Conversations in healthcare today — whether at J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference this week in San Francisco — or elsewhere tend to necessarily include the power of data.
Break down the silos, end the data desert, and share, share, share.
Medtronic does not seem to have heard the message, or appears to hear it selectively.
That became clear in a Q&A session with Deborah DiSanzo, general manager of IBM Watson Health, following her standing-room only presentation at the conference Wednesday.
Make no mistake. Medtronic has made smart and bold bets and understands the transformative power of data. Last year at CES, Chairman and CEO Omar Ishrak appeared onstage with IBM’s Ginni Rometty to talk about the diabetes app that the tech giant’s health unit would build for the medtech company. CES is not the usual stomping grounds for medtech CEOs, and so Ishrak’s presence was noteworthy.
On Wednesday DiSanzo described Medtronic as a major client for IBM Watson Health and shed some light on the power of that cognitive app called Sugar.IQ. The app was released in the fall as a beta version to gather data from real-world patients. The goal of the cognitive app is to help patients manage this chronic disease better and, notably, to predict an oncoming adverse event for diabetes patients well before it arrives. Here’s what she said:
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.
What Watson has been able to do for Medtronic in the diabetes solution is really fundamental. What we did in a matter of weeks was look through 10,000 patients in the Medtronic CareLink database and Watson identified that we could predict within two to four hours the onset of a hypoglycemic event. That was built into the Sugar.IQ app that we developed with Medtronic and Medtronic is now selling [the app]. New features go on that every month and it helps diabetes patients deal with their disease.
That prompted a question from the audience. Does Medtronic share that data so that IBM can use that same algorithm to create a similar app for some other company? Or can IBM Watson Health use the de-identified data from those 10,000 Medtronic patients for other algorithms or in other parts of the business?
Here’s how DiSanzo responded (slightly edited):
First, the de-identified data that we have in the Watson Health Cloud and our cognitive technologies are not just for use with IBM. They are for use with our collaborators and clients and partners. Secondly, Medtronic brought their 10,000 patient data. That’ s Medtronic’s data. They keep their data. They may choose to put into the Watson Health Cloud. They may choose not to. Medtronic chose not to put that data into the Watson Health Cloud. That stays with Medtronic and we are very happy with that.
A Medtronic spokeswoman confirmed that the data is not available on the Watson Health Cloud.
“Once Sugar.IQ is commercially available, to accomplish the personalized diabetes recommendations, Medtronic will share data securely, with permission, and in real-time with the Watson Health Cloud for analysis.” said Pamela Reese, in an email. “Relevant insights would then be sent back through the SugarWise app to the user’s smartphone as a notification.”
Reese added that IBM Watson Health cannot use the deidentified data for any other purpose.
It is this very penchant for keeping data locked and proprietary that has to some extent created the inefficient and inoperable healthcare system that the industry is now trying to reform.
Ironically, in November, Medtronic proudly announced that it was signing the “Open Data Pledge” from the Patient Safety Movement Foundation created by Joe Kiani, CEO of Masimo. The Irish medtech firm also donated $5 million to the foundation. Here’s what the Medtronic press release from Nov. 2 said:
When companies share the data of their products, it provides researchers and entrepreneurs with critical information to develop and accelerate solutions to improve patient care. This information includes predictive algorithms that can notify clinicians and patients of possible dangerous trends – allowing for intervention earlier.
Photo: turk_stock_photographer, Getty Images
