The Apple Watch is here plus an in-depth look at the cancer wars (Morning Read)

The Apple Watch launch is today - and there are enough angles to its launch you may just want to watch many of the live blogs. Also, there was a lot of weekend discussion about big data, the Novartis RNAi selloff and how doctors and hospitals continue to battle over cancer patients.

The Morning Read provides a 24-hour wrap up of everything else healthcare’s innovators need to know about the business of medicine (and beyond). The author of The Read published it but all full-time MedCity News journalists contribute to its content.

TOP STORIES

The Apple Watch launch is today. You can watch the announcement on many live blogs. Feelings about its initial healthcare rollout are mixed, but don’t forget the Apple track record. This response by fitness experts about the Apple Watch was interesting, though.

The New York Times gave a window into both the unique and aggressive big-data work at Mount Sinai as well as hard moments in the life of Rock Health founder Halle Tecco. Elite Facebook data-cruncher and Cloudera co-founder Jeffrey Hammberbacher joined Mount Sinai to apply data science to healthcare – driven in large part by Hammerbacher’s battle with bipolar disorder and addiction. Hammerbacher is Tecco’s husband, and the in-depth piece will be a tough read for anyone who knows Tecco as it reveals a clearly painful period in their lives.

A great piece by MedPage Today on the docs v. hospital battle over cancer patients (and revenue). Ted Okon of the Community Oncology Alliance delivers one of many key quotes:

“I’ve seen cases where a hospital stops referring patients to [community] physicians because the hospital’s doctors are building their own [hospital-based] cancer practice,” often “forcing physicians to join them,” he says. “Hospitals are realizing they can capture more of that revenue, and they will do anything to acquire an oncology practice.”

LIFE SCIENCES

Alkermes is selling Meloxicam and related assets to Recro Pharma, which gets Recro into the acute pain market.

Just a reminder that we have so much to learn about DNA.

Here’s a deeper look into Arrowhead Research’s RNAi deal with Novartis.

PAYERS & PROVIDERS

Read this gut-wrenching look at the death of Dr. Michael Davidson and the man who killed him.

A physician who allegedly took nearly $12 million in kickbacks to influence a national guideline for a CareFusion product to prevent surgical infections has settled with the government.

Here’s why Mayo Clinic’s revenue numbers are atypical.

Why will most physicians stand in the way of innovation? Because their rankings always factor in how much anyone just leaves them alone and let’s them do what they want.

TECH

A dispatch from the Mobile World Congress: “While most major manufacturers now have a health tracker as a staple in their product suite, there appeared to be far less floor space dedicated to the segment than last year.”

FDA’s drug shortages app is getting decent reviews.

“Hope and fear drove the $120B mobile Internet deal explosion” (and that includes health)

A LITTLE EXTRA

In the wake of the Hillary Clinton e-mail uproar comes this revelation: “South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham says he has never sent an email.”

[This photo of the south Emergency Room hallway at Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics is from via Wikimedia Commons]

Shares0
Shares0