Ned Anderson: The Digital Health Update by Paul Sonnier ⋅ Nov 13, 2017 ⋅ #300

I made this announcement to 59,389 members of the Digital Health group on LinkedIn. If you’re on LinkedIn, please do join the group, which allows you to opt in to receiving these announcements in addition to connecting with thousands of other global stakeholders in digital health. I also send out my Digital Health Newsletter, which you can sign up for and receive for free, here.

The Digital Health Update by Paul Sonnier ⋅ Nov 13, 2017 ⋅ #300

Dear Group,

I’ve published one issue of my newsletter since last week’s group announcement, which you can read below and via the following link:

The Digital Health Newsletter for Nov 9

Also, please note that I’m available to deliver my keynote address at conferences and corporate events. You can also advertise in my group announcements, newsletter, and on my website. My professional bio is viewable here and my full list of services is viewable here. I can be contacted via my LinkedIn profile.

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The Digital Health Newsletter for Nov 9

A boy suffering from an incurable genetic disorder called epidermolysis bullosa (which leaves the skin extremely fragile and prone to tearing) has received a new, gene-corrected skin. By obtaining portions of the patient’s healthy skin, doctors were able to isolate stem cells, modify them genetically to function correctly, use these cells to grow a new epidermis, which was then grafted back onto the young patient.

According to an updated report on consumer digital health apps and wearable tech by IQVIA (formerly IMS Health, then QuintilesIMS, now IQVIA), there are now over 318,000 health apps available in the app stores, with more than 200 being added each day. The company also counted more than 340 consumer wearable devices on the market.

According to IQVIA: “The overall body of clinical evidence on app efficacy has grown substantially and now includes 571 published studies, enabling the identification of a list of top apps with increasingly robust clinical evidence. The use of such Digital Health apps in just five patient populations where they have proven reductions in acute care utilization (diabetes prevention, diabetes, asthma, cardiac rehabilitation and pulmonary rehabilitation) could save the U.S. healthcare system an estimated $7 billion per year. This represents about 1.4% of total costs in these patient populations.” The report adds that, if this level of savings could be extrapolated across all disease states, annual cost savings of $46 billion could be achieved.

The UK’s NHS has partnered with Babylon Health to offer a new GP at Hand video telehealth service. While currently only available in London, the service will be expanded to the rest of the country. Patients register via the Babylon mobile app on their smartphone and can obtain a video consultation with a GP. They can also make face-to-face appointments.

FDA

The FDA has come out with a statement regarding its plans to streamline the development and review pathway for direct-to-consumer (DTC) tests that evaluate genetic health risks (GHR). The agency is also exempting genetic carrier tests from premarket review.

The FDA is holding a Digital Health Pre-Cert Pilot Program Webinar on Nov 17. The agency mentions that it held kick-off meetings with all 9 pilot participants and this webinar will include the presentation and the model for demonstrating a Culture of Organizational Excellence discussed with the pilot participants.

ENVIRONMENT

In a 180-degree turnaround from us smelling (polluting) cars, Google Earth is using cars to sniff U.S. Cities. During the recent San Francisco wildfires, employees drove around in cars equipped with air-monitoring sensors and found that the smoke from the fires was causing significant air pollution. Apparently, this method of tracking air pollution fills in the gaps left by the EPA and others, which miss “what’s on the group” and “what people breathe”, according to Google’s Karin Tuxen-Bettman.

LIVING AND SOCIETY

Twitter reportedly has a white-nationalist verification problem. Writing in Vanity Fair, Maya Kosoff states that: “As Twitter vows to take an aggressive stance against hate speech, its choice to verify a neo-Nazi highlights the murkiness of its guidelines.”

Warby Parker has created an app for the new iPhone X that scans your face to recommend glasses.

WEARABLE TECH

Shares of Fitbit dropped 11.8% in October, following an “unimpressive product introduction”, referring to the new Ionic smartwatch. It seems that for the company to compete outside of dedicated fitness tracking-only devices against Apple Watch, for example, it will need an Android-like app ecosystem.

On the upside for Fitbit, it was chosen by the NIH for a long-term US health study that will require around 10,000 of its fitness tracking devices.

MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS

Amazon has reportedly acquired Body Labs for up to $70 million. The company creates true-to-life 3D body models for uses including virtually trying on clothes. The technology can be used to accurately predict and measure the 3D shape of people using just a single image.

FEATURED EVENTS

CNS Summit 2017
Nov 16-19 in Boca Raton, FL
Join the leaders in pharma and clinical development focusing on the latest technology and digital healthcare at CNS Summit 2017! We are Collaborating for Novel Solutions.

Digital Health World Congress 2017 (Winter Edition)
Nov 29-30 in London, UK
The leading technology digital healthcare conference in London, UK and Europe.

Digital Medicine and Medtech Showcase 2018
Jan 8-10 in San Francisco, CA (alongside JP Morgan)
At the intersection of technology and medicine: Digital Medicine & Medtech Showcase

XPOMET Convention 2018
The Convention for Innovation and High-Tech in Medicine
March 21-23 in Leipzig, Germany

EVENT PROMOTION
Please contact me for options on event promotion, including having your event featured at the top of this list, featured in my weekly Digital Health group announcements, and on Twitter, where I’m the #1 influencer in #DigitalHealth and highly ranked in #IoT and #WearableTech.

SUBMITTING AN EVENT
Please provide the event name, date(s), event website link (direct and not a shortened url), one-paragraph event description, the venue name, and location (city and country). Not all events are relevant to digital health and webinars are typically not allowed, but you can ask me about promotion options.

Paul Sonnier
Social Entrepreneur ⋅ Speaker ⋅ Consultant
Contributing Editor, Innovation & Tech Today
Founder, Digital Health group on LinkedIn ⋅ 50,000+ members
Creator, Story of Digital Health
Facebook: StoryOfDigitalHealth
Instagram: @StoryofDigitalHealth
Twitter: @Paul_Sonnier
San Diego, CA, USA