🚀 HealthTech Startups, AI Breakthroughs & Sleep Trends

Happy Wednesday!

Here’s your weekly dose of healthtech news and technology trends that have the potential to impact your health, both now and in the future.

🧊 Fridgescaping, a new trend popular on TikTok, can increase the risk of foodborne illnesses. It involves placing non-food items or decorative elements in the refrigerator, and especially if they are not food-safe or are difficult to clean, you could inadvertently introduce quite unhealthy contaminants. Better don’t follow this trend! :)

📱 Did you know that a new review of previous research concludes that radiation from cellphones is not likely to increase a person’s risk of brain cancer? World Health Organisation (WHO) experts say the causes of brain cancer are still somewhat of a mystery, but it appears wireless technology is not a risk factor. 

🧬 Germany’s healthtech startup Lucid Genomics just secured €1.3 million to advance AI-driven genetic insights for faster drug discovery. With the fresh funding, the startup will expand its digital healthtech platform by analyzing 100% of DNA data to refine genetic mutation identification and provide more accurate insights.

😴 According to a new survey from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, 37% of Americans have tried at least one of this year’s trending sleep practices, with 55% of Gen Z survey respondents leading the way. Experts share the ins and outs of these sleep trends and what you can do to get better sleep.

🧠 Scientists have recently developed a new AI algorithm that can separate brain patterns related to a particular behavior. This work promises to improve brain-computer interfaces and aid with the discovery of new brain patterns.

💰 Southeast Asia's healthtech startup sector has garnered roughly $1.5 billion in venture capital funding over the past five years, which led to many promising innovations. According to a recent study, it takes healthtech startups on average roughly 2.8 years to raise their first seed funding. 

🔍 Researchers have developed machine learning models that use cell-free molecular RNA dregs to diagnose pediatric conditions that are difficult to differentiate. The diagnostic tool can accurately determine if a patient has Kawasaki disease (KD), Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C), a viral infection or a bacterial infection, while simultaneously monitoring the patient's organ health.

As you may have noticed from last week’s and this week’s editions of the HealthHack newsletter, we’ve been focusing a bit more on healthtech topics and less on personal health tips. We hope you still find it interesting!

Have a nice rest of the week!

Your HealthHack Team