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Federal health department leaders have touted the potential of using patient data, including health records, to study autism, chronic disease, vaccine injuries, and more. Just yesterday, the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced a plan to use CMS claims data though an existing research program for this purpose, promising the agencies will “establish a secure tech-enabled mechanism to enhance this data sharing with timely, privacy and security compliant data exchange.” But that’s claims. The plan to get health records remains fuzzy.
As STAT’s Katie Palmer reports in a new story, getting access to huge troves of actual patient data may prove more difficult than the confident statements of leaders like Marty Makary and Jay Bhattacharya let on. The idea of building a platform for real world data to study diseases isn’t new, and previous efforts, including by NIH, have been dogged by the thorny questions: Who owns the data? Who will profit from it? How do you keep it safe? And how do you get health organizations to play nice? Even assuming you can get data, making it usable can be maddeningly complex.
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Another prominent nonprofit health system wants to build digital health startups
Cedars-Sinai announced it created a Digital Innovation Hub with “venture builder” Redesign Health to develop startups. The health system hopes to target solutions around personalized medicine, specialty care access, hospital workflow optimization, clinical decision support, and more. Bardia Nabet, an associate director for digital strategy and business development at Cedars-Sinai, told me the hub will develop several ideas over the next three to five years. Both Cedars-Sinai and Redesign will be investors in the new companies.
Cedars-Sinai is not new to venture investing, but its move to actually spawning companies is notable. Here it follows the lead of other large nonprofit health systems like Mayo Clinic and Providence that have leveraged their internal expertise, access to troves of health data, and financial resources to support the development of for-profit companies. Nabet underscored that “these are all investments that we’re making in our patient care, our quality, and our mission as an academic entity.”
FDA’s new AI chief and other moves
- Nate Lacktman was appointed chair of the board of directors of the American Telemedicine Association. Lacktman is a partner at law firm Foley & Lardner where he represents digital health companies on policy issues, including the ongoing debate about how prescriptions of controlled substances over telehealth ought to be regulated.
- Jeremy Walsh is the new head of AI and IT at the Food and Drug Administration, according to his LinkedIn profile. Walsh was most recently chief technologist at management consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton.
- Peter Bowman-Davis is the acting chief AI officer at HHS, Politico reported last week. Bowman-Davis most recently worked at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.
- Lisa Bari joined health data and analytics company Innovaccer as head of external affairs where she’ll be working on health tech and health data policy and government and industry affairs. Bari was most recently the CEO of Civitas Networks for Health and previously worked in the CMS innovation center.
- Hims & Hers Health hired Amazon veteran Nader Kabbani as chief operations officer. Kabbani was one of the leaders that helped launch Amazon into health.
Optum’s new claims AI, a fundraise, earnings, & more
- UnitedHealth Group subsidiary Optum announced Optum Integrity One, a new “AI-powered” revenue cycle platform that offers “fully autonomous and partially autonomous coding” that “facilitates accurate documentation and billing.”
- Carta Healthcare, which uses AI to do clinical data abstraction, announced it raised $18 million led by UPMC Enterprises.
- Virtual mental health company Talkspace made a slim $300,000 profit in the first quarter of the year.
- Luminopia‘s VR headset-based treatment for childhood lazy eye is now covered by commercial plans from Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield. It’s a significant win. Like others offering novel digital treatments, Luminopia must claw its way to coverage one insurer at a time. Pittsburgh-based Highmark Health last year released a coverage policy suggesting it would cover Luminopia for its members.
What we’re reading
- The doctor is in. So is their AI, STAT
- Compounders lose legal battle with FDA over removal of Eli Lilly’s weight loss drug from a shortage list, STAT
- Cancer innovation in ‘era of fear’: New AI tools meet old access barriers — and new funding cuts, STAT
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