- The UK’s Babylon AI medical triage startup got some bruising press after its NHS partnership exposed shortcomings. But the startup is moving forward, striking deals with China’s Tencent (WeChat), Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Health and now Samsung. Users will pay yearly or one-time fees for virtual consults with physicians, and can access Babylon’s AI-powered symptom checker functionality.
- The NHS might be a little shy of digital health after its Babylon blowup, but a Manchester hospital is piloting a smartphone urine test for kidney patients that was developed by Healthy.io, which participated in an NHS Innovation Accelerator program.
- Digital tools like chatbots and automated texts could ease patient stress – that’s the conclusion of researchers who sent twice-daily texts to 48 breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. The patients reported less stress, higher quality of life and better communication with physicians than did a control group. Speaking of which, here’s a great roundup of health chatbots.
- A wearable designed to detect seizures has promise beyond treating epilepsy, says its maker, Empatica, which is exploring its use to detect and intervene in stress. And Apple is adding tremor-detecting functionality to the Apple Watch, which will soon be able to track tremors in Parkinson’s patients.
- The AARP is partnering with two voice tech startups – Pillo Health and Orbita – to trial diabetes care solutions for members in the Boston area. Pillo’s countertop device incorporates AI-powered voice tech and facial recognition to provide remote monitoring, ease social isolation and boost adherence, while Orbita’s voice tech aids patient-caregiver engagement as well as adherence.
- Mercy, the Midwestern health system, is using an Epic EHR system with NLP functionality to improve cardiovascular care across more than 100,000 patients. The NLP program renders previously inaccessible data from seven years of clinical notes usable, enabling better tracking of disease progression.
- Blockchain is well into the backlash phase of the health tech hype cycle, but the news that Walmart has patented a blockchain EMR system got our attention – as did Mayo Clinic’s foray into blockchain EHR storage. In addition, AmerisourceBergen and Merck are expanding a pilot using blockchain to track drugs through the supply chain.
- Oscar, the online insurer-to-Millennial-professionals company, is working on a “retailesque” real-time claims system it says will boost price transparency and lower administrative costs for doctors. Which, as CNBC points out, isn’t very sexy – but it is another Amazonification of healthcare.
- Speaking of Amazon: Amazon’s Grand Challenge team -- AKA 1492 or Amazon X, AKA Amazon’s answer to Alphabet’s X -- is stuffed to the gills with Google alums and is working on – surprise – last-mile delivery, along with using machine learning to comb EHR data to flag misdiagnoses and incorrect coding.
- And that Amazon/Chase/Berkshire Hathaway effort to fix U.S. healthcare has a new CEO – Atul Gawande, the surgeon best known for his sparkling New Yorker features on the ills of American healthcare.
- Meanwhile, CVS is teaming up with the US Postal Service to offer nationwide Rx delivery, with same-day delivery in six cities and next-day elsewhere for $4.99 per delivery.
- GoodRx, the price transparency platform, is talking to potential buyers, including McKesson, and could fetch up to $3 billion. Meanwhile, Modern Healthcare reports that hospitals are increasingly developing their own price transparency tools, in response to demand from patients in high-deductible plans.
- MM&M talked to four MSLs about what exactly it is that they do. Interesting read!
- Pharma industry reputation took another dive last year, according to a Reputation Institute poll which found a 14% drop in consumer perception that pharmas will do the right thing and 13% fewer giving pharmas the benefit of the doubt. Those results were ecohoed in Edelman’s annual Trust Barometer, which found a 13-point drop – from 51% to 38% -- the biggest one-year decline yet.
- Gilead is going up with a big TV campaign for its PrEP HIV prevention treatment.
- Novartis is partnering with Intel to use AI in drug discovery, and the pilot has enabled them to slash image analysis drastically.
- A startup is taking its meditation app into clinical trials with the objective of being able to market it as “The world’s first prescription medication app for chronic diseases.” Which would mean potential reimbursement, of course.
- Good high-level overview of the pentopoly that owns digital advertising and the forces driving GDPR – whch, ironically, ad tech vendors have taken to calling the Google Data Protection Regulation. The EU is not messing around.
- Google, by the way, is hiring people with voice and touch tech expertise to work on “the next gen clinical visit experience” with its Brain team, which is working with Stanford Medicine on the use of AI and voice to auto-populate EHR records!
- Eight years ago, the U.S. enacted the Physician Payments Sunshine Act, requiring transparency around most payments to physicians by pharmas. Now AstraZeneca says it will disclose payments not just in the U.S. but worldwide.
- Demand for NPs and PAs is reportedly surging as these HCPs absorb some of the workload of swamped physicians and care shifts from offices and hospitals to retail clinics and other settings.
- CRISPR holds enormous promise for treating all manner of genetic diseases, but it also might cause cancer.
- The FDA has opened the door to off-label communications directed to payers – provided they’re truthful.
- The Sanofi social media team’s artful clap-back at Roseanne’s claim that Ambien made her exhort a racist Tweet was well-received.
- LOL, having engineered perfectly addictive devices, Apple’s latest iOS update will help you put down your damn phone.
