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Key Events This Week: First Post-War PMIs And Deluge Of Fed Speakers

Key Events This Week: First Post-War PMIs And Deluge Of Fed Speakers

It’s a relatively quieter week compared to the last week’s central bank/quad-witching…

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Key Events This Week: First Post-War PMIs And Deluge Of Fed Speakers

It's a relatively quieter week compared to the last week's central bank/quad-witching emotional rollercoaster (if that is possible at a time when the Second Cold War has broken out) and one of the key events this week according to DB's Jim Reid will be Thursday’s March flash PMIs from around the world where we’ll see the first impact of the Russia/Ukraine conflict on activity, especially in Europe.

Outside of that, UK CPI data on Wednesday is going to be very interesting after the BoE warned on both growth and inflation last week in their surprisingly dovish hike. See our UK economist’s review here. There is also the Spring UK (Budget) Statement on Wednesday (preview here) where all things fiscal will be in focus.

Wednesday's new home sales, Friday's pending home sales and Thursday's durable goods are the main economic releases in the US.  The week's key evon events are summarized in the table below:

There's also plenty of Fed speak to sharpen up the message from last week's FOMC but don't expect a chorus line singing from the same song sheet. The dot plot showed the range of YE '22 Fed funds rates, as forecast by the committee, was a historically wide 1.4% to 3.1%. Boston (non-voter hawk) and Chair Powell himself are up today with the latter also on the docket on Wednesday. Williams (dove) will be on a panel tomorrow but also gives a speech on Friday. Daly (non-voter / dove) speaks tomorrow, Wednesday and Friday. Mester (voter / hawk) speaks tomorrow. Bullard (voter / hawk) is up on Wednesday and remember he was the lone 50bps dissenter last week. Kashkari (non-voter / dove), Governor Waller (hawk) and Chicago President Evans (non-voter / dove) speak on Thursday. Barkin (non-voter / hawk) concludes the Fed's business for the week on Friday.

Here is a day-by-day calendar of events, courtesy of Deutsche Bank

Monday March 21

  • Data: Germany PPI
  • Central banks: PBoC announces 1 and 5-year loan prime rates, ECB's Lagarde, Nagel, Makhlouf speak, Fed’s Powell and Bostic speak
  • Earnings: Nike, Pinduoduo

Tuesday March 22

  • Data: Eurozone construction output, US Richmond Fed manufacturing index, Canada industrial product price
  • Central banks: ECB's Lagarde, Guindos, Villeroy, Lane and Panetta speak, BoE's Cunliffe speaks, Fed’s Williams, Daly and Mester speak
  • Earnings: Carnival, Adobe, Xiaomi, Foxconn

Wednesday March 23

  • Data: UK CPI, RPI, house price index, Eurozone consumer confidence, US new home sales
  • Central banks: BoJ minutes of January meeting, BoE Governor Bailey speaks, ECB's Lagarde, Nagel speak, Fed’s Powell, Daly, Bullard speak
  • Earnings: Tencent, Cintas, China Mobile, General Mills
  • Other: UK Chancellor's budget statement

Thursday March 24

  • Data: Japan, France, Germany, Eurozone, UK, US PMIs, Japan PPI services, US initial jobless claims, durable goods orders
  • Central banks: ECB publishes economic bulletin, ECB's Elderson speaks, BoE's Mann speaks, Fed’s Bullard, Bostic, Kashkari, Waller speak
  • Earnings: Daimler
  • Other: BoE financial policy committee report

Friday March 25

  • Data: UK GfK consumer confidence, retail sales, Germany IFO business climate, Italy consumer confidence index, manufacturing confidence, economic sentiment, Eurozone M3
  • Central Banks: Fed’s Daly, Waller, Williams and Barkin speak

***

Finally, looking at just the US, Goldman writes that the key economic data release this week is the durable goods report on Thursday. There are several scheduled speaking engagements by Fed officials this week, including remarks by Chair Powell on Monday and Wednesday, and remarks by New York Fed President Williams on Tuesday and Friday.

