Israeli equity crowdfunding platform OurCrowd has launched a new fund specifically focused on the digital health field, called OurCrowd Qure. They will work with Johns Hopkins University to provide validation of value, market access,  and on-going feedback on the startups.

"I think that crowdfunding for digital health makes a huge amount of sense," John Medved, CEO of OurCrowd, told MobiHealthNews. "We’re not just raising money in a different way. We’re helping to build the company in a different way. A crowdfunding platform is uniquely positioned to help digital health leaders."

Aihui Ong was a successful software engineer consultant taking home a six-figure salary when she decided to quit her job and spend a year traveling the world.

In 2014 she told Fast Company, "I got burnt out. I lost my love for technology." The decision, however, was met with criticism from friends and family. "You’re in your early thirties,’ they told me. ‘You should be having a kid or being VP of a company, not staying in dirty motels,’" she says.

Are our children’s future careers doomed to be replaced by robots and artificial intelligence? The short answer is no. The longer answer is of course not. And that's because humans have something no machine can yet embody: empathy. And it's that distinctly human characteristic which is going to make the technology industry more diverse and successful in the future.

Morning sets the tone for the day, especially when it's one of those times you wish you hadn’t gotten out of bed. So we asked eight productivity experts to give us a glimpse into their morning routines to help smooth the way and inspire better starts.

AN EASY MORNING You might be surprised that David Allen, author of the productivity "bible" Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, doesn’t have a structured morning routine.

Regulation Crowdfunding is another step forward to allow non-accredited investors to participate in online investment opportunities. Born from Title III of President Obama’s 2012 Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, Regulation CF provides access to alternative investments through online equity crowdfunding.

Regulation CF platforms differ from reward or donation-based sites such as Kickstarter or Indiegogo by offering stakes in small and startup businesses. Platforms approved for Regulation CF provide conduits for emerging businesses to showcase their offerings to potential investors. Regulation CF is the first time non-accredited investors can crowdfund capital in early-stage companies, including those striving to make lasting impacts on society.

“Industry is a necessary but not sufficient quality for achievement,” Lloyd Handwerker writes in his lovely book about his grandfather, Famous Nathan: A Family Saga of Coney Island, the American Dream, and the Search for the Perfect Hot Dog. “An additional element is needed — something ineffable, random, and hard to pin down. Call it luck, or label it being in the right place at the right time.”

This year, the narratives among the best business books all explored that ineffable something that makes the difference between dreams that are realized and those that are broken — from the prosaic (Nathan Handwerker’s quest to build a thriving, exacting hot dog business) to the utilitarian (revolutionary pamphleteer Tom Paine’s plans for an iron bridge) to the literally cosmic (Iridium’s futuristic scheme for satellite phones).

By now you’ve probably heard the story of the fraudulent business practices at Wells Fargo – the bank that pressured employees to create false credit card and deposit accounts. Have you asked yourself what you would do if you were an employee facing that kind of pressure? In other words, how do you handle a situation in which the incentives seem to be telling you to do something you believe is bad for your customers and clients, or maybe even illegal? And what if it’s clear your boss wants you to get with the program – and your bonus, a promotion, or even your job are on the line?

GLEN BURNIE, Md., Nov. 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/-- CSSi LifeSciences™, a trusted partner from discovery to commercialization for drugs and medical devices, is excited to announce the establishment and launch of its fully integrated Medical Device CRO. CSSi LifeSciences™ Medical Device CRO aims to positively impact the timeline of regulatory clearance and increase profitability for medical device companies, in order to successfully launch its innovative research discoveries and product concepts into the market.

While European economies are among the most prosperous and innovative in the world, Europe urgently needs growth-inducing reforms. A key aspect in doing this is promoting the value creation that accounts for a significant share of the Union’s economy.

If the European business sector does not become more competitive on the global stage by boosting knowledge-based value creation, there is a risk that it will continue to stagnate as the rest of the world grows.

Lisbon is betting that hosting the Web Summit, Europe’s largest tech event, will spur the growth of startups and draw foreign investors, helping it compete with the continent’s main innovation hubs.

Portugal, struggling with a high debt and low growth, requested a three-year €78 billion international bailout in 2011 that imposed higher taxes and steep spending cuts.

