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What Matters July: MedTech News You Need to Know

Overheard at GMM HQ

You think naming your baby is hard? Try naming a healthcare product.” –Ronda Fallon, on naming your healthcare product


WHAT THE INDUSTRY IS BUZZING ABOUT

FIRST COMES LOVE, THEN COMES MARRIAGE, THEN COMES . . . THIS BRACELET

Women looking to conceive now have a new, high-tech option for tracking fertility: a cycle-tracking sensor bracelet that detects the 5.3-day fertile window in a woman's cycle in real time via artificial intelligence (AI). 

WHAT TIME IS IT? BABY-MAKING TIME.

Ava, the device manufacturer, reports that the watch-like device has helped 10,000 users get pregnant since launching in July 2016. With a recent round of funding raising $30M, Ava plans to further product research and eventually develop products for contraception and menopause as well. It’s 2018 and the uterus has been monetized; get on board.

THE 411

In an ever-expanding wearables market, fertility is the latest frontier. Now we just wait for the bookie to set the over/under on when Apple will incorporate this into an app.

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FORTY-FIVE IS THE NEW 50

Or at least it is when it comes to colorectal cancer screenings, with the American Cancer Society recently lowering the recommended initial screening age from 50 to 45.

SHOULD WE BE WORRIED?

Kinda. The new guidance is informed by the fact that the risk of developing colon cancer is twice as high as it was years ago and the risk of developing rectal cancer is four times higher. Even more concerning? Researchers don’t know the cause of the increase, and colon cancer-causing ingredients are even popping up in toothpaste.

THE 411

Bottom line (see what we did there?): If you’re 45 or older and haven’t been screened for colorectal cancer yet, get your ass (we can’t help it) to your doctor.

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TAKE TWO OF THESE AND CALL ME IF THEY SAVE YOUR LIFE

The recent signing into legislation of the right-to-try bill allows terminally ill patients the option to seek drug treatments that remain in clinical trials and "have passed Phase 1 of the Food and Drug Administration's approval process" but have not been fully approved by the FDA.

A BIPARTISAN UNICORN?

Although critics of the bill argue that it disempowers the FDA, bill cosponsor, Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly of Indiana, called its approval “an extraordinarily great day,” underscoring Trump’s State of the Union remark that "patients with terminal conditions should have access to experimental treatments that could potentially save their lives.” Experimental Drugs: Bringing people together since the Summer of Love.

THE 411

New drugs normally undergo years of expensive testing before manufacturers seek and gain FDA approval to market them, but desperate times call for special exceptions.

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GOOD TO KNOW

We’re getting dumber, and it’s our own damn fault. Recent studies show that IQ scores have been declining since the 70’s, and since genetics were ruled out as the culprit, it’s likely because of environmental factors like our addiction to Fortnite and fast food.





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