Monday, March 21

  • There are no major economic data releases scheduled.
  • 08:00 AM Atlanta Fed President Bostic (FOMC non-voter) speaks: Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic will give a speech at the annual National Association for Business Economics economic policy conference. Text and audience and media Q&A are expected. In his last public appearance, on March 1st, President Bostic argued that the Fed “[does] not need to have [its] policy in a maximally accommodative stance,” and noted that, “for the rest of 2022, we will be hard pressed to get inflation below 3%.” In earlier remarks, President Bostic noted that “to the extent we start to see [monthly sequential inflation] trend down, then I will be comfortable pretty much with a 25 basis-point move. If that continues to persist at elevated levels, or even moves in the other direction, then I am really going to have to look at a 50-basis-point move for March.” Since then, the FOMC hiked by 25bp for the first time since the pandemic began at last week’s March meeting, and the March Summary of Economic Projections delivered a hawkish message by showing a median of seven hikes for 2022 and an above-neutral terminal rate of 2.75%.
  • 12:00 PM Fed Chair Powell (FOMC voter) speaks: Fed Chair Jerome Powell will give a speech at the annual NABE economic policy conference. Text and moderated Q&A are expected. Following last week’s FOMC meeting, Chair Powell reinforced the Committee’s hawkish tone by stressing that hiking by 50bp was “certainly a possibility,” that the FOMC will be “attentive to the risks of further upward pressure on inflation and inflation expectations,” and that he sees the risk of recession as “not particularly elevated.” We continue to expect the Fed to hike seven times in 2022. Chair Powell also said that the FOMC could finalize and implement its plan for balance-sheet reduction “as soon as our next meeting in May.” We see this as a strong hint and now expect the FOMC to announce the start of balance sheet reduction in May (vs. June previously).

Tuesday, March 22

  • 10:00 AM Richmond Fed manufacturing index, March (consensus +2, last +1)
  • 10:35 AM New York Fed President Williams (FOMC voter) speaks: New York Fed President John Williams will take part in a virtual panel discussion hosted by the Bank for International Settlements. Moderated Q&A is expected. In his last public appearance, on March 3rd, President Williams noted that “it’s clear with inflation so high that we need to get monetary policy away from where we are today,” and that the FOMC has “the ability to adjust interest rates higher” if inflation is more persistent than expected. In earlier remarks, on February 18th, President Williams stated that he did not “see any compelling argument to take a big step at the beginning [of the hiking cycle].”
  • 02:00 PM San Francisco Fed President Daly (FOMC non-voter) speaks: San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly will take part in a virtual panel discussion hosted by the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution. On February 23rd President Daly argued that “inflation is well above our price stability goal and the lesson from the 1970s is we need to demonstrate to the American people that we’re committed to having that not be a perpetuating spiral,” but cautioned that while the FOMC has to “get policy in line … [it] can’t be impatient about doing it all today.” On February 24th, President Daly said that the FOMC needs to “ensure that we don’t make adjustments to the balance sheet at each and every meeting, because we just don’t know enough about it to make it a surgical tool.”
  • 05:00 PM Cleveland Fed President Mester (FOMC voter) speaks: Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester will discuss the economy and monetary policy at an event hosted by John Carroll University in Ohio. Text and audience Q&A are expected. In her last public appearance, on March 3rd, President Mester stated that “starting with [a] 25[bp hike] followed by further increases in coming months I think puts us in a good position,” but signaled she was open to a faster hiking pace, noting that “if by the middle of the year … we don’t see inflation moving back down, that would be a signal to me that we have to remove accommodation at a stronger pace, at a faster pace, because inflation isn’t moving down as we expected.” President Mester also indicated that “it could very well be that interest rates will have to move up above that long-run level.”

