Ned Anderson: The Fourth Wave: Digital Health Update by Paul Sonnier ⋅ Jan 8, 2018 ⋅ #308

I made this announcement to 60,357 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 Fourth Wave: Digital Health Update ⋅ Paul Sonnier ⋅ Jan 8, 2018 ⋅ #308

Dear Group,

After receiving numerous requests for a print edition of my book, The Fourth Wave: Digital Health, I’m happy to announce that it’s now available in paperback! What better way to start off the new year than by gaining valuable knowledge of the key concepts, drivers, strategies, and actionable insights (for all stakeholders) into the newest era of human progress? More information can be found on my book website.

Purchase price on Amazon is $14.99 for paperback and $9.99 for digital. The paperback edition is only available in the following countries at this time:

United States (USA)
United Kingdom (UK)
Germany
France
Spain
Italy
Japan

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 Fourth Wave: Digital Health Newsletter for Jan 5

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 Fourth Wave: Digital Health Newsletter for Jan 5

Greetings!

After publishing my book, ” The Fourth Wave: Digital Health“, many people asked about a print version. I’ve worked hard on fulfilling that request, and its now available in paperback!

Get your copy today on Amazon and learn the inside story on how I arrived at my discovery regarding the fusion of the digital & genomic revolutions actually creating the Fourth Wave of human society alluded to by Alvin Toffler, author of the 1980s bestseller “The Third Wave”.

Gary Capistrant, Chief Policy Officer at the American Telemedicine Association, posted a discussion in the Digital Health LinkedIn group pointing out that “Remote patient monitoring starts for Medicare. Big day for chronic care and telehealth – Medicare starts coverage of remote patient monitoring (CPT code 99091), can be combined with chronic care management (99490).” As Gary states, “Medicare’s coverage has been essentially non-existent—only special situations (short-term cardiac monitors and implanted pacemakers).” And that the “BIG deal” here is that “Two-thirds of Medicare beneficiaries have 2+ chronic conditions—almost 1/3 have 4+. 99% of Medicare spending is on patients with chronic conditions.

The game-changer is that now getting paid to monitor chronic conditions will make also getting paid for managing chronic conditions, complex and non-complex, much more attractive. And with about 38 million Medicare beneficiaries with 2+ chronic conditions, technology-enabled chronic care could be a primary focus for an increasing number of physicians.”

Note: The final policy, entitled “Payment, and Quality Provisions in the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule for Calendar Year 2018” is viewable here.

Funding for Digital Health in 2017 was at an all time high, according to StartUp Health’s Year End Insights Report for 2017. Digital health startups raised over $11.5B, surpassing the 2016 record of over $8B by almost $3.5B. StartUp Health expects this huge influx of capital to bring incredible innovation to 2018.

This new data has resulted in a shuffling of the rankings on the list I maintain of the most active VCs in #DigitalHealth since 2012.

LIVING AND SOCIETY

The new Roomba 900 series of robot floor cleaners will now map the signal strength of your Wi-Fi network so you can identify dead zones in your home. In response to this news, I tweeted: “While this is cool and offers additional utility to consumers, I’m still hoping @iRobot will provide an explicit health-focused feature one day: #Roomba is going to map your home’s #WiFi coverage”. iRobot had a cheeky and hopefully telling clue about the future possibility of their devices.

Online dating website eHarmony’s ads claiming that its matchmaking service is based on “scientifically proven” methods have been banned in the UK. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) called the claim “misleading” and that the studies referenced included one with non-random sampling and that it wasn’t representative of the general population. The ASA stated in its ruling that: “Because the evidence provided by eHarmony did not demonstrate that their matching system offered users a significantly greater chance of finding lasting love than what could be achieved if they didn’t use the service, we concluded that the claim ‘scientifically proven matching system’ was misleading.” The initial complaint, which was lodged by Lord Lipsey, joint chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Statistics and a former member of the ASA council, said that the phrase “scientifically proven” should be used only in claims that are “just that”, not “crude puffery designed to lure in those longing for love. This is a new form of fake news which the ASA has rightly slapped down.”

Germany’s hate speech law has resulted in Twitter blocking German satire magazine Titanic’s account. The magazine tweeted a parody mocking anti-Muslim comments by Beatrix von Storch, a member of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. The Association of German Journalists (DJV) said that the blocking by Twitter is censorship, and “A private company based in the United States decides the boundaries of freedom of the press and opinion in Germany.”

During the recent anti-government protests in Iran, the messaging app Telegram was shut down by authorities. Telegram has an estimated 40 million users in Iran (about half the population) and was reportedly the main means of communications for sharing information about the protests. Authorities also blocked Instagram.

The Appolition app “converts your daily change into bail money to free black people,” according to Kortney Ryan Ziegler, a social engineer with a PhD in African-American studies. Purchase prices are rounded up to the nearest dollar and the difference is donated to National Bail Out, which is described as a “network of grassroots groups that post bail for people who would otherwise languish behind bars while awaiting their day in court.”

