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The thought of lab-grown organs conjures up Frankenstein-like imagery. The reality however, is somewhat less visually dramatic, with the term ‘organoids’ used to describe tiny 3D structures of human tissue, a millimeter or so in diameter...these tiny lumps of cells are creating a lot of excitement in the world of medical research...Cells in dishes and animal models have been used for preclinical testing of drugs for decades. Success in these experiments is a key hurdle for any new medicine to overcome before being given the green light for all-important human clinical trials...Organoids are most commonly made either from a small sample of tissue needled out of a person or from stem cells cultured in a cocktail of nutrients intent on pushing them towards becoming a particular tissue type. So far, organoids have been made resembling several tissues including lung, liver, brain, kidney and intestine...as a relatively new innovation they are being used to investigate dozens of conditions from infectious diseases to cancer.... A study published last year in Science Translational Medicine by scientists at the University Medical Centre, Utrecht generated organoids formed from the rectal tissue of 71 people with cystic fibrosis and exposed them to experimental drugs. By observing changes in the organoids, the scientists accurately predicted which patients would respond to the therapies in just one week at a cost of around $1200 per patient. The results were so convincing that a positive organoid test is now considered sufficient evidence for insurance companies to fund the new therapies in the Netherlands...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said...that it had approved Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co Ltd’s Abilify MyCite, the first drug with a digital ingestion tracking system to be approved in the United States...The product, which uses digital tracking to record if the medication was taken, has been approved for the treatment of schizophrenia, acute treatment of manic and mixed episodes associated with bipolar I disorder and for use as an add-on treatment for depression in adults...The system sends a message from the pill’s sensor to a wearable patch, which then transmits the information to a mobile application, so that patients can track the ingestion of the medication on their smartphone.

Laura Joszt, assistant managing editor at The American Journal of Managed Care. Welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network

The discount giant is using a shelf-scanning robot to detect out-of-stock items, incorrect prices and wrong or missing labels. The initiative is an effort to automate tasks that are repeatable, predictable and manual for its associates, Walmart spokesman Justin Rushing said in the retailer’s blog...Using data and vision technology, the wheeled robot roams store aisles ready to simplify routine, but time-consuming tasks. On-hand robots are making it easier for personal shoppers to fulfill online orders, as well as freeing up associates to serve in-store shoppers...Jeremy King, chief technology officer for Walmart U.S. and e-commerce, said, “The robots are 50% more productive than their human counterparts, and can scan shelves significantly more accurately and three times faster.”...This is not Walmart’s first try at adding automated, robotic solutions. The discounter continues to expand its fleet of “Pickup Towers,” massive orange vending machines where shoppers can retrieve their online orders in less than a minute...The discounter was also recently granted a patent that would allow the chain to use drones to shuttle merchandise between departments and dedicated delivery locations within its stores...

Laura Joszt, assistant managing editor at The American Journal of Managed Care. Welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network

Nicole Crisano, PTNN. This weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings and more.

Nicole Crisano, PTNN. This weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings and more.

Nicole Crisano, PTNN. This weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings and more.

The maternal-HIV program at UNLV that was suspended by the university six weeks ago without notice is now without a director...The university...placed Dr. Echezona Ezeanolue, the program’s director, and Dina Patel, a pediatric nurse practitioner, on administrative leave. They were escorted off the campus...Shawn Gerstenberger, dean of the school of community health sciences, asked the university to prosecute Ezeanolue and Patel for various “unsubstantiated claims of wrongdoing.”...the grant-funded program, which provides outpatient HIV primary care services to low-income, vulnerable and medically underserved women, infants, children and youth, was suspended by the university six weeks ago...President Len Jessup said previously that there were irregularities with the way the grant is being administered. Gerstenberger said an administrative audit is underway.

An iPhone-compatible ultrasound device that can deliver scanning for a fraction of the price of leading technologies, has been approved by the FDA...Traditionally, ultrasound scanners consist of three transducers connecting to large, bulky units which, when combined, carry a hefty price tag...The Butterfly iQ – the world’s first ‘ultrasound-on-a-chip’ device – houses all three of these transducers and over 10,000 sensors in a single handheld scanner, allowing for faster, easier, and cheaper ultrasound scanning...Doctors perform an ultrasound scan as they usually would with imagery appearing on their smartphone. The images are then sent to cloud storage, allowing for connectivity to hospital medical record systems...Offering a unique blend of affordability, diagnostic versatility, and assistive intelligence, Butterfly has the potential to impact human health more profoundly than any diagnostic device since the stethoscope, invented over 200 years ago. At less than $2,000, healthcare providers can purchase an easy-to-use, powerful, whole-body medical imaging system that fits in their pocket...