Wednesday, March 23

  • 08:00 AM Fed Chair Powell (FOMC voter) speaks: Fed Chair Jerome Powell will take part in a panel discussion on challenges for central banks in a digital world hosted by the Bank for International Settlements. Moderated Q&A is expected.
  • 10:00 AM New home sales, February (GS -1.0%, consensus +1.3%, last -4.5%): We estimate that new home sales declined 1.0% in February, following a 4.5% decline in January.
  • 11:45 AM San Francisco Fed President Daly (FOMC non-voter) speaks: San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly will take part in a moderated discussion at the Bloomberg Equality Summit in New York.
  • 03:00 PM St. Louis Fed President Bullard (FOMC voter) speaks: St. Louis Fed President James Bullard will take part in a moderated discussion on the economic outlook at an event hosted by the Mid-Sized Bank Coalition of America. Audience Q&A is expected. President Bullard dissented from the FOMC’s decision to raise the federal funds rate by 25bp to 0.25%-0.50% in March, arguing that “raising the target range to 0.50% to 0.75% and implementing a plan for reducing the size of the Fed’s balance sheet would have been more appropriate actions.” President Bullard also argued that the FOMC should “try to achieve a level of the policy rate above 3% this year.”
  • 09:05 PM St. Louis Fed President Bullard (FOMC voter) speaks: St. Louis Fed President James Bullard will take part in a moderated discussion on the economic outlook at a virtual conference in Hong Kong.

Thursday, March 24

  • 08:30 AM Initial jobless claims, week ended March 19 (GS 220k, consensus 211k, last 214k); Continuing jobless claims, week ended March 12 (consensus 1,400k, last 1,419k): We estimate initial jobless claims edged up to 220k in the week ended March 19.
  • 08:30 AM Current account balance, Q4 (consensus -$218.0bn, last -$214.8bn)
  • 08:30 AM Durable goods orders, February preliminary (GS -0.5%, consensus -0.6%, last +1.6%); Durable goods orders ex-transportation, February preliminary (GS +1.2%, consensus +0.5%, last +0.7%); Core capital goods orders, February preliminary (GS +1.2%, consensus +0.5%, last +1.0%); Core capital goods shipments, February preliminary (GS +1.0%, consensus +0.5%, last +1.9%): We estimate durable goods orders pulled back 0.5% in the preliminary February report, reflecting fewer commercial aircraft orders. However, we also expect strong gains in core capital goods orders (+1.2%) and core capital goods shipments (+1.0%), reflecting strong goods demand, higher prices, and the 2.0% rebound in industrial production of business equipment. We are not assuming a significant drag from the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, as Russia accounts for only 0.4% of goods exports and 0.6% of machinery and computer exports.
  • 08:30 AM Minneapolis Fed President Kashkari (FOMC non-voter) speaks: Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari will speak at the Midwest Economic Outlook Summit, hosted by the Fargo-Moorhead Chamber of Commerce. Audience Q&A is expected. In an essay published on Friday, President Kashkari noted that “if … high inflation … [proves] transitory …, then I believe the FOMC will need to remove accommodation and get modestly above neutral [of 2%] while the inflationary dynamics unwind. However, if … the economy is in a high-pressure, high-inflation equilibrium, then the FOMC will need to act more aggressively and bring policy to a contractionary stance in order to move the economy back to an equilibrium consistent with our 2 percent inflation target.” President Kashkari also noted that high levels of household income and large state-government budget surpluses suggested that “inflation may be sustained and in fact might not be transitory.” In a public appearance later on Friday, President Kashkari stated that he was “in favor of beginning to shrink the balance sheet soon, I mean as early as the next meeting,” and suggested “a much faster pace [of balance-sheet reduction],” noting that “if I had to pick a number I’d say shrink the balance sheet at roughly double the pace that we did last time.” We expect the Fed will start the process of balance-sheet normalization in May at a pace of $100bn per month, which is double the last cycle’s pace.
  • 09:10 AM Fed Governor President Waller (FOMC voter) speaks: Fed Governor Christopher Waller will discuss the housing market at a virtual event hosted by Tel Aviv University and Rutgers University. Text and moderated Q&A are expected. In an interview on Friday, Governor Waller noted that “the data is screaming at us to go 50 [basis points] but the geopolitical events were telling you to go forward with caution, … so those two factors combined pushed me off of advocating for a 50 basis-point hike at this meeting and supporting the 25 [basis-point] hike.” Governor Waller stated that he favors “front-loading our rate hikes,” and that “the way to front-load it is to pull some rate hikes forward, which would imply 50 basis points at one or multiple meetings in the near future.”
  • 09:45 AM S&P Global US manufacturing PMI, March preliminary (consensus 56.5, last 57.3): S&P Global US services PMI, March preliminary (consensus 54.2, last 55.9)
  • 09:50 AM Chicago Fed President Evans (FOMC non-voter) speaks: Chicago Fed President Charles Evans will discuss the outlook for the economy and monetary policy at an event hosted by the Detroit Regional Chamber. Text and media Q&A are expected. In an interview on March 4th, President Evans argued that the FOMC needs “to be moving towards a more neutral monetary policy certainly by the end of the year so that we’re within striking distance of taking a position that would deal more forcefully with inflation if that’s necessary. I don’t quite think that’s necessary, but I have to say we need to be positioned for that.”
  • 11:00 AM Kansas City Fed manufacturing index, March (consensus +21, last +29)
  • 11:00 AM Atlanta Fed President Bostic (FOMC non-voter) speaks: Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic will take part in a virtual discussion hosted by Spelman College. Audience Q&A is expected.

