The Fourth Wave: Digital Health Update ⋅ Paul Sonnier ⋅ June 6, 2018 ⋅ #32

I made this announcement to 63,239 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 a weekly Fourth Wave: Digital Health Newsletter, which you can sign up for and receive for free, here.

The Fourth Wave: Digital Health Update ⋅ Paul Sonnier ⋅ June 6, 2018 ⋅ #329

Announcement to 63,239 Digital Health Group Members

Dear Group,

Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) took place on Monday, and the company reaffirmed its position as a digital health juggernaut via a variety of new features and APIs across its software and hardware platforms, including the Safari web browser (desktop and new iOS 12) and the new WatchOS 5. Since last week’s group announcement I’ve published two editions of my newsletter, which can be viewed here http://bit.ly/4th-Wave-Digital-Health-Update-Jun-6-2018
Note: The issue dated June 5 contains the brunt of the Apple news items.

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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, newsletter, and on Twitter.

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The Fourth Wave: Digital Health Newsletter for Jun 1

Zurich and San Francisco-based Ava Science, Inc. — maker of the popular cycle tracking Avabracelet — has closed a $30M Series B funding round. The women’s reproductive health-focused company also announced the 10,000th pregnancy achieved via its service and plans for expanding its offerings into pregnancy and contraception. According to cofounder Pascal Koenig: “Ava’s long-term vision is to accompany women through all stages of their reproductive life by providing data-driven, clinically proven technology that will make a woman’s life easier, healthier and better — be it when they just want to understand their body, while they are trying to prevent pregnancy, trying to get pregnant, are pregnant or entering menopause.” The company is partnering with the University Hospital of Zurich on clinical trials of applications for their technology among women trying to get pregnant, suffering from fertility challenges, and trying to gain additional understanding of complications during pregnancy.

Myriad Genetics will acquire Counsyl, Inc. for $375 million. Counsyl, which was founded in 2007, is described as a pioneer in expanded carrier screening and non-invasive prenatal screening. Over the past year, the company generated more than $134 million in revenue and performed over 280,000 reproductive genetic tests. CEO Ramji Srinivasan states: “We are excited to be joining the global leader in personalized medicine to create the largest women’s health genetic testing company in the world. As our physicians increasingly look for a single source of genetic testing, we can leverage our collective strengths to provide the highest quality genetic tests with a seamless customer experience.”

LIVING AND SOCIETY

Coming up at Monday’s Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple is expected to introduce what the company describes as ‘Digital Health’ features aimed at helping fight iPhone, aka smartphone, addiction. Apple’s Digital Health will entail a suite of tools designed to help users monitor how much time they spend on their devices overall, plus how much time they spend using certain applications. A detailed summary will be bundled into a menu located inside the Settings app of iOS 12, the new version of Apple’s mobile operating system. As I tweeted, it will be amazing if Apple uses the term ‘Digital Health’ in their public marketing and branding.

A new Uber feature connects riders to 911 in an emergency. In some cases, the app will automatically send your name, location, make, model, color, and license plate number of the Uber you’re riding in.

New research explains how dating apps like Tinder get you hooked. Some of the effects on the brain are similar to what happens when you play slot machines in a casino.

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner Mary Meeker presented the firm’s newInternet Trends report at the 2018 Code Conference. Compared to previous years, there was a much smaller focus on digital health. However, a key takewaway highlighted by Recode’s Rani Molla was that we can: “Expect health care companies to offer more modern retail experiences, with convenient offices, digitized transactions and on-demand pharmacy services.”

Papua New Guinea — a nation state of over 8 million people — plans to block Facebook for a month and may launch a state-run alternative site to replace it. The country’s Communications Minister stated: “The time will allow information to be collected to identify users that hide behind fake accounts, users that upload pornographic images, users that post false and misleading information on Facebook to be filtered and removed. This will allow genuine people with real identities to use the social network responsibly.”

Analysis by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) finds that Facebook and Instagram lack transparency when it comes to removing content on the orders of the government. In contrast, Apple’s App Store, Google’s Play Store, and YouTube have emerged as leaders in transparency by publicly disclosing how often and why they comply with takedown requests made by government authorities. They are also good when it comes to notifying users when their posts are targeted for removal.

It seems that there is a new spate of digital ambulance chasers coming into being, as law firms are leveraging geographic location identification, aka geofencing, to send ads to the phones of patients inside hospital emergency rooms. In 2017, the Massachussets attorney general reached a settlement with an advertising company that used geofencing to target women when they entered reproductive health clinics. I came across the two stories via tweets by Joel Winston, ref 1 and 2.

