The Digital Health Update by Paul Sonnier ⋅ Sep 22, 2016 ⋅ #240

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The Digital Health Update by Paul Sonnier ⋅ Sep 22, 2016 ⋅ #240

Dear Group,

Serendipity is a vital and often under-appreciated aspect of the digital health revolution. A recent case in point occurred when Dr. Hargobind Khurana and his team at Banner Health in Phoenix, AZ discovered that while their EHR-based sepsis-detection algorithm failed at its intended task, it was very successful in identifying patients who were much sicker than average. The benefit was that it steered clinicians to the most vulnerable patients, particularly those likely to die in the hospital. Unfortunately, the limited report does not indicate if there were any improvements in quality of care or outcomes.

And in another possible example of serendipitous digital health benefits, a study showing that users of activity trackers lost less weight over an 18-month period compared to a control group of others who did not use the devices, it could be that the wearable tech users gained more muscle mass versus the control group. Unfortunately, it’s unclear based on the study published in JAMA, if the weight gain was fat, lean muscle, and/or water. The relevant paragraph I found is ambiguous: “Participants in the standard intervention and enhanced intervention groups did not differ significantly for fat mass, lean mass, percent body fat, bone mineral content, bone mineral density, or cardiorespiratory fitness (P ≥ .05 for all), although there were significant changes across time among all participants (P < .01 for all for time). (Table 2).” It’s also unclear if the activity tracker users were more physically active than the control group. The uncritical NY Times piece on the study did not provide any additional information on the value of the study.

In a possible first in Japan, doctors have used IBM’s Watson to diagnose a rare leukemia case plus identify life-saving therapy much faster than if they had examined the genomic data via typical processes.

Also on the genomics front, within just a few weeks, International Space Station Biomolecule Sequencer team has sequenced one billion base pairs of DNA on the orbiting laboratory. The investigation is intended to verify DNA sequencing in microgravity is possible and whether it might diagnose an illness or identify microbes in the Space Station and if they represent a health risk. It might also identify DNA-based life forms not from Earth.

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Paul Sonnier
Social Entrepreneur ⋅ Ecosystem Strategist ⋅ Keynote Speaker
Founder, Digital Health group on LinkedIn ⋅ 40,000+ members
Creator, Story of Digital Health
Instagram @StoryofDigitalHealth
Twitter @Paul_Sonnier
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