Friday, March 25

  • 09:10 AM Fed Governor President Waller (FOMC voter) speaks: Fed Governor Christopher Waller will discuss central bank digital currencies at a virtual event hosted by Rutgers University. Moderated Q&A is expected.
  • 10:00 AM Pending home sales, February (GS -3.5%, consensus +1.0%, last -5.7%): We estimate that pending home sales decreased by 3.5% in February, following a 5.7% decrease in January.
  • 10:00 AM University of Michigan consumer sentiment, March final (GS 59.4, consensus 59.7, last 59.7); We expect the University of Michigan consumer sentiment index decreased by 0.3pt to 59.4 in the final March reading.
  • 10:00 AM New York Fed President Williams (FOMC voter) speaks: New York Fed President John Williams will discuss monetary policy and financial stability during a virtual panel hosted by the Central Bank of Peru and the Bank for International Settlements. Text and moderated Q&A are expected.
  • 11:30 AM Richmond Fed President Barkin (FOMC non-voter) speaks:  Richmond Fed President Thomas Barkin will give a speech on inflation at an event hosted by The Citadel Director’s Institute in Charleston, South Carolina. President Barkin wrote on Friday that the FOMC has “moved at a 50-basis point clip in the past, and we certainly could do so again if we start to believe that is necessary to prevent inflation expectations from unanchoring,” but noted that “setting the right pace for rate increases is a balancing act — we normalize rates to contain inflation, but if we overcorrect, we can negatively impact employment, which is the other part of our dual mandate.” President Barkin stressed that “while [the FOMC] could move faster, [it is] already having more impact than you might think” through its effect on financial conditions.
  • San Francisco Fed President Daly (FOMC non-voter) speaks (time to be announced): San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly will deliver opening remarks at the San Francisco Fed's Macroeconomic and Monetary Policy conference.

Source: Deutsche Bank, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs

Tyler Durden Mon, 03/21/2022 - 09:54

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EUR/AUD bearish breakdown supported by additional China fiscal stimulus and AU inflation

Weak PMI readings from the Eurozone, an increase in China’s budget deficit ratio, and renewed inflationary pressures in Australia may trigger a persistent…

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October 24, 2023

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  • Weak PMI readings from the Eurozone, an increase in China’s budget deficit ratio, and renewed inflationary pressures in Australia may trigger a persistent bearish sentiment loop in EUR/AUD.
  • Watch the key short-term resistance at 1.6700 for EUR/AUD.
  • A break below 1.6250 key medium-term support on the EUR/AUD may trigger a multi-week bearish impulsive down move.

The Euro (EUR) tumbled overnight throughout the US session as it erased its prior gains against the US dollar recorded on Monday, 23 October; the EUR/USD shed -104 pips from yesterday’s intraday high of 1.0695 to close the US session at 1.0591, its weakest performance in the past seven sessions.

Yesterday’s resurgence of the USD dollar strength has been attributed to a robust set of October flash manufacturing and services PMI data from the US in contrast with weak readings seen in the UK and Eurozone that represented stagflation risks.

Interestingly, the Aussie dollar (AUD) has outperformed the US dollar where the AUD/USD managed to squeeze out a minor daily gain of 21 pips by the close of yesterday’s US session. The resilient movement of the AUD/USD has been impacted by positive news flow out from China, Australia’s key trading partner.