AI

An AI footstep-recognition system developed by researchers at the University of Manchester might be used in the same manner as retinal scanners and fingerprinting are used at airport security checkpoints. According to computer scientist and lead study author Omar Costilla Reyes: “Each human has approximately 24 different factors and movements when walking, resulting in every individual person having a unique, singular walking pattern.”

The Annals of Oncology published two papers focused on the use of AI for melanoma diagnosis: Man against machine: diagnostic performance of a deep learning convolutional neural network for dermoscopic melanoma recognition in comparison to 58 dermatologists

And: Artificial intelligence for melanoma diagnosis: How can we deliver on the promise?

HEALTHCARE

Caregivers and people with dementia are benefiting from virtual reality, smart clothing, and reminiscence therapy. Apps like LookBack VR, from Virtue, offer VR content and “filmic experiences” which, according to WIRED: “chime with the memories of the target age group of the patient — arranged by destination, theme, activity or decade. Viewers can choose from experiences ranging from spending time on Brighton beach in the 1970s, to finding themselves in a 1950s tearoom, and can create a personalised playlist or ‘itinerary for time travel’ with the help of their family or carer.”

The results of a new poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research indicates that the vast majority of older Americans and their caregivers are interested in using telehealth/virtual healthcare. According to the survey, nearly 90% of adults over the age of 40 would be comfortable using at least one type of telemedicine for themselves as well as doing so for an aging family member or other person in their care. Key criteria identified are that people want the care to be just as good as what they would receive in person from a doctor or nurse and that their health data remains private.

Samsung smartphones sold in the UK will soon have Babylon Health’s AI-powered medical consultation app pre-installed on them. Similar to the NHS & Babylon service “GP at Hand, the Samsung & Babylon app will allow patients to arrange video consultations with doctors and check symptoms through the Samsung Health app. The service will cost £50 ($67) a year or £25 ($33) for a one-time appointment.

A new 30-second video by the American Heart Association can teach you to save someone’s life. The CPR method shown is both easier and more effective than previous versions. According to cardiologist Holly Anderson: “Millennials have been left out of the conversation. You don’t need to be certified or formally trained. If you just use the chest compressions to pump blood for a person (if they have gone into cardiac arrest and their own heart cannot) until the paramedics come, you will save a life.”

RESEARCH AND INNOVATION

Researchers at MIT and Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital have created a neural interface for a robotic prosthetic leg that can send and receive signals from the brain. The system replicates how users would sense a native leg instead of relying on other types of stimulation, like vibration. Users are also able to discern the joint position of the prosthetic, as well as the relative speed of movement and amount of torque applied to the foot. “It feels like… you put the bones back in my foot,” said one patient.

Scientists at Newcastle University have 3D-printed the most advanced artificial corneas ever using human cornea stem cells. Millions of blind people and others who have damaged corneas could benefit from the innovation as there aren’t enough donor corneas to meet demand around the world. While the process still requires donor corneas, it takes just one donor cornea to grow enough stem cells to produce up to 50 new, artifical corneas.

Engineers at the University of Illinois have created 3-D printed, water-soluble, and biodegradable sugar scaffolds, which offer a sweet (sorry!) solution for biomedical tissue engineering, cancer research, and device manufacturing beyeond the capabilities of commercial 3-D printers. Instead of printing a layer-upon-layer solid shell, the scaffolds are created via a network of thin ribbons made from the same type of sugar alcohol used in throat lozenges.

FUNDING AND M&A

Strata Oncology has secured $26M in Series B funding to expand its Strata Precision Oncology Network, a group of leading health systems adopting Strata’s platform to systematize tumor molecular profiling and precision therapy trials. The company also plans to submit its tumor molecular profiling assay, StrataNGS, for approval by the US Food and Drug Administration. StrataNGS includes actionable DNA and RNA biomarkers and will be expanded to include tumor mutational load.

FDA CLEARANCE AND CHALLENGE

In an effort aimed at combating the opioid crisis, the FDA has launched an innovation challenge to spur development of medical devices — including digital health and diagnostics — that target pain, addiction, and diversion. The federal agency will work closely with selected applicants to accelerate product development.

Neural Analytics has received FDA clearance for its robotic ultrasound system. The company’s Lucid Robotic System enables clinicians to monitor patient’s brain blood flow characteristics and provide critical information enabling healthcare professionals to efficiently triage patients for appropriate treatment and to diagnose a variety of neurological disorders.

The FDA has opened up public comment on risks and benefits to health associated with software functions excluded from the device definition by the Cures Act.

