After a holiday-shortened work week here in the U.S., it’s time once again 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. “Fatal shooting of police officers at Dallas rally streamed live on Facebook” (CNet)
A shooting that left five police officers dead and seven others wounded Thursday night in downtown Dallas was live-streamed.
The three-minute video, streamed by Dallas resident Michael Kevin Bautista, shows police officers crouching and lying prone behind department cruisers as shots ring out at a demonstration in response to this week’s deadly police shootings in the US. By early Friday morning, the video had been viewed more than 4 million times.
2. “How to tell if your company needs a chief digital officer” (CIO)
So what kind of company does need a CDO? “Any large organization which doesn’t already have a digital approach in its DNA,” according to Orttung. “If you’re not Google, Apple or a tech company, you should be looking at bringing in a CDO.”
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. “Siris Capital to buy Polycom for $2B in cash, Polycom cancels its $1.96B Mitel merger” (TechCrunch)
Here’s an interesting twist in one of the bigger enterprise acquisition stories of 2016. After Mitel earlier this year announced that it would acquire Polycom for $1.96 billion and consolidate the two companies’ enterprise communication businesses, today private equity firm Siris Capital has come in with a higher offer: it has agreed to acquire Polycom for $2 billion in cash and take it private, working out to $12.50 a share. The deal is dependent on Polycom cancelling its deal with Mitel, which Siris and Polycom both say that it has done.
4. “Your Smart Watch Can Steal Your ATM PIN” (IEEE Spectrum)
By combining smart watch sensor data with an algorithm to infer key entry sequences from even the smallest of hand movements, the team [from Binghamton University] was able to crack private ATM PINs with 80 percent accuracy on the first try and more than 90 percent accuracy after three tries.
5. “Ding dong, the app is dead: How Kik is building the business case for bots” (VentureBeat)
Apps live on a consumer’s phone, and people open them when they need to perform a task, but, [Paul Gray, director of platform services at Kik] says, messaging is far different, more immediate and connected. Why do you need a weather app, for instance, when you can just ask a bot if it’s going to rain today?
“One of the best things about messaging is that the single biggest thing that everyone does on their device is messaging,” he says. “If you look at time spent during the day, messaging again is by far and away the biggest share of time on the device.”
Photo: Screen grab from video by Facebook user Michael Kevin Bautista
