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Target ALS and Modality.AI Collaborate in Multimodal Study of ALS

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Direct-to-participant study to reach 150 people living with ALS, with 2 participants already enrolled.

NEW YORK, Sept. 26, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — In a first-of-a-kind collaboration, Target ALS, a foundation breaking down barriers to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) research to find effective treatments, and Modality.AI, whose platform measures what patients say and do in conversation with the virtual guide Tina, in-clinic and remotely, are conducting a study to evaluate the potential of this unique audiovisual platform to detect even the smallest changes in disease symptoms over time in ALS patients. A subset of 5 international sites, part of the Target ALS Global Natural History Study, is now recruiting 150 ALS and 50 healthy control participants and will deploy Modality.AI’s innovative digital health platform, including at locations in Spanish-speaking countries, over the next 3 years.

Participants will engage in twice-monthly Modality sessions over a period of 16-18 months, utilizing the platform’s self-directed assessment accessible on personal devices. Tina, a virtual guide, provides consistent engagement while capturing speech and facial biomarkers.

Results from this pioneering study will be made available to the research community on the Target ALS Data Engine.

Study Details
Participants will be consented in the clinic and then asked to complete twice-monthly Modality sessions at home. Sessions include a reading passage, spontaneous speech, activities of daily living such as brushing their hair and washing their face, and various cognitive tasks such as word recall and sequential movements. Modality works through a web browser, so no app installation or account creation is required. 

Modality’s Platform Offers Unique Advantages

The assessment is self-directed and takes place on a participant’s own device (computer, tablet, or phone), making it accessible in the convenience of their home. For trial sponsors, this minimizes the need for in-clinic assessment and the time and cost of shipping devices.The introduction of Tina, a virtual guide, encourages engagement through a welcoming interface for capturing the patient’s speech and facial biomarkers in a comfortable setting in just a few minutes. Tina provides consistent guidance, eliminating variance between clinicians, a confounding variable in studies.Modality’s cloud-based platform utilizes AI and multimodal signal processing to extract speech and facial measures from participants’ video in real time for immediate verification and analysis.The Patient Report of Problems™ (PROP™) allows trial participants to describe specific problems and symptoms in their own words. This study marks the first use of the PROP in a multilingual multicenter ALS Study.

Improving Study Participation, Retention, and Participant Diversity 
Advances in digital health technologies (DHTs) allow patients to participate in clinical research studies in the privacy and comfort of their own homes, rather than traveling to an investigator’s site.

Most DHT-based studies rely on continuous monitoring of patients or require patients to record activities in an electronic diary regularly. Modality’s approach is a brief speech and movement assessment led by a virtual guide, assuring privacy for participants and those around them.  Target ALS and Modality adhere to recognized privacy standards with data being used for research purposes only.

A well-known trial challenge is that access to trial sites is a significant burden for many. Giving patients the option to participate from home increases the likelihood of joining a study, reduces drop-out rates, and increases adherence to the study protocol. By reaching a wider range of patients, underrepresented groups are more readily included, which helps ensure that treatments can be effective over the widest possible population.

“We are delighted to participate in what is the first clinical study of Modality’s self-directed remote monitoring of speech and motor function with Target ALS,” said Modality.AI CEO, David Suendermann-Oeft. “Speech, language, video, and other multimodal analysis technologies may revolutionize remote neurological assessments. We look forward to this collaboration and our work together leading to more efficient clinical trials and, in turn, faster and more efficient drug discovery.”

“Modality.AI’s technology is at the forefront of digital health technologies being evaluated for the utility of predicting and tracking disease progression in ALS patients,” said Amy Easton, Senior Director of Scientific Programs at Target ALS. “These technologies are being developed to allow clinicians, patients, and caregivers to measure disease symptoms in a more sensitive and reliable manner than standard clinical assessments, and in the future, may even replace clinical outcome assessments used to evaluate novel treatments for ALS.”

To learn more about participating in this study click here.

