to be used by the FDA, perhaps it’s worthy of pharma attention as well. Moreover, to the extent that the value proposition to pharma is that regulators accept Flatiron data (in some contexts) as equivalent to dedicated study data, regulator comfort with and buy-in to the platform is absolutely essential.

Finally, as some wags on twitter and elsewhere have been pointing to the Flatiron exit as confirming the value of health tech startups targeting pharma customers, I worry it may be easy to draw the wrong conclusion here. First, most resources within pharma companies aren’t just sloshing around, but tend to be exceptionally loculated, assigned to specific business initiatives and aligned with articulated corporate goals. Second, pharma drug developers are generally highly-trained scientists conducting research that must meet strict regulatory evidentiary standards. A cutesy app, a minimally-validated technology, or access to messy data probably isn’t going to cut it, no matter how valuable you insist it is. Conversely, a rigorously-vetted approach that offers the credible possibility of moving the needle – especially in the incredibly expensive area of clinical trials – is likely to be enthusiastically received.

Parting Thought: The People

How ironic, yet also so brilliant and telling, that the key technology behind “health tech” startup Flatiron is basically human-mediated extraction of data describing human illness, to achieve a level of utility required and explicitly demanded by the human physicians caring for patients, by the human researchers developing new medicines, and by the human regulators evaluating their efforts.

It’s a lesson many other health-focused tech startups might do well to heed.

A Health Tech’s Secret Weapon: The People Under The Hood published first on https://wittooth.tumblr.com/