- The Age of Alexa is upon us. Several big medical brands are working on apps for Amazon’s voice-activated virtual assistant. WebMD debuted a diagnostic Alexa “Skill” for consumers at last week’s ePharma Summit. Then Merck announced that it is working with Amazon on chronic disease management for Alexa, starting with a diabetes management tool. They plan to hold an innovation challenge run by Luminary Labs to develop that initial offering. And today, Acorda debuted an Alexa skill, MS Awareness Facts, which dispenses one of 50 MS facts and tips on command. The skill borrows content from Acorda’s MS Self app. In addition, the American Heart Association launched an Alexa skill that can coach users through performing CPR late last month.
- In an important first, scientists used gene therapy to treat a 15-year-old sickle cell sufferer and the patient has now built up enough healthy red blood cells to alleviate the need for blood transfusions and medication.
- Gene therapy is among MIT Technology Review’s top 10 breakthrough technologies for 2017, along with “The cell atlas” and brain implants that can reverse paralysis.
- Scott Gottlieb has gotten the nod for FDA commissioner, pending Senate confirmation. Dr. Gottlieb (M.D.) is a familiar figure in health policy circles, having served as deputy commissioner at FDA under George W. Bush, and was the drug industry favorite for the job given his deep ties to pharma – he’s served on the boards of several large pharmas, proffers generally pro-industry positions from his perch at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, and has led investment in biopharma for a venture capital firm. He’s been an outspoken critic of FDA regs barring off-label communication and an advocate for speeding up generic drug approvals. Industry watchdogs are howling, of course – but it’s a good bet that even many of them are breathing a sigh of relief, as Gottlieb’s nomination forestalls a potentially radical upending of the agency’s functions envisioned by other contenders.
- In other Washington news, the Congressional Budget Office determined that the American Health Care Act (the Republican bill that would partially "repeal and replace" the ACA) would result in 24 million Americans losing health coverage, due chiefly to a combination of cuts to Medicaid and individual marketplace plans becoming more expensive for older, sicker people. And the White House released a budget proposal that would take an axe to a broad swath of Federal agencies including HHS, whose budget would decrease by 18%, with deep cuts to the NIH and FDA user fees potentially doubling.
- Following on the heels of Veeva’s Align effort to create a universal login for accessing HCP websites, DMD Marketing has an audience identification manager tool that tags a physician’s browser, allowing for no-login access to participating sites – and potentially giving marketers a view over the doctor’s shoulder as they go about their digital lives.
- Payers and employers are looking to digital behavioral health coaching firms like AbleTo and Annum Health to help members manage depression and anxiety along with other chronic conditions.
- A pediatric hospital system in Dallas is using Proteus’ ingestible sensor to monitor medication adherence in post-organ transplant teenagers. Getting around Texas’ famously-tough telemedicine reimbursement statutes was tough, but they found a way.
- Physicians are now MacGyvering workarounds for super-expensive drugs and devices.
- Novartis is launching an Ankylosing Spondylitis awareness campaign featuring Dan Reynolds, frontman of the rock band Imagine Dragons. The campaign, dubbed This AS Life, is anchored by a website meant to foster community among young patients, along with a series of short videos in which Reynolds interviews people living with the disease. Novartis’ Cosentyx is indicated for the disease. Fierce writes: “For Novartis, it’s a modern approach to pharma marketing. It feels more like philanthropy and disease advocacy than an advertisement for Cosentyx.”
- The shift from a consumer-driven, dial-a-random-doctor model of telehealth provision to one centered on value and the patient-provider relationship is underway – the VA’s telehealth program reduced hospital admissions by 20%, and more than half of Kaiser Permanente’s 110 million patient visits happened online or over the phone last year – but it’s incomplete.
- It’s early days yet, but the healthbots are coming. This piece by a Digitas exec looks at models and use cases.
- Here’s a look at three examples of pharmas breaking out of the cookie-cutter company page on Facebook (including Novartis’ brilliant Facebook Live heart disease awareness event featuring Queen Latifah).
- Read this excellent piece on the gravitational force effected by digital technology and the cross-function sea changes its advances bring to organizations.
- McKinsey talked to ten pharma digital managers and heard a need to overhaul app development and “make bold, disruptive bets,” among other things.
- And speaking of app development, here’s how J&J incorporates empathy into its apps.
