Scott Mace on Health Care

Opening Move returns: Improving drug safety data access

Last Monday at Health 2.0 I sat down with Brian Overstreet of Adverse Events to find out how his company's just-launched service makes FDA drug safety data easier and more reliable to use. It's my latest IT Conversations podcast.

Back to reality...in Las Vegas, with diabetes educators

In my previous post, I was amazed to hear of a patch under development that will count calories as you consume them. That was at CES. Seven months later, by coincidence, I happened to be back in Las Vegas just as the annual meeting of the American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE) got underway.

The calorie-counting patch is nowhere to be seen, and even the folks at the Overeaters Anonymous booth haven't heard about it. Anyway, even if folks knew how many calories they were consuming in real time, would they change their behavior? AADE attendees know knowledge is only part of the health care solution. Motivating people to make health choices is the bigger challenge.

A diagnosis of diabetes gives many people plenty of motivation. The health consequences of not monitoring or treating the disease are dire indeed. And a hall full of medical devices, new pharmaceuticals, and healthy foods still isn't enough to slow down the Type 2 diabetes epidemic. Vegas-style attention-getting stunts like the "gambling with diabetes" improv theatre pictured here is more along the lines of what will turn heads. Social networks, games, and good, ol' fashioned fear and cautionary stories will also play a role.

Outside the AADE halls at Mandalay Bay, reckless dietary behavior continues unabated in Sin City and everywhere else in the U.S. or elsewhere. Patch or no patch, a lot of people know they shouldn't eat as much as they do or exercise as little as they do. A lot of misinformed folks think Type 1 diabetics got that way by sinning thus. They didn't. And in a world of information driven more by social networks than by medical educators or journalists, how will people get the right information? The hall here presents a cogent example. The Corn Refiners Association has a booth and is telling all who will listen that the FDA has found high fructose corn syrup to be as safe as sugar. But on the Internet, it's demonized.

The point is that just having an Internet or a calorie-counting patch doesn't lead to the most informed decisions, focus on the biggest problems, or the healthiest behaviors. The thousands of diabetes educators and patients gathered here are heading the vital human task force that cut through the misinformation and effect real change, person to person, and they don't necessarily need the latest gimmicky technology to get there.

Patch can sense how much you've eaten

There's a patch coming that can measure how much you've eaten, according to Darrel Drinan, co-founder & CEO of Philotron