China’s national legislature has just approved a budgetary plan to raise the fiscal deficit ratio for 2023 to around 3.8% of its GDP which was above the initial 3% set in March and set to issue additional sovereign debt worth 1 trillion yuan in Q4. This latest round of additional fiscal stimulus suggests that China’s top policymakers are expanding their initial targeted measures to address the ongoing severe liquidity crunch in the domestic property market as well as to reverse the persistent weak sentiment inherent in the stock market.

In addition, the latest set of Australia’s inflation data surpassed expectations has also reinforced another layer of positive feedback loop in the Aussie dollar which in turn may put Australia’s central bank, RBA on a “hawkish guard” against cutting its policy cash rate too soon.

The less lagging monthly CPI Indicator has risen to an annualized rate of 5.6% in September, above consensus estimates of 5.4%, and surpassed August’s reading of 5.2% which has translated into a second consecutive month of uptick in inflationary growth.

In the lens of technical analysis, a potential bearish configuration setup has emerged in the EUR/AUD cross pair from a short to medium-term perspective.

Major uptrend phase of EUR/AUD is weakening

.

Fig 1: EUR/AUD medium-term trend as of 25 Oct 2023 (Source: TradingView, click to enlarge chart)

Even though the price actions of the EUR/AUD have been oscillating within a major ascending channel since its 25 August 2023 low of 1.4285 and traded above the key 200-day moving average so far, the momentum of this up movement is showing signs of bullish exhaustion.

Yesterday (24 October) price action ended with a daily bearish reversal “Marubozu” candlestick coupled with the daily RSI momentum indicator that retreated right at a significant parallel resistance in place since March 2023 at the 65 level which suggests a revival of medium-term bearish momentum.

EUR/AUD bears are now attacking the minor ascending support

Fig 2: EUR/AUD minor short-term trend as of 25 Oct 2023 (Source: TradingView, click to enlarge chart)

The EUR/AUD has now staged a bearish price action follow-through via the breakdown of its minor ascending support from its 29 September 2023 low after a momentum bearish breakdown that was flashed earlier yesterday (24 October) during the European session as seen from the 4-hour RSI momentum indicator.

Watch the 1.6700 key short-term pivotal resistance (also the 50-day moving average) for a further potential slide toward the intermediate supports of 1.6460 and 1.6320 in the first step.

On the other hand, a clearance above 1.6700 invalidates the bearish tone to see the next intermediate resistance coming in at 1.6890.

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GigXR partners with NUS Medicine to deliver holographic clinical scenarios for gastroenterology training

GigXR, Inc., a global provider of holographic healthcare training, announced today its partnership with the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University…

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GigXR, Inc., a global provider of holographic healthcare training, announced today its partnership with the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine), one of the world’s leading medical schools, to introduce a new gastrointestinal module for the award-winning HoloScenarios application. Created to better prepare medical and nursing students in diagnosing and treating acute gastrointestinal diseases, HoloScenarios: Gastrointestinal delivers evidence-based, robust clinical simulations that present hyperrealistic holographic simulated patients and medical equipment to be used in any physical learning environment, accessed anywhere in the world.

Credit: Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine), and GigXR

GigXR, Inc., a global provider of holographic healthcare training, announced today its partnership with the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine), one of the world’s leading medical schools, to introduce a new gastrointestinal module for the award-winning HoloScenarios application. Created to better prepare medical and nursing students in diagnosing and treating acute gastrointestinal diseases, HoloScenarios: Gastrointestinal delivers evidence-based, robust clinical simulations that present hyperrealistic holographic simulated patients and medical equipment to be used in any physical learning environment, accessed anywhere in the world.

Going beyond linear step-based training traditionally seen with virtual reality (VR), HoloScenarios: Gastrointestinal uses mixed reality (MR) to simulate the entire patient journey, while including branching logic to catalyze variance in learning experiences. From taking basic medical history to performing invasive testing and emergency procedures, the new module empowers learners to master vital medical decision-making and manual skills as they would see them in real-life clinical scenarios and patient care.

HoloScenarios: Gastrointestinal is created in collaboration with renowned medical professionals and educators from NUS Medicine who specialize in the fields of Gastrointestinal (GI) Surgery and holographic medical training. The module is delivered by the Gig Immersive Learning Platform, the enterprise-scale platform enabling the creation, curation, and sharing of immersive training applications and modules made by the world’s preeminent healthcare institutions and MR developers.