GENOMICS

Mick Watson tweeted: “Oh my goodness. Transgenic pigs expressing microbial enzymes in their saliva to aid digestion, deceased environmental impact, and improved feed conversion”. Mick was referring to a paper entitled Novel transgenic pigs with enhanced growth and reduced environmental impact, which was published in eLife Sciences. Description: “We established transgenic pigs harboring a single-copy quad-cistronic transgene and simultaneously expressing three microbial enzymes in the salivary glands. All the transgenic enzymes were successfully expressed and the transgenic pigs showed an 11.5–14.5% improvement in feed conversion rate compared with the wild-type pigs.”

The FDA has halted one of the first human CRISPR studies before it even started. The trial, which planned to use gene editing on sickle cell patients, was put on hold due to unspecified questions from the FDA. According to MIT Tech Review, “CRISPR Therapeutics, which is developing the therapy, sought approval from the US Food and Drug Administration in April to begin the study. The therapy involves extracting stem cells from a patient’s bone marrow and editing them with CRISPR in the lab. Once infused back into the patient, the idea is that the edited cells would give rise to healthy red blood cells.”

Ancestry.com wants your spit, your DNA, and your trust, but as Stuart Leavenworth asks: Should you give them all three? After a three-month review by McClatchy news service — which included visits to Ancestry’s headquarters and a main testing lab — McClatchy uncovered a “pattern of breached promises to customers, security concerns, and inflated marketing pledges that could give consumers some pause.”

In this short video, Forbes’ Matthew Herper goes on a tour of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals genome sequencing facility while chatting with the company’s chief scientific officer, George Yancopoulos. The company plans to sequence the DNA of 500,000 people with the aim of developing new drugs. Regeneron is also working with Geisinger Health to sequence patient genomces.

In a short WSJ video entitled Drawing the Future of Predictive Medicine, geneticist J. Craig Venter sketches out how to use genomics to detect and prevent diseases. From the description: The future of medicine will be predictive not reactive, according to Venter, who sketches out how genomics could help cure and prevent disease.

 

The Fourth Wave: Digital Health Newsletter for Jun 5

At Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) this past Monday, the company announced new digital health features across its software and hardware platforms, including the Safari web browser (desktop and new iOS 12), and new WatchOS 5. A new Screen Time app will help users monitor and reduce device and app use. The Safari browser will add an anti-tracking function which will, for example, thwart user tracking by Facebook via website Like buttons. These features take direct aim at Apple’s competition, particularly Facebook, Instagram, and Google, as pointed out by Alex Hern in The Guardian. Moreover, WatchOS 5 will add auto-workout detection, yoga and hiking apps, activity sharing and competitions, plus a walkie-talkie feature.

Cheddar’s Hope King interviewed Arianna Huffington on Apple’s new tools. Arianna stated that this marked an amazing moment and real milestone, considering the company’s 1 billion active devices.

Apple also announced that it is opening up its Health Records API for third party developers and researchers, so that they can “create an ecosystem of apps that use health record data to better manage medications, nutrition plans, diagnosed diseases and more. The Health Records feature allows patients of more than 500 hospitals and clinics to access medical information from various institutions organized into one view on their iPhone. For the first time, consumers will be able to share medical records from multiple hospitals with their favorite trusted apps, helping them improve their overall health.” The company added that: “Health Records data is encrypted on iPhone and protected with the consumer’s iPhone passcode. When consumers choose to share their health record data with trusted apps, the data flows directly from HealthKit to the third-party app and is not sent to Apple’s servers.”

LIVING AND SOCIETY

The account details — including email addresses and hashed passwords — for 92,283,889 users of the MyHeritage DNA service were hacked, according to an announcement made on Monday by the Israel-based company.

Tesla’s ability to make significant over-the-air software updates to its cars is reportedly “messing with some owners’ heads.” The company recently improved the Model 3’s braking performance by an astounding 19 feet after Consumer Reports found it to be worse than that of a Ford F-150 truck.

FUNDING AND M&A

British robotic surgery company CMR Surgical has raised £75m. The company’s websites states that its Versius is “The next- generation surgical robotic system designed to bring the benefits of minimal access surgery to millions of patients world-wide.” Adding: “Versius’ bio-mimicking arms mean you’re not constrained as to where you place ports to access all surgical quadrants. Versius is equally well suited for use in gynaecology, urology, colorectal and general surgery.”

GENOMICS

NIH Director Francis Collins wrote about the recent discovery that extra genes found only in humans are what helped us grow a larger brain. As he tweeted, “Check out the detective story!”

HUMOR

We’ve updated our privacy policy. – Via @_youhadonejob1

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FEATURED EVENTS
None at this time.

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, newsletter, and on Twitter.

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.

Copyright © 2018 Paul Sonnier, Story of Digital Health

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

 

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