Apple and Masimo face off in trial over affected person monitoring patents

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Meet the road medication group utilizing tech to construct belief with unhoused sufferers

A number of weeks in the past, I received an opportunity to journey together with a road medication group in Los Angeles that checks up on unhoused sufferers throughout town every single day. I used to be struck by how a lot the sufferers we visited appeared to belief the Healthcare in Motion group, led by doctor assistant Robert Finch: A lot so, in actual fact, that lots of them opted to put on GPS trackers to assist the road medication group discover them in case of emergency or in the event that they’d left their typical dwelling.

I’d assumed that, like a number of Individuals, sufferers would resist such a tool, , citing issues about privateness or private rights. As a substitute, I witnessed a number of sufferers gladly settle for the trackers, which the Healthcare in Motion group assured them had been elective and supposed solely to assist the group look after them — by no means shared with regulation enforcement or different events.

For me, the journey was a case examine in constructing belief amongst a inhabitants that always can’t entry conventional well being care — whether or not that’s as a result of they don’t have telephones, everlasting addresses, or transportation, or due to  the medical stigma face. The trackers  supplied them a lifeline to well being care they didn’t really feel like they might discover wherever else. Read more on how the team uses tech here. 

Masimo and Apple face off in patent trial

At this time, a federal jury in central California will hear affected person monitoring firm Masimo‘s claims that Apple stole its commerce secrets and techniques after hiring away two of Masimo’s executives to construct sure fashions of the Apple Watch, my colleague Lizzy Lawrence tells us. Masimo has additionally accused Apple of infringing on patents defending its blood oxygen-sensing expertise. The trial will final 10 days, and will feature testimony from Apple CEO Tim Cook dinner.

Masimo scored a win towards Apple in January, when a choose with the Worldwide Commerce Fee dominated that Apple infringed upon Masimo’s pulse oximeter patents. Masimo’s final purpose is an import ban on Apple Watches with pulse oximeter sensors. The ITC could finish its investigation into the case later this month. Apple has additionally been challenged by device company AliveCor, which efficiently prompted the ITC to problem an import ban in December. However that ban is suspended till the 2 corporations resolve their patent points. The ITC has dominated in AliveCor’s favor, however the Patent and Trademark Workplace has come down on Apple’s aspect.

How hospitals monitor your information

Hospitals may promise to guard sufferers’ delicate info, however their on-line presence tells a special story, Casey writes in his evaluation of a brand new examine concluding that 99% of them used on-line information trackers in 2021. These trackers  shared affected person info with third events together with large tech corporations, information brokers, and even non-public fairness companies.

The ever-present use of the monitoring instruments could conflict with the privateness expectations — if not the authorized protections — that customers take without any consideration as they search for well being care and medical info on-line.

“The size and scope of this continues to shock me whilst I work on this analysis,” Matthew McCoy, a co-author of the examine and assistant professor of medical ethics and well being coverage on the College of Pennsylvania, informed Casey. “One can not actually entry a hospital web page on this nation with out being uncovered to essentially vital ranges of monitoring.” Read more here.

Why early assessments of ChatGPT in medication miss the mark

As STAT continues to gut-check ChatGPT’s potential to remodel well being care, Casey factors out a key shortcoming in our capability to guage it: Early testing has solely actually examined the system’s textbook data, not its capability to make clinicians sooner.

“We’re evaluating these applied sciences the incorrect means,” Nigam Shah, a professor of biomedical informatics at Stanford College who led latest analysis on the subject, informed Casey.

“What we ought to be asking and evaluating is the hybrid assemble of the human plus this expertise.”

It’s not clear, for example, whether or not the expertise can truly assist people in messy and sophisticated medical settings — most experimental makes use of are as a substitute targeted on automating documentation, Casey writes. Read more here.

FDA proposes new plan to streamline AI-based medical gadget updates

The Meals and Drug Administration has a brand new plan to permit corporations promoting medical units that depend on synthetic intelligence to robotically replace their merchandise, Casey writes. The brand new draft steerage outlines a course of by which these corporations might get approvals for modifications prematurely.

“If what you’re going to do seems proper, we are able to bless the plan,” Jeffrey Shuren, head of the FDA’s Middle for Gadgets and Radiological Well being, informed STAT. “Then you possibly can transfer ahead, make these adjustments so long as you comply with the plan and also you don’t have to come back again to the FDA.” Read more here.

What’s developing this quarter

Lizzy’s rounded up 13 business occasions you’ll wish to have in your radar over the subsequent few months, once we’ll expect some turbulence as corporations both collapse, get acquired or handle to narrowly elbow out competitors amid financial uncertainty. Longtime Well being IT business gathering HIMSS is in Chicago later this month, and STAT has our personal Breakthrough Summit in Might, that includes audio system like Verily’s Stephen Gillettt and CRISPR pioneer Jennifer Doudna. Get the full guide to Q2 here.