The firms hope academic research can yield first-in-class therapies and spinout companies. Also, Yale unveils research alliances with three biotechs.

A snapshot of global medical device approvals captured during the past week in Medtech Insight's Approvals Tracker. This week BioTrace Medical a CE mark for its Tempo Lead for cardiac procedures requiring temporary intracardiac pacing.

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement pioneer Martin Leon discussed what is coming down the pike for technologies in the TAVR and heart valve device space at the recent Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) conference in San Diego. Here is a run-down of what he highlighted, including AI-driven technologies that promise to improve patient access and outcomes. This is the first of a two-part series focusing on innovations in interventional cardiology. 

The notion of highly-articulating robots informs virtually every futuristic vision of our health care system. But actual adoption has taken a long time, as skeptics point to surgeon resistance and concerns about costs. Still, Intuitive Surgical has been impressing everyone with its success in placing its daVinci robotics system and has even won over that most-demanding of constituents: public investors.