“Gastrointestinal pathologies can be complex and challenging to diagnose. This module will allow learners to form a deeper understanding and appreciation of the gastrointestinal tract, especially the three-dimensional understanding of anatomy and body functions,” said Associate Professor Alfred Kow Wei Chieh from the school’s Department of Surgery and Assistant Dean (Education) at NUS Medicine. “We believe mixed reality is the next evolution in healthcare training, and collaborating with immersive platform innovators like GigXR helps us to bring this vital content to more learners globally and, ultimately, improve patient care.”

With international medical and surgical credentials that include MBBS (S’pore), M Med (Surg), FRCSEd (Gen Surg), FAMS, and FACS, Associate Professor Kow has trained thousands of healthcare professionals and advanced surgical fellows. He received the 2023 REAL Advancing in Liver Transplantation Award for his contributions to global liver transplantation education and is a founding member of The Holomedicine® Association.

“GigXR has one of the most advanced and comprehensive platforms in mixed reality, especially in medical training, and enables the exchange of developments, innovation, and expertise with a wider community across Asia and beyond,” added Associate Professor Kow. He is also the Head and Senior Consultant of the Division of Hepatobiliary & Pancreatic Surgery, Department of Surgery, at Singapore’s National University Hospital (NUH), the teaching hospital of NUS Medicine.

The new module also delivers enhanced realism in training learners to more accurately diagnose and treat acute gastrointestinal diseases. Whereas VR has been widely used in gastroenterology training for linear step-based skills, such as in endoscopic procedures, it is limited in its ability to simulate fully realized clinical scenarios. Holographic patient simulation in MR merges hyper-realistic holograms in physical learning spaces that accurately reflect the clinical environment and tools with which learners will care for real patients.

With HoloScenarios: Gastrointestinal, learners can interact with the holographic simulated patients, holographic medical equipment, instructors, and each other. This allows them to master both technical and soft skills, such as patient empathy and team communication, in hyper-realistic, safe-to-fail environments that reduce cognitive load. If the holographic patient displays the need for further care, such as a definitive surgery, learners can discuss a definitive treatment plan.

To gain a deeper evaluation of outward symptoms, co-located learners can safely walk around the patient hologram that is displayed on top of their real-world surroundings. Whereas VR locks learners into a virtual “box,” MR enables clear visibility and awareness of physical surroundings. This allows learners to move freely without fear of physical collisions and safety so they can fully focus on learning key gastrointestinal treatment, diagnostic, and communication skills with peers and instructors.

“In healthcare, educators are not only trying to help learners master and retain vital knowledge, but recall and apply it when a patient’s life may be at risk,” said Dr. Gao Yujia, MBBS (S’Pore), MRCS, FRCSEd, Consultant and Assistant Group Chief Technology Officer at Singapore’s National University Health System, and Vice Chairman of The Holomedicine® Association. “With HoloScenarios: Gastrointestinal, learners will have the ability to not only visualize the presentation of a given disease in 3D but better understand how to apply key learnings in the clinical context and within team environments.” Dr Gao is also the Director of Undergraduate Medical Education for Surgery at NUS Medicine.

With scenarios across gastrointestinal pathologies that include gastrointestinal bleeding, intestinal obstruction, and chronic liver failure, learners can master complex and potentially critical situations. They can learn, for example, how to stabilize patients who are dehydrated, bleeding, or septic, as well as the types of diagnostic procedures that may then be required to get a definitive diagnosis. Using mixed reality headsets or any Android, iOS smartphone or tablet, learners can access HoloScenearios: Gastrointestinal from anywhere for remotely distributed, yet highly immersive simulation.

“Immersive technology has accelerated the sharing of expertise for teaching, training, and simulation. Mixed reality, with its natural propensity to facilitate hyperrealistic, safe, and collaborative learning, continues to accelerate both the quality and scale of training outcomes,” said Jared Mermey, CEO of GigXR. “We are immensely proud to partner with NUS Medicine which has been at the forefront of adopting mixed reality in both clinical and educational use cases. By bringing their esteemed expertise onto our platform with the co-creation of HoloScenarios’ newest module, we believe clinical breakthroughs in diagnosing and treating gastrointestinal diseases will take a giant leap forward.”

