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The MedCity News team was joined this week on MedHeads by Health 2.0 co-chairman Matthew Holt. We talked about some forthcoming conferences – like AdvaMed2015 and Health 2.0.
We also discussed the top stories of the week. The top five are listed here:
With the Rise of AI, What IP Disputes in Healthcare Are Likely to Emerge?
Munck Wilson Mandala Partner Greg Howison shared his perspective on some of the legal ramifications around AI, IP, connected devices and the data they generate, in response to emailed questions.
1. Walgreens expanding telemedicine on its app in the next month
In the next month Walgreens will launch a new telemedicine component for its mobile application, said Adam Pelligrini, vice president of digital health at Walgreens, at this week’s Transforming Medicine: Evidence-driven Mhealth conference at Scripps Translational Science Institute.
2. Digital health startup Better shuts down
Healthcare startup Better, a Palo-Alto based company co-founded by Geoffrey Clapp in 2013, has shut down.
The company provided free tools and access to a team of personal health assistants to help users improve their health. Through a combination of automation and live access to nurses, subscribers would receive a review of their insurance designed to cut through industry jargon and help in resolving problems with medical bills or insurance. Its investors included the Mayo Clinic’s investment arm and theSocial+Capital Partnership.
A Personalized Approach to Medication Nonadherence
At the Abarca Forward conference earlier this year, George Van Antwerp, managing director at Deloitte, discussed how social determinants of health and a personalized member experience can improve medication adherence and health outcomes.
3. 9 great nominees for the FDA Patient Engagement Advisory Comittee
The nine-member committee has not been established yet, but we thought we’d recommend our own nominees for promising contenders who have a sufficient background to represent patients.
A few of these people might be more obvious when it comes to patient input on healthcare, but that doesn’t diminish their voice on the matter of engagement. And some of the others could represent the voices that sometimes fall between the cracks.
4. HealthTap just moved into employer wellness. Is Uber model unsustainable for healthcare?
Digital health business HealthTap, which has evolved from an email doctor query service for patients to multiple services from drug interactions to helping patients access lab data, has added a health management portal for employers. That’s an interesting development for a company that’s charged customers $99 per month to use its service with the argument that they will save time and money by requiring fewer in-person visits (and copays). It raises questions about whether the oft-repeated aspiration by some digital health companies’ to be an Uber of healthcare is sustainable.
5. In defense of Martin Shkreli
You can settle with the self-appointed superiority of the Twitter mob: Martin Shkreli is an unrepentant, deluded psychopath. Or, you can swallow hard and admit that a few things that Martin Shkreli said are likely right:
- That prices for many drugs, particularly antibiotics and rarely used generics, are too low.
- That PhRMA and BIO are sycophantic.
- That Shkreli may not be such a rogue CEO at all – and that behind closed doors, many more are cut from the same cloth.
- That funding future research with steep upfront prices could, if wielded correctly, help even out new drug prices once they’ve hit the market.