About Target ALS

Founded in 2013, Target ALS is a 501(c)(3) medical research foundation breaking down barriers to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) research to find effective treatments. The organization has revolutionized ALS research through their landmark Innovation Ecosystem model, fostering unprecedented collaborations between academia and the pharma and biotech industry, providing no-strings-attached access to critical research tools, and acting as a hub of communication and networking for the worldwide scientific community. Driven by impatient optimism, deliberate disruption, and radical collaboration, Target ALS aims to transform ALS into a manageable disease, realizing a world where Everyone Lives. For more information, visit www.targetals.org

About Modality.AI
Modality.AI has developed the first conversational AI platform to accurately and objectively measure, analyze and track participant data through facial, speech, and movement patterns. The Modality platform utilizes a virtual guide, Tina, to remotely administer clinical trial assessments. The company is led by a team of world-class scientists, clinicians, technologists, and serial entrepreneurs.  Modality’s platform has shown validation through numerous peer-reviewed publications (https://modality.ai/publications), and is being used by leading research institutions, biotech firms, and top-10 pharmaceutical companies in observational studies and clinical trials. For additional information, please visit modality.ai

Contact
Stephanie Ishoo
stephanie.ishoo@targetals.org

David Fox
david.fox@modality.ai

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SOURCE Target ALS

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Chicago-Based Fintech App SHENIX® Celebrates First Anniversary On Latina Equal Pay Day Oct. 3; Platform founder describes new app features, way to close Latina wage gap

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October 3 denotes a special milestone for SHENIX®, powered by FARO Advisory, a groundbreaking leading educational fintech platform designed specifically for Latinas, which is marking the first anniversary of its launch. The free app, available on Apple’s IOS and Google Play stores, empowers Latinas and anyone who identifies with this group to make informed financial decisions for themselves, their families, careers, businesses, and communities.

CHICAGO, Oct. 2, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — October 3 denotes a special milestone for SHENIX®, powered by FARO Advisory, a groundbreaking leading educational fintech platform designed specifically for Latinas, which is marking the first anniversary of its launch. The free app, available on Apple’s IOS and Google Play stores, empowers Latinas and anyone who identifies with this group to make informed financial decisions for themselves, their families, careers, businesses, and communities.

“This Hispanic Heritage Month and Latina Equal Pay Day, SHENIX® is proud to share its new app updates that will help Latinas, and anyone get closer to reaching their financial goals.”

The anniversary also falls on Latina Equal Pay Day, which addresses the wage gap between Latinas and their peers. Part of SHENIX®’s mission is to not only help Latinas with their finances but also support them as they close the wealth divide.

Olga Camargo, CEO and founder of the Chicago-based SHENIX®, is excited to announce the new updated app features, which include financial planning software, opening brokerage accounts, investing advice, and access to career leadership programs.

“This Hispanic Heritage Month and Latina Equal Pay Day, SHENIX® is proud to share its new app updates that will help Latinas, and anyone get closer to reaching their financial goals,” she said. “All registered users can now access free financial planning software that will allow them and their family members to know more about their money and how to better plan these funds for financial goals like education, business, wealth building, and retirement. The app also allows U.S. Latinas and family members living in the U.S. to open brokerage accounts using their social security number or Individual Tax Identification Number (ITIN) IRA, Roth, IRA, Solo 401k, SEP IRA accounts for personal and small business needs. As always, users have access to career coaches and English and Spanish-speaking financial advisors.”

Camargo and other Latina business owners still see more work needs to be done to reach wage parity for Hispanic women. According to AAUW, “Latinas working full-time, year-round were paid 57 cents for every dollar paid to non-Hispanic white men in 2022, which increased to 58 cents in 2023. All earners, which also includes part-time and seasonal, were paid 52 cents for every dollar paid to non-Hispanic white men in 2022, which decreased to 51 cents in 2023.”

However, some statistics notice much growth in Latino/a entrepreneurs. The Latino Donor Collaborative, a 501(c)(3) Beverly Hills-based nonprofit organization dedicated to reshaping the perception of Latinos as part of the American social mainstream, shared a 2024 statistic saying “that Latinos have higher rates of new business ownership compared to any other racial or ethnic group with 0.60% of Latinos starting new businesses compared to 0.35% for overall U.S.”

“Latinas have continued to open businesses across the U.S. to not only bring new services and products to the market but also to successfully close the wage gap and create new job opportunities for others,” she said. “We are living in an era where Latinas are intentionally shaping the future of Latino finances within the many spaces that they increasingly control.”

About SHENIX®
SHENIX®, powered by FARO Advisory, is an innovative fintech company dedicated to providing educational resources and tools to empower Latinas in their financial journeys. With a deep understanding of the unique challenges faced by Latinas, SHENIX® is committed to equipping them with the knowledge and resources they need to make the best financial decisions for themselves and their communities. For more information, visit https://SHENIX.app/.

All Investment Advisory Services are provided by Centric Wealth Management, LLC d/b/a SHENIX®, an SEC Registered Investment Advisor. Registration with the SEC does not imply a certain level of skill or expertise. SHENIX® is affiliated with and controlled by FARO Advisory. SHENIX® and FARO Advisory are not affiliated with Centric Wealth Management, LLC. Additional information about Centric Wealth Management, LLC d/b/a SHENIX®, is available in its current disclosure documents, Form ADV Part 1A, Form ADV Part 2A Brochure, and Client Relationship Summary report which are accessible online via the SEC’s investment Adviser Public Disclosure (IAPD) database at http://www.adviserinfo.sec.gov, using SEC #801-63837. Centric Wealth Management, LLC does not offer or provide legal or tax advice. Please consult your attorney and/or tax advisor for such services.

Media Contact

Marie Lazzara, JJR Marketing, 630-400-3361, marie@jjrmarketing.com, https://jjrmarketing.com/

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SOURCE SHENIX

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Expanded Partnership Between Pearson and Degreed Helps Organizations Identify, Develop and Validate Future Skills for Business Transformation

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HOBOKEN, N.J., Oct. 2, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Pearson (FTSE: PSON.L), the world’s lifelong learning company, and Degreed are expanding their partnership to help organizations future-proof their talent in the AI era. Together, they will enable enterprises and employees to adapt their workforce skills among evolving technologies and market dynamics, ensuring long-term business resilience.

The Degreed Skills dashboard will integrate Faethm by Pearson data sets, offering real-time insights into the most relevant skills across industries.  With this new capability, Degreed customers can compare their workforce’s skills to industry benchmarks, identify gaps, and prioritize key areas for upskilling.

This combined solution helps enterprises drive productivity and innovation through focused training programs that align with their strategic goals, ensuring they maintain a competitive edge in an evolving marketplace.

“AI is rapidly transforming the way we work, and in this shifting landscape one thing is clear: the future belongs to those who are prepared,” said Vishaal Gupta, President of Pearson’s Workforce Skills division. “Pearson’s partnership with Degreed helps customers identify, develop, and validate their employees’ skills to keep up with changing workforce needs, so they’re always equipped with the most relevant expertise, today and tomorrow.”

“We are thrilled to extend our partnership with Pearson to embed Faethm into the core Degreed platform. Every one of our clients is challenged to keep up with the pace of change. This new integration will provide L&D professionals with actionable, up-to-date insight into demand for workforce skills so they can deliver more personalized learning to their teams,” said Max Wessel, co-CEO of Degreed. “This builds upon Degreed’s innovations in skills, automation, and AI.  Today, clients don’t need to choose between scaling learning programs to reach more employees and personalizing those programs so they can drive workforce outcomes with pinpoint precision. They can have both.”

Today’s announcement is part of Pearson’s ongoing strategic commitment to the enterprise and workforce skills market. It builds on the existing partnership between Degreed and Pearson, which recognizes key achievements and validates high-value skills through Pearson’s digital credential platform, Credly.  These credentials are awarded based on the completion of learning pathways within Degreed’s platform, which may include assessment results, course completions and other predefined criteria.

Credly and Faethm are part of Pearson’s Workforce Skills division, which is focused on preparing individuals and organizations for the future of work. Pearson’s enterprise focused businesses help people build high demand skills and provide organizations with solutions for strategic workforce planning, digital credentialling, role assessments, and GED education.

About Pearson

At Pearson, our purpose is simple: to help people realize the life they imagine through learning. We believe that every learning opportunity is a chance for a personal breakthrough. That’s why our c. 18,000 Pearson employees are committed to creating vibrant and enriching learning experiences designed for real-life impact. We are the world’s lifelong learning company, serving customers in nearly 200 countries with digital content, assessments, qualifications, and data. For us, learning isn’t just what we do. It’s who we are. Visit us at pearsonplc.com.

About Degreed

Degreed is the enterprise learning company, offering the world’s leading experience platform to drive skill driven development. Degreed enables organizations to collect, understand, and build skills to develop a workforce that’s ready for anything. To learn more about Degreed, visit www.degreed.com

Jaclyn Pullen
Jpullen@panblastpr.com 

Sara Bartlett
sara.bartlett@pearson.com

 

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Visionet Ventures launches Reteta, an AI-powered solution to automate medical documentation and enhance patient care delivery

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CRANBURY, N.J., Oct. 2, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Visionet Ventures is proud to announce the launch of Reteta, a transformative clinical care application that leverages Ambient AI to streamline medical documentation and enhance the clinician and patient experience. With over two years of development effort, backed by $2 million in seed funding, Reteta is designed to alleviate the heavy administrative burden faced by healthcare professionals, allowing them to devote more time to patient care.

Visionet Ventures launches Reteta, an AI-powered solution to automate medical documentation and enhance patient care

At the core of Reteta is its ability to automatically generate SOAP (Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan) notes, after visit summaries and referral letters to other specialties. It also helps clinicians get up to speed with patients by writing comprehensive pre-charting, which significantly reduces documentation time to just two minutes on average.

Covering over 15 specialties, Reteta’s AI-powered scribing tool, Reteta sKribe, converts patient-physician interactions into comprehensive medical notes that clinicians can quickly review and sign, enabling up to two hours of daily time savings. Its ambient dictation and speech recognition ensure that 80% of notes are accepted without edits, reducing burnout and enhancing patient interactions. Further enhancing its impact, Reteta Bcoder automates medical coding with 90% accuracy, offering a 70% productivity gain by reducing coding errors and claim denials.

Integrating smoothly with Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems and Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) workflows, Reteta delivers significant efficiency improvements without disrupting existing infrastructure.

“Reteta is more than just automating documentation and processes— its about bringing the joy of medicine back to healthcare professionals and pushing the envelope of possibilities with AI in healthcare,” said Arshad Masood, Managing Director of Visionet Ventures. “With Ambient AI handling documentation, we’re significantly reducing the manual work that leads to burnout, automating the most basic and redundant tasks healthcare providers face daily. Plus, our deep expertise in integration ensures a smooth adoption, seamlessly fitting into existing workflows while enhancing accuracy and efficiency in clinical settings.”

Reteta’s commitment to security is demonstrated through its end-to-end encryption and HIPAA-compliant framework. Sensitive patient information is safeguarded at every stage, ensuring that healthcare providers can confidently use Reteta to enhance their operational efficiency while maintaining high standards of data protection. As a result, Reteta empowers hospitals, physicians, and telehealth providers with a comprehensive AI-driven solution that addresses some of the most critical challenges in healthcare today.

About Visionet Ventures
Visionet Ventures, the innovation and incubation arm of Visionet Systems Inc., develops and launches cutting-edge products that harness AI and emerging technologies to address real-world challenges. By creating smart, data-driven solutions tailored to specific business needs, Visionet Ventures drives industry transformation and technological advancement. Learn more at www.visionetventures.com.

About Reteta
Reteta is an AI-powered clinical care platform streamlining and automating medical documentation and coding, enabling better care delivery. With its singular focus on automating SOAP note generation and medical coding, Reteta ensures frictionless adoption, reduces clinician burnout, increases efficiency, and empowers healthcare professionals to concentrate on delivering quality patient care. Learn more at www.reteta.com.

CONTACT: pr@visionet.com 

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SOURCE Visionet Ventures

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