It’s Friday, July 1. As the calendar turns to the second half of the year, our friends to the north celebrate Canada Day and we here in the States prepare for Independence Day on Monday (no MedCity News newsletter that day), it’s time to take a look at what you may have missed in the world of technology outside healthcare.
Here are five interesting general technology stories from the past seven days that people in healthcare should pay attention to. All could have an impact on health tech in the future.
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. “Blockchain: Over-hyped bandwagon or truly revolutionary technology?” (ZDNet)
Blockchain is certainly fascinating to watch, who will use it and the many new use cases being proposed.
The question is can blockchain overcome the many technical and societal challenges it faces and emerge as a revolutionary technology that’s nearly as important to the global economy as the Internet itself? Way too early to call but that hasn’t muted the cheerleaders.
2. “Here’s how Hillary Clinton plans to keep America the world’s tech leader” (Yahoo! Finance)
The wait is over to learn about Hillary Clinton’s tech-policy priorities—and it turns out we didn’t really need to wait at all, since most of them match President Obama’s.
The positions the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee set forth in a 6,794-word briefing (“I do plead guilty to being a policy wonk,” Clinton said in a brief speech Tuesday at the) may amount to “a comprehensive plan to keep America on the cutting edge of technology and innovation,” as she put it.
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. “Box Shuttle helps ferry legacy file stores to cloud” (TechCrunch)
Box announced Box Shuttle [Wednesday], a new service that combines software and consulting to help customers move large — as in millions or even hundreds of millions — of legacy files to the Box service.
Previously, companies with files stored in network file shares or legacy content management systems like Microsoft SharePoint, EMC Documentum or OpenText were on their own when it came to moving older content into Box. This proved challenging given that there were usage permissions, metadata, retention policies and other custom attributes to move and these didn’t always map in a logical way across systems because none of the content management systems works in the same way.
4. “Apple Patents Technology That Could Prevent You From Filming, Taking Photos at Concerts” (Pitchfork)
According to the patent, the technology allows a camera to detect not just visible light, but also infrared data. In some cases, the device could use the infrared data to show a user information related to a nearby object, such as an exhibit in a museum. In other cases, the device could use the infrared data to disable the device’s recording functions. As an example, the patent includes an illustration of a band performing onstage as a camera screen shows the text “RECORDING DISABLED.”
5. “These Google Phones and Android Nougat make me doubt my iPhone’s future” (SlashGear)
Google goes just far enough, and in Android Nougat, they’ve made their settings menus cleaner, smarter, and easier to work with than they were before. I should say even easier as they’ve been organized and optimized to such a degree at this point in history that I can’t imagine Google could do much more to make them easier to navigate.
For now, Android OS, especially what’s coming in Android Nougat, makes me feel like Google’s phones are what will be my primary runners by the end of this year.
On the other hand, if Apple makes this iPhone next year, I can’t imagine choosing any other device.
Photo: Twitter user Blockchain
