Consumer Electronics Show (CES), one of the biggest technology conferences in the world, was this week. Across the Las Vegas Strip, companies from fintech to pharma showcased their latest innovations from January 6 to 10.

Healthcare Brew was on the ground to give you an idea of some of the newest technologies coming to the healthcare industry. Here’s a list of some of—dare we say—the coolest technology we saw at the conference.

Asahi Kasei. Asahi Kasei, a semiconductor company, has developed microdevices for technology targeting aging people. At its exhibition booth, the Japan-based company showed off a fall detection system that, without using a camera for privacy reasons, can track movement and send a report to caregivers if someone has fallen in their home or has not gotten out of bed. The company also demoed a smart diaper that can sense when it needs to be changed, as well as a contactless stethoscope for doctor’s offices.

Keep reading here.—CM

New year, new rules—that’s the saying, right?

The FDA sure hopes so. 

On January 6, the agency shared draft guidelines about what role artificial intelligence (AI) should play in the approval of medical technology, drugs, and other biological products. It’s an increasingly important issue: AI in healthcare was a nearly $19 billion industry in 2023 and is predicted to be worth over $300 billion in 2032, according to market research firm Global Market Insights.

“With the appropriate safeguards in place, artificial intelligence has transformative potential to advance clinical research and accelerate medical product development to improve patient care,” FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said in a press release.

Keep reading here.—CC

At this year’s CES, expos and digital health programming officially kicked off on January 8 with a panel called “The Future of Health: Views from the Top.” The conversation between executives from pharma, tech, hospitals, and health plans focused on how tech is currently used in healthcare as well as the challenges and possibilities of the future.

The conversation spanned topics like artificial intelligence, home health, and clinical trials. At the end of the chat, moderator Logan Plaster, chief content officer at StartUp Health, asked the panelists what advancement they hope to be celebrating in 10 years.

Here’s how they responded.

These answers have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Diogo Rau, EVP and chief information and digital officer, Eli Lilly and Company

I would like to see some breakthrough medicines out there. I think we need to focus a lot more on prevention, rather than treatments. If I walk into an emergency room right now, I’m going to pay about 3% out of pocket. If I go to a biomedicine [firm], I’m going to pay 20% out of pocket. These perverted economics drive people to avoid preventing treatment, and going and getting it when they need it later. We need to stop that. And I would like to see medicines: more medicines that are cheaper, more available for everyone, so people don’t have to go to the hospital unless they really, really need to.

Keep reading here.—CM