Patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve implant may need a pacemaker after the TAVR device, but a new study suggests that right bundle branch block may predict the need for pacing. The data may have implications for device selection as some devices are seen as less likely to trigger the need for a pacemaker, a development that may move the needle in the robust but increasingly competitive market for TAVR.

The Alfred Mann Foundation (AMF) and Össur have signed an agreement that will allow Reykjavik, Iceland-based Össur to further develop and license the implanted myoelectric sensor (IMES) system developed by AMF. Both organizations expect clinical trials to begin within the year.

Deciding which patients should go into the intensive care unit (ICU) after surgery is a difficult call and typically made entirely at the surgeon's discretion. The result is that surgeons typically err on the side of caution by putting more post-operative patients in the ICU than necessary. To aid in better ICU decision-making, physicians at New York University Langone Hospital System (NYU Langone) developed a machine learning algorithm that combs through a patient's electronic medical record to identify relevant factors to determine if they needed the ICU after surgery.

Genomic testing firm Veracyte Inc. is eyeing 2021 for the launch of its noninvasive nasal swab classifier for early lung cancer detection and diagnosis, following preliminary clinical data demonstrating high sensitivity in low-risk patients and high specificity in high-risk patients with known lung nodules. The South San Francisco-based company is developing the nasal swab test in collaboration with Johnson & Johnson Inc.'s Lung Cancer Initiative, part of a long-term strategic collaboration that also aims to speed commercialization of Veracyte's Percepta genomic sequencing classifier.

Radiologists review thousands of images a day. The hope is that artificial intelligence (AI) applications will become useful soon to verify diagnoses, prioritize queued images and even to offer a level of detection and measurement that aren't feasible for humans. One of the latest efforts on this front is by researchers at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) and the University of California at Berkeley.

A recent medical journal article says the terminology used by physicians to denote a fatality in the FDA adverse event reporting system has led to underreporting of fatalities associated with two prominent cardiology devices, a predicament the authors say skews the public understanding of these devices' safety profiles.

Diagnosis and treatment of infections typically occurs after people exhibit obvious signs of illness, such as fever or a cough. By then, they may already have exposed others and are well on the way to developing more serious symptoms themselves. In the military, such delays can hamper medical countermeasures to contain potential outbreaks and reduce downtime among active duty personnel. Now, Amsterdam-based Royal Philips NV and the U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Threat Reduction Agency and Defense Innovations Unit have built an early warning algorithm – using artificial intelligence – to detect infection before a person shows any signs or symptoms of infection.