Clinic manager convicted in $8M Medicare fraud; AI fitness coaches; experimental treatment for opioid use disorder – Morning Medical Update

New York clinic manager convicted in $8M Medicare fraud scheme

Olga Popovych paid cash kickbacks to ambulette drives to recruit patients and falsified records to show treatments that never happened.

A federal jury has convicted a New York clinic manager for her role in an $8 million Medicare fraud conspiracy in which ambulette drivers were paid cash kickbacks to recruit patients to physical therapy clinics that then billed for treatments that were never properly rendered. Olga Popovych, 43, was personally involved in paying the kickbacks and falsified medical records to make it appear that physical therapists who were not present had treated the patients, prosecutors said. Between 2018 and 2020, Medicare paid the clinics more than $8 million based on those fraudulent claims. Trial witnesses testified that Popovych communicated with co-conspirators via coded text messages and took steps to conceal the scheme after suspecting law enforcement surveillance. She was convicted of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, conspiracy to make false statements, four counts of health care fraud and three counts of making false statements and faces a maximum of 10 years per health care fraud conviction. Sentencing has not yet been scheduled.

AI program coaches exercise form in real time using computer vision and biomechanics

The prototype, called BioCoach, outperformed competing AI systems from MIT, NVIDIA and OpenAI on the accuracy and detail of its feedback.

Researchers at Drexel University and Michigan State University have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) prototype that analyzes streaming video to provide real-time, biomechanics-based exercise form coaching. The program, called BioCoach, combines computer vision with 3D skeletal modeling to assess joint angles, ranges of motion and movement quality, then translates that data into specific guidance such as "increase elbow flexion to 90 degrees at the bottom" rather than generic encouragement. In testing against competing AI systems from teams including MIT, NVIDIA, OpenAI and ByteDance, BioCoach outperformed its nearest competitor on text quality, biomechanical correctness and anatomy-specific feedback.

The research comes as at-home exercise injuries rose 48% during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. The team plans to enhance the program to detect compensatory movements that could lead to injury and envisions future applications in both fitness and physical therapy.

"A future system could help users receive more specific, timely feedback when they practice on their own, while still keeping human experts in the loop," said lead researcher Feng Liu, Ph.D., of Drexel University.

NIH clears path for first human trial of kratom compound as opioid use disorder

The FDA has cleared an IND application for mitragynine, allowing NIH to begin a phase I safety study in humans.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced Monday that the FDA has cleared its investigational new drug application for mitragynine — the primary psychoactive compound in the kratom plant — opening the door to the first randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled human safety study of the compound as a potential treatment for opioid use disorder. Kratom, a tropical tree native to Southeast Asia, has drawn growing interest as a self-reported aid for opioid withdrawal and pain, but mitragynine in purified, isolated form has never been studied in humans. Preclinical work by researchers at NIH and the University of Florida found that mitragynine did not raise significant safety concerns in animal models across several doses. The phase I trial, part of the NIH HEAL Initiative, will evaluate the compound's safety and tolerability in people.

"This IND is a major step toward expanding treatment options for the millions of Americans struggling with opioid use disorder," said NIDA Director Nora Volkow, M.D.