ORCHA’s Weekly News Roundup #1

Introducing… ORCHA’s Weekly News Roundup! We have selected an array of interesting articles from the past week so that you can keep up-to-date with everything digital health.

Click the links after each summary to read the articles.

Digital Health:

• With women only making up 10.2% of digital health CEOs, this article comprises the experiences of different women working in the health and technology space as they discuss creating visibility and equality for women in the industry: https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/balanceforbetter-where-women-health-and-technology-see-future

• The need to focus on user experience in the digitisation of healthcare, and to educate about technology, so that new digital tools are borne of understanding, rather than being haphazardly introduced in the hope of a quick-fix: https://www.publictechnology.net/articles/opinion/why-box-ticking-won%E2%80%99t-help-nhs-achieve-our-10-year-plan-digital

• Speaking at the Digital Health Technology Show earlier this week, Matt Hancock, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, hopes that NHSX will ‘bridge […] healthcare and technology’: https://www.digitalhealth.net/2019/03/hanock-nhsx-tech-health-bridge/

• SilverCloud, a global health tech company, has reached the highest grade in NICE’s new framework to evaluate clinically effective digital health solutions: https://www.silvercloudhealth.com/uk/press_releases/silvercloud-reaches-highest-grade-in-new-nice-digital-evaluations-framework?hs_amp=true

• 16 shortlisted start-ups for the Digital Health Rewired Pitchfest, including condition-specific apps, remote patient assessment, mental health services and health AI start-ups: https://www.digitalhealth.net/2019/03/digital-health-rewired-pitchfest-short-list-announced/

• A special report into remote patient monitoring, emphasising that the whole system and culture has to change for remote monitoring to work, rather than just putting an isolated piece of technology in place. The report also discusses the need to get the patient cohort right, in order for the telehealth solutions to be most effective: https://www.digitalhealth.net/2019/03/special-report-remote-monitoring-and-self-care-2/

• Three winners of Sandoz SXSW hackathon, the second Healthcare Access Challenge (HACk), whose ideas for access to healthcare find digital solutions including a digital therapeutic for IBS, a smart social network for rare disease patients, and a door-to-door maternal healthcare service in Uganda: https://www.fiercepharma.com/marketing/sandoz-hackathon-contestants-shine-at-sxsw-pharma-names-three-winners-instead-one

• The AusMedtech 2019 programme, held in Melbourne, will showcase digital health industry expertise and insights, as well as awareness of ethics, data sensitivity and security: https://www.ausbiotech.org/news/australias-medical-technology-sector-assemble-for-ausmedtech-2019

• Dame Fiona Caldicott has become the first statutory National Data Guardian (NDG) for Health and Social Care. By providing an independent voice for patients, the move to make this role statutory aims to build public trust in the use of patient data and to ‘ensure that confidential information is safeguarded and used appropriately’: https://www.digitalhealth.net/2019/03/fiona-caldicott-statutory-national-data-guardian-for-health/

• Influential female voices in femtech, medtech and digital health: http://digitalhealthage.com/on-international-womens-day-10-women-who-lead-the-way-in-medtech/ 

• WHO plans to create a Department of Digital Health, so as to ‘assess, integrate, regulate and maximise the opportunities of digital technologies and artificial intelligence’, and to speed up the implementation of digital health solutions: https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/who-unveils-plans-create-department-digital-health

mHealth:

• Article raising the challenge of creating safe mHealth patient engagement tools as a potential patient safety issue. The main concerns lie in the lack of regulation of new technologies, the accuracy of data, and whether patients are able to use the technology correctly: https://patientengagementhit.com/news/behavioral-health-burnout-mhealth-use-top-patient-safety-issues

• The question of whether SEO could be the future of successful apps, especially as Google’s recently updated mobile search algorithm shows the results of apps, as well as websites, with the option to install these apps at the click of a button. In this sense, the benefits of acquiring higher visibility in organic search results means that SEO becomes pivotal in gaining app downloads: https://martechseries.com/mts-insights/guest-authors/is-seo-the-future-of-successful-apps/

• Trending report about mHealth market proposes the affordability and integration of wireless technologies as a primary factor in driving the global mHealth market, as well as technological advances in mobile health apps that create more personal healthcare: https://businessherald.co/mhealth-market-by-2026-trending-report-with-its-key-vendor-analysis-and-revenue/

Digital Healthy Schools:

• Article about the recent launch of the Digital Healthy Schools programme in Blackburn with Darwen: https://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/17499796.app-lessons-to-help-blackburn-and-darwen-pupils-go-online-for-health/

Health Apps:

• Cloud technology is playing a leading role in the future of health and fitness, due in part to high-volume storage capacity and accessibility, and allowing more personalised care: https://www.apnews.com/Globe%20Newswire/5ab8d8a53a424be3c81b552ab36a60e4

• Insight into how an app for managing chronic health conditions can lessen the strain on medical clinics in Kenya, or provide an interim solution whilst Kenyan patients wait to see a doctor: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/business-47561491/an-app-for-managing-chronic-health-conditions

Best Health Apps:

• The struggle of getting patients to use health apps, especially with the difficulty in knowing which health apps are good ones – ORCHA bridges this gap by scoring health apps according to their Data and Security, Clinical Assurance and User Experience: https://www.medpagetoday.com/meetingcoverage/aapm/78546

• Article highlighting the importance of ensuring that mental health apps are science-based, and the need to judge health apps according to key criteria that makes an effective app – there is undoubtedly a demand and need for ORCHA’s App Review Process: https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/health-and-wellness/wellness-and-mental-health-apps-are-they-worth-it-20190312-p513if.html

• Digital tools and apps that are contributing to increased efficiency and productivity in the workplace: https://www.deccanchronicle.com/technology/in-other-news/130319/5-apps-ensuring-better-employee-productivity-at-office.html

Fitness Apps:

• Major updates to Fitbit’s app will make it easier to view and understand health and fitness status: https://www.travelandleisure.com/travel-news/new-fitbit-versa-lite-inspire-review

• RolibBot’s Rollifit body-fat digital scale uses Bluetooth to connect with an app to provide fitness data and allow users to monitor their personal goals: https://the-gadgeteer.com/2019/03/13/rollibbot-rollifit-bluetooth-body-scale-review/

App Regulation:

• Spotify’s complaint against Apple, accusing Apple’s 30% tax on purchases made through Apple’s payment system of giving Apple’s own applications “an unfair advantage”: https://www.barrons.com/articles/spotify-apple-antitrust-complaint-51552489193?mod=hp_NEXT

• The discussion in the US over the rise of big tech, with some wanting to break up big tech companies, and others saying that, instead, the long-term way forward is adding regulation that keeps up with technological innovation: https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/breaking-up-big-tech-isnt-the-right-move-but-adding-regulation-is-rep-gregory-meeks

• US Senate calls for consumer data privacy legislation, which would impact Google and Facebook in terms of targeted advertising and tracking users’ online activity: https://www.investors.com/news/technology/google-facebook-consumer-privacy-legislation/

• The expected continual growth of the rapidly expanding healthcare technology field, with smartphone apps now providing medical device features, healthcare services and condition management support: https://www.medicaldevice-network.com/comment/digital-healthcare-apps-are-in-rude-health/

• GlobalData’s view that, in 2019, the healthcare app market should be watched closely by investors and innovators. Also discusses the benefits of health apps to regions of the world that lack healthcare facilities. The article doesn’t ignore the challenges faced by the industry, including regulation, reliability and data security: https://www.dicardiology.com/content/globaldata-calls-healthcare-app-market-one-watch-2019

• Flickr uses some 99.2 million photos without users’ consent to train facial recognition technology: https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/3072504/ibm-flicker-photos-facial-recognition-privacy-scandal

Digital Health Regulation:

• Barcode technology that protects against user error by using a mobile scanning application enables compliance with the EU’s Medical Device Regulation (MDR): https://www.ecnmag.com/news/2019/03/technology-enables-compliance-upcoming-eu-medical-device-regulation

• How Queensland Health in Australia is using digital healthcare to improve hospital efficiency and accuracy, as well as trying to ensure that healthcare professionals are regulated: https://www.healthcaretechoutlook.com/news/delivering-better-healthcare-with-digital-hospital-programs-nid-1057.html

• The risks of unregulated advertising, especially that targeted at children, with WHO warning that advertising through social media and mobile devices may be contributing to childhood obesity, as such marketing is more difficult to monitor and regulate: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/0/children-face-growing-deluge-junk-food-ads-online-public-health/

• Concerns about the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) digital health precertification (PreCert), including regulatory discrepancies and the proposed need for additional legislative authority: https://www.raps.org/news-and-articles/news-articles/2019/3/industry-reiterates-concerns-on-fdas-software-pre

• FDA’s Pre-Cert Pilot Program is moving forwards, despite FDA Commissioner’s recent resignation. Pre-Cert aims to help streamline regulatory oversight for manufacturers producing software as medical devices: https://www.governmentciomedia.com/digital-health-pre-cert-program-moves-forward-fda