Designed specifically for pedagogy, the Gig Immersive Learning Platform is trusted by over 70 enterprise-scale healthcare institutions across four continents to build full immersive curricula utilizing a robust content catalog – all of which is managed from a single dashboard. Third-party content developed by leading 3D medical partners, including DICOM Director, 3D4Medical by Elsevier, and ANIMA RES, seamlessly integrates with the platform to provide complementary, in-depth anatomy applications that empower learners with a broader physical context for the pathologies that they study.

“The Gig Immersive Learning Platform has quickly become the premier educational, social network for sharing healthcare training expertise in the immersive format, spanning global healthcare institutions and the Department of Defense to content developers and enterprises large and small,” said David King Lassman, Founder of GigXR. “HoloScenarios: Gastrointestinal marks the latest milestone in our rapidly expanding catalog, which now boasts a dozen different licensable training modules that span holographic simulated patients, clinical scenarios, anatomy, pathophysiology, and 3D medical imaging.”

NUS joins the University of Cambridge and Cambridge University Hospitals (CUH) NHS Foundation Trust, University of Michigan, and Morlen Health, a subsidiary of Northwest Permanente, P.C., as the world-class institutions partnering with GigXR to co-create holographic healthcare training. These simulations include modules centered around Respiratory diseases, Basic Life Support, Advanced Cardiac Life Support, Neurology scenarios, and now, with NUS, Gastrointestinal diseases.

GigXR and NUS Medicine plan to launch HoloScenarios: Gastro in Spring 2024. For more information on GigXR, visit GigXR.com or email sales@gigxr.com. For more information on NUS, visit nus.edu.sg.

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Public support for extending the 14-day rule on human embryo research indicated by foundational dialogue project

The findings of a foundational UK public dialogue on human embryo research are published today, Wednesday 25th October 2023, as part of the Wellcome-funded…

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The findings of a foundational UK public dialogue on human embryo research are published today, Wednesday 25th October 2023, as part of the Wellcome-funded Human Developmental Biology Initiative (HDBI). The HDBI is an ambitious scientific endeavour to advance our understanding of human development. The dialogue project, which was co-funded by UKRI Sciencewise programme, engaged a diverse group of the public to consider how early human embryo research can be used to its fullest, the 14-day rule and the fast-paced field of stem cell-based embryo models.

Credit: Dr Matteo Molè (Babraham Institute)

The findings of a foundational UK public dialogue on human embryo research are published today, Wednesday 25th October 2023, as part of the Wellcome-funded Human Developmental Biology Initiative (HDBI). The HDBI is an ambitious scientific endeavour to advance our understanding of human development. The dialogue project, which was co-funded by UKRI Sciencewise programme, engaged a diverse group of the public to consider how early human embryo research can be used to its fullest, the 14-day rule and the fast-paced field of stem cell-based embryo models.

Headline findings include:

  • Appetite for review of the 14-day rule: Participants recognised that extending the 14-day rule could open up ways to achieve benefits in fertility and health, with participant support for reviewing this, including national discussion.
  • Confidence in regulation: There was a high level of confidence in how human embryo research is regulated, despite a low level of awareness of the regulators and statutes themselves. This included strong desire to see robust regulation governing any changes to the 14-day rule and further regulation for the use of stem cell-based embryo models.
  • Support for improved fertility and health outcomes: The strongest hopes for future human embryo research were where new knowledge would deliver improvements in understanding miscarriage, preventing health conditions such as spina bifida and raising the success rates of IVF procedures.
  • Concerns about genetically engineering humans: The public expressed concerns on the application of developments in this field to genetically alter or engineer humans.

The dialogue engaged a group of 70 people broadly reflective of the UK population in over 15 hours of activities including a series of online and face-to-face workshops with scientists, ethicists, philosophers, policy makers and people with relevant lived experience (such as embryo donors from IVF procedures).

Dr Peter Rugg-Gunn, scientific lead for the HDBI and senior group leader at the Babraham Institute, said: “Recent scientific advances bring incredible new opportunities to study and understand the earliest stages of human development. To ensure this research remains aligned with society’s values and expectations, we must listen and respond to public desires and concerns. This public dialogue is an important first step and as a scientist I am reassured by the findings but there is still a long way to go to fully understand this complex issue.” 

The report is exceedingly timely, following notable scientific advances in human developmental biology presented at conferences and in leading scientific journals in recent months. As well as generating excitement in scientific fields and with the public, announcement of these breakthroughs also prompted some concerns and criticisms, with the view that these findings raised significant ethical issues. The dialogue provides insight into public considerations following deliberation on early human embryo research. The hope is that it will act as a foundational reference point that others in the sectors can build upon, such as in any future review of the law on embryo research.

Professor Robin Lovell-Badge, co-chair of the HDBI Oversight group, senior group leader and head of the Laboratory of Stem Cell Biology and Developmental Genetics at the Francis Crick Institute, said: “We have learnt a lot about human development before 14 days, but there are areas of investigation that could change how we understand development, and associated diseases, that lie beyond our current window of knowledge. Despite low awareness of current laws, members of the public quickly recognised many of the critical issues researchers are keenly aware of when it comes to growing embryos beyond the current limit. This dialogue also reinforced the fact that the public are in support of research that will yield better health outcomes, and in this case, increase the success of IVF procedures.

Other countries will be looking to the UK to see how we deal with the 14-day rule; we are not there yet with any mandate to make a change, but this does give a strong pointer. The next step will be to delve deeper into some of the topics raised through this dialogue as they apply to specific areas of research, as well as feeding into policy changes.”

The 14-day rule and the regulation of stem cell-based models

When considering the regulation of research involving human embryos, the dialogue explored participant’s views on the 14-day rule. Introduced in 1990, the 14-day rule is a limit enforced by statute in the UK. It applies to early human embryos that are donated by consent to research and embryos that are created for research from donated sperm and eggs. It limits the amount of time early human embryos can be developed in a laboratory for scientific study to 14 days after fertilisation. Due to technical advances, it is now possible to grow embryos in the lab past 14 days, but researchers are not allowed to by the law. If the law changed, it would open up this ‘black box’ of development with researchers able to investigate this crucial time in development from 14-28 days after fertilisation.

Professor Bobbie Farsides, co-chair of the HDBI Oversight group and Professor of Clinical and Biomedical Ethics at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School, said: “It has been a fascinating experience to support HDBI in the undertaking of this exercise.  I commend the participants for the care and mutual respect they have shown throughout. Their engagement and commitment to a subject few of them had previously considered allowed for a wide range of views to be expressed and considered. I hope the scientists involved will be encouraged by the high level of interest in their work, and will want to keep the public conversation going around these important subjects.”

The dialogue included participant discussion on what a change to the 14-day rule might look like, and identified points that should be considered, such as defining what the benefits of extending the rule would be and potential mis-alignment with human embryo research regulations in other countries.

Participants acknowledged the astonishing possibilities of stem cell-based embryo models. The majority of participants would like to see these models further regulated. Work in establishing potential governance mechanisms is already underway. In recognition of the need for additional guidance and regulation in this area, the Cambridge Reproduction initiative launched a project in March 2023 to develop a governance framework for research using stem cell-based embryo models and to promote responsible, transparent and accountable research.

Future steps

A key outcome from the public dialogue is the identification of areas for further exploration, with participants proposing how future national conversations might be shaped. It is hoped that the project acts as a reference base for both widening engagement with the subject and also prompting deeper exploration of areas of concern.

Dr Michael Norman, HDBI Public Dialogue coordinator and Public Engagement Manager at the Babraham Institute, said: “This dialogue shows that people want the public to work closely with scientists and the government to shape both future embryo research legislation and scientific research direction. It is crucial that others in the sector build on these high quality, two-way engagement methodologies that allow for a genuine exchange of views and information to ensure that the public’s desires and concerns are listened to and respected. Transparency and openness around science is vital for public trust and through this we, as a society, can shape UK research in way that enriches the outcomes for all.”

Public Participant (Broad public group, south) said: “I do think that an extension of this public dialogue, and educating a wider society has a benefit in itself. This is really complex and sensitive and the wider you talk about it before decisions are made, the better.”

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