BehaVR and Oxford VR raise $13M to merge

(Axios)

BehaVR and OxfordVR, two virtual reality behavioral health companies, are set to merge with support from a $13 million Series B fundraise. Why it matters: This deal could open the tap for a flood of M&A in mental health tech, particularly amid rumors of a tie-up between telehealth players Amwell and Talkspace. Details: Optum Ventures and Oxford Science Enterprises led the round and were joined by Partners Group-backed Confluent Health, Accenture Ventures, Chrysalis Ventures and Thornton Capital.

The Digital Health 150: The most promising digital health companies of 2022

(CB Insights)

The Digital Health 150 is CB Insights' annual ranking of the 150 most promising digital health startups in the world. This year's winning companies include startups working on interoperability and data integration, home care and monitoring, AR/VR in healthcare, hybrid care, and more.The 2022 Digital Health 150 cohort has raised approximately $5.6B in aggregate funding across 378 deals since 2017 and includes startups at different investment stages of development, from early-stage companies to well-funded unicorns.

Winners are focusing on everything from reimagining clinical care, to making healthcare more accessible for underserved populations, to leveraging tech like AR/VR to improve surgical training. These 150 winners were selected from a pool of over 13,000 companies, including applicants and nominees.

Amazon ends support for HIPAA-protected Alexa tool

(Digital Health)

Amazon is ending support for a program that allowed patients to share Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act-protected information with hospitals and health insurers over its artificial intelligence-enabled device Alexa, the tech giant said Thursday. 

Amazon said it will stop supporting Alexa third-party, HIPAA-eligible program and any protected health information on the program will be deleted by the end of the next week. Artificial intelligence news site Voicebot first reported Amazon's decision. 

BRI Bright Futures Prize

Apply by Monday, January 8, 2023

The BRIght Futures Prize supports investigators across the Brigham Research Institute (BRI) as they work to answer provocative questions or solve grand problems. The 2023 BRIght Futures Prize RFA strongly encourages the submission of projects across all life sciences research domains with the evidence-based potential to preserve and/or promote health equity in local, national and international populations. Projects addressing health equity issues such as healthcare/clinical trial access, poor health/life expectancy outcomes, morbidity and mortality among underserved populations and others are welcome.

Mass General Brigham Speaker Series: Building A Best-In-Class Virtual Care Framework

Saturday, May 7 2022 – Friday, January 13, 2023

Mass General Brigham’s Virtual Care Speaker Series, led by our industry's most widely regarded stakeholders, thought leaders and policy experts, will feature a deep-dive into the evolving virtual care landscape and dig into how to build and optimize virtual care programs as a permanent modality in care delivery. Dynamic panels will lead in-depth discussions about advancing the reach of virtual and hybrid patient care at a critical time for hospitals and health care.

Patient Safety Technology Challenge

Submissions will be open from Thursday, December 1, 2022 - Tuesday, January 31, 2023

The Patient Safety Technology Challenge is designed to fuel the engagement of innovators in creating technology-enabled solutions and envisioning transformational approaches to reduce medical errors. The Futurist Patient Safety Transformation Award is meant to conceive anew who delivers what care, where, when, and how by incorporating modern technology, new professional roles, and new construction to achieve safe, optimal care. Three cash prizes of 1) $2500, 2) $1500 and 3) $1000, as well as a $2500 travel stipend for the first prize winner go to Philadelphia for the award acceptance are available

MIT Reality Hack | AR/VR Metaverse Hackathon

Apply as a Participant by Sunday, December 4, 2022

MIT Reality Hack is an annual community-run XR hackathon comprising thought leaders, brand mentors and creators, participants, students, and technology lovers, who come together and attend tech workshops, talks, discussions, fireside chats, collaborations, hacking, and more. Participants of various backgrounds and all skill levels attend from all over the world.

MGB Data Science Office Launches Service for Obtaining Radiologic Imaging Studies for Research

Accepting Requests on Rolling Basis

Looking for imaging studies for research? The Enterprise Medical Imaging team within the Data Science Office recently launched the Medical Imaging Data As A Service (MIDAS) that enable MGB investigators to obtain radiologic imaging studies for research purposes. The first product available under MIDAS is the Defined Exam Retrieval Service. Using this service, researchers can specify a list of imaging studies, up to 1,000 per request, to be retrieved from clinical imaging archives and stored in a temporary location that has security and access control based on IRB permissions.

Guidance for Sharing Model Code and Data as a Requirement for Publication

As AI/ML research continues to expand, there are increasing privacy concerns stemming from the publication or dissemination of model code, hyperparameters, weights, and training datasets. At the same time, in an effort to advance the field, ensure scientific reproducibility, and embrace open science, many journals and granting agencies are requiring machine learning model code with or without associated data to be shared as a requirement for publication. This document provides guidance for researchers as they consider when to publish and what elements to share as part of a discrete individual research project (i.e. not part of an on-going open source activity).

Harvard Clinical Informatics Lecture Series

Weekly lectures are held on Tuesdays at 12:00PM

The Harvard Clinical Informatics Lecture Series (HCILS) provides a forum for clinicians and researchers at HMS and beyond to learn the field of clinical informatics. The series addresses core topics in clinical informatics as outlined by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education as well as cutting edge research being done nationally.