Asia Pacific
New Zealand has approved MDMA for treating severe PTSD, becoming the second country after Australia to permit its use for the condition. The approval was granted by New Zealand's pharmaceutical regulator, Medsafe, and follows Australia's 2023 decision to approve psychedelics for PTSD and treatment-resistant depression. Two psychiatrists have been authorised to prescribe pharmaceutical-grade [...]
A psilocybin study has found the psychedelic reorganises brain activity into patterns linked to people's experiences and surroundings. Researchers used brain imaging to examine 62 healthy adults using psilocybin during rest, meditation, music listening and movie watching. The findings suggest the drug disrupts the usual organisation of brain networks, while also producing new patterns that [...]
Six Australian startups in biomedical and health tech will share A$13.5m to advance technologies spanning AI, cancer and cardiovascular care. The companies are developing products for inflammatory disease, oncology, cardiovascular disease, neurological disorders and AI-enabled digital health. Three of the startups, Aleris Therapeutics, Frontier Inflammasome Therapeutics and Luma Bio, will each receive A$2.5m. [...]
Imprivata solution enables secure access for clinicians statewide with supported rollout by Imprivata’s onboarding team. WA Health is Western Australia’s public health system and one of the largest health authorities in the world by geographic area, spanning more than 2.5 million square kilometres. It employs over 65,000 staff across metropolitan, regional, and remote sites. WA [...]
Ovum has raised US$4m in seed funding to address what it describes as a “trillion-dollar women’s health gap”. The Australian startup secured the funding a year after raising US$1.7m in a pre-seed round. The latest round was completed at three times the previous valuation, pricing Ovum at US$18m. Founded by doctor Ariella [...]
Researchers have developed an AI neck sensor that uses light to read muscle movements and turn silent speech into an audible voice. The researchers said the technology could help patients who have lost their voices because of vocal cord disease or laryngeal surgery, which is surgery on the voice box. They also suggested it could [...]
Cancer chips may help improve immunotherapy by recreating tumour environments in miniature systems that track immune cell behaviour more closely than standard models. A new review found that microfluidic platforms, which use tiny channels etched into chips to control small amounts of fluid, are emerging as versatile tools for modelling tumour and immune interactions, evaluating [...]
The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a three-year ASEAN initiative for digital health wallets to replace paper health records with secure, interoperable digital versions. The programme, launched with the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research in partnership with the Temasek Foundation, aims to give people trusted, portable access to essential health information while [...]
By Con Raso, managing director, Tuned Global Music and movement are neurologically intertwined. Tempo influences pace, rhythm supports endurance, and familiar tracks can reduce perceived exertion. Beyond physiology, music creates shared moments. It sets the atmosphere, builds anticipation and turns individual activity into collective experience. For sports, wellness and fitness brands, this means music selection [...]
Wysa has secured £5.3m to adapt a digital mental health programme for adolescent girls in rural India. The funding comes from Wellcome and will support a scale-up study to tailor a clinically validated digital intervention for girls facing limited autonomy, restricted access to technology, lower literacy, stigma and family gatekeeping. Digital interventions are app-based programmes [...]
