Every week, we compile the most popular and thoughtful stories on MedCity News. Among this week’s highlights, the technology innovations behind the growing electronic patient reported outcomes market, NantHealth register for a $92 million IPO after putting it off last fall. Also, John Oliver, host of Last Week Tonight, has some stern words for the pseudoscientific studies we hear so much about.
1. These 7 technology trends will revolutionize electronic patient-reported outcomes assessments
On average about a third of the eCOA solution cost is for supplying provisioned devices (mobile phones with eCOA software preinstalled) to patients participating in a trial, therefore using a BYOD strategy could reduce costs significantly.
2. NantHealth files for IPO; here are 7 things we learned
The government of Kuwait owns at least 10 percent of NantHealth, via two holding companies. The Kuwait Investment Authority had put $250 million into NantHealth in 2014.
3. John Oliver trashes bad science and worse media coverage of it
“In science, you don’t just get to cherry-pick the parts that justify what you were going to do anyway. That’s religion. You’re thinking of religion.”
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
4. Simplee raises $20M to ramp up self-directed patient payment services for hospitals
Competitors in this burgeoning healthcare fintech space include Change Healthcare, which rebranded the fourth quarter of 2015 from Emdeon, RelayHealth, InstaMed, and WellnessFX.
5. Walgreens hopes to screen 3 million on mental health by next year
While Walgreens already works with MDLive to provide telehealth services to customers, the pharmacy company has begun offering one-click access to a behavioral telehealth platform from MDLive subsidiary Breakthrough. Breakthrough has a network of more than 1,000 behavioral health professionals.
Photo: Flickr user Simon Cunningham