Ads for alcoholic rum that ran on messaging platform Snapchat were inadvertently shown to children. According to alcohol advertiser Diageo, it has discontinued ads on the platform as it says Snapchat has not taken “sufficient” care to prevent its ads from reaching kids and teenagers. The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority also permanently banned Diageo from running a “sponsored lens” for its Captain Morgan rum brand.

Twitter now says that President Trump and other world leaders can tweet whatever they want and they won’t block or remove their tweets as this “would hide important information people should be able to see and debate” and “would certainly hamper necessary discussion around their words and actions.” This applies even if the world leaders violate the rules of the social media site.

Humor: *10 people freak out and cheer in the streets* – @internetofshit

HEALTHCARE

The United States Senate has passed the VETS Act, which will enable telemedicine licensing reform at the Veterans Health Administration. This would allow physicians to care for patients enrolled in VA Health anywhere in the country regardless of where they are located. In other words, they would be licensed to practice medicine in all states and territories, perhaps even overseas.

Dr. Hugh Harvey tweeted a BBC articleabout the work of researchers at an Oxford hospital in developing artificial intelligence (AI) that can diagnose scans for heart disease and lung cancer and commented that it was “Fantastic to see clinical trials of #AI in the NHS. Expect much more to come this year – only the beginning!”

Vinod Khosla replied to Hugh and I (I had retweeted Hugh’s tweet) that this is “Great to see. AI needs more trials, test cases, tolerance for early learning errors to have it become better and broader”.

My tweet response to all of the above included a quote of former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, who stated that: “Diagnostic apps will be replacing hundreds of thousands of healthcare workers.” to which I added: “Expanding beyond healthcare to all #DigitalHealth tools & benefits, it’s likely to happen faster.” That is to say, AI and digital health tools can and will impact healthcare both directly and indirectly.

Reich’s quote is from his video on Facebook: “Universal Basic Income Explained“. Twitter conversation here.

WEARABLE TECH

According to an article in Bloomberg, Nissan’s “car of the future” will read your brain waves. The ‘brain-to-vehicle’ system uses a skullcap with sensors that measure brain-wave activity which is then sent via wires to the car’s computers to control steering, acceleration, and braking systems. The car anticipates drivers’ actions with the goal of making hands-on driving more fun.

Writing in BGR, Zach Epstein observed that there is a major and annoying issue encountered by anyone who wears the Apple Watch while working out: “I defy anyone who wears an Apple Watch on their left wrist to do a single push up without triggering Siri.”

FUNDING

Pear Therapeutics has completed a $50M series B financing. The company is known for its prescription digital therapeutic for treating substance use disorder (SUD).

DNAnexus has closed a $58M round. The company provides a cloud-based genome informatics and data management platform. Total venture capital invested in the company exceeds $105 million.

GENOMICS

If you’re planning on getting married in Saudi Arabia you must get a test for genetic disease. The reason is that hereditary blood diseases like sickle cell and beta thalassemia are prevalent in the region, reportedly due to the common practice of marriage between cousins. The hope is that the testing and an awareness campaign around genetic disorders will help to to reduce the spread of these genetic diseases.

A DNA sample is now required to be provided by anyone arrested for a felony crime in the state of Indiana. The intent is to enable law enforcement to check a database of DNA evidence and determine possible matches with other crimes. The sample can be removed from the system if the arrested individual is acquitted of the crime, if the charge is lowered below a felony, or if charges are not filed within a year.

It turns out that as a result of Brexit,genetically-modified animals could be sold in UK. This is according to Michael Gove, the UK’s Environment Secretary, who stated that “bio-tech changes” are coming which will “challenge us to think about the future” and that gene editing can created “more valuable livestock”. He added that: “And alongside these changes in the world of information technology there are bio-tech changes coming which also challenge us to think about the future, and how best to shape it. Gene editing technology could help us to remove vulnerabilities to illness, develop higher yielding crops or more valuable livestock, indeed potentially even allow mankind to conquer the diseases to which we are vulnerable.”

Spark Therapeutics plans to charge $850,000 for its new vision-loss gene therapy. The company may even offer effectiveness-based discounts based on whether the drug works initially as well as whether it remains effective. The rare form of inherited genetic eye disease impacts an estimated 1,000-2,000 patients in the United States. According to company CEO Jeff Marrazzo, “We believe that this price reflects not only the breakthrough, life-altering value of one-time Luxturna, but it will enable us to continue to invest and build on the revolutionary science that supports not only Luxturna but the rest of our pipeline.”

Note: Gene editing is a major and fundamental topic in my book, including its use in medicine and agriculture, e.g. for ruminants.

FEATURED EVENTS

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

Digital Health World Congress 2018
May 8-9 in London, UK
The leading technology digital healthcare conference in London, UK and Europe.

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Paul Sonnier
Author ⋅ Speaker ⋅ Technologist ⋅ Social Entrepreneur
Book: The Fourth Wave: Digital Health
Contributing Editor, Innovation & Tech Today
Founder, Digital Health group on LinkedIn
Creator, Story of Digital Health
Twitter: @Paul_Sonnier
San Diego, CA, USA

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