While the crisis hammered the economy, depriving it of state funding and easy bank loans, it also drove change, pushing people to come up with new ideas for businesses – many of them tech startups.

The buzzword “innovation” might perk you up – or make your eyes roll. Regardless of how the term sits with you, innovation is clearly on the federal government’s agenda and of big interest to universities as they try to keep pace with rapid changes in society and the economy, while staying responsive to government funding priorities and continuing to meet the needs of their students, faculty and the wider community.

An accelerator focused on developing agricultural technology startups that launched in Research Triangle Park in the spring has raised an additional $8.5 million in funding.

The new funding led by Elanco, the animal health division of Eli Lilly and Co., boosts the total funding raised to date by AgTech Accelerator to $20 million.

Although the accelerator anticipates another infusion of cash by the end of this year, CEO John Dombrosky said that he and his team have already started to pivot toward potential startup deals and he hopes to be able to announce initial deals in the first quarter of 2017.

The first Singaporean women to reach the summit of Everest used a framework that defines effective teams.

There were no Olympic medals up for grabs when Sim Yi Hui and Jane Lee, the co-founders of the Singapore Women’s Everest team set out to recruit team members to climb the world’s tallest mountain in 2004. “When we first formed the team my goal was just to climb the mountain.  It was really a pure passion to want to climb”, Sim Yi Hui told me on stage at the recent FT Family Business Forum Asia.

During organisational change, play the radicals against the moderates to foster collaboration.

Many firms that emerge or grow by making technological breakthroughs owe a lot – maybe everything – to their engineers, and in return give them benefits both formal (organisational power) and informal (status and gratitude). These days, however, innovations are metabolised quickly. As their technology’s wow factor fades, firms tend to shift their emphasis from engineering derring-do to improving market performance. Engineers don’t know how to do that; the marketing department does.

No shark should silently creep up on humans — they should announce their presence with the Jaws theme song.

Derik Boshar, an American tourist, recently watched in horror as a shark quietly swam under surfers in Byron Bay, Australia. While the surfers swam away untouched, video footage of the event reveals just how close they came to a deadly encounter.

Memo to the next President of the United States.

On behalf of a few hundred million folks I thought I would share with you the following. On the almost eve of the election it seems to this futurist quite shocking that we have missed out on the you candidates talking about a central factor that has made America great: We are an Innovation Nation. Yet to follow the conflicts and insulting rhetoric from the candidates you would think this is a secret. After all, no candidate has presented his or her Innovation Nation Plan. I must have missed it. So lets review.

COLUMBUS, OH--(Marketwired - November 02, 2016) - Celebrating the 10th anniversary of its Excellence in Technology Based Economic Development awards, SSTI today announced four winners driving prosperity in their states and regions through innovative approaches to growing their economies and creating high-paying jobs.

"As we reach this 10-year milestone of recognizing excellence in initiatives that are happening throughout the U.S., it is a good measure of the dedication and entrepreneurial spirit that exists in a dynamic economy," said Dan Berglund, president and CEO of SSTI. "This year's award winners are examples of strong initiatives that have been recognized by their peers as successful programs. They, in conjunction with past winners, serve as models for those working to encourage prosperity through science, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship."

Technology entrepreneurs who get funding from venture capitalists go public sooner and have more impactful innovation than those who partner with angel investors, according to new research from the School of Management.

Published in the Journal of Business Venturing, the study found that high-tech startups that received funding from venture capitalists were able to find a buyer or issue stock sooner than those that received angel investment — and the patents issued by venture capital-funded firms had greater reach.

A new algorithm developed by a Johns Hopkins computer scientist could revolutionize the way scientists look at genes.

A team of 17 scientists led by Michael Schatz told the JHU Hub that the open-source software creates a clearer picture of an organism’s DNA. The results were published in the journal Nature Methods.

Last week at the Cleveland Clinic’s annual Medical Innovations Summit, Daniel Kraft, chair of medicine and neuroscience at Singularity University, and an oncologist, painted a dazzling picture of a healthcare future where digital tools empower everyone and can solve several of healthcare’s bigger problems.

But he also posed a question whose answer will be borne out over the next few years: The tech and data tsunami is coming, but do we have the right platforms in place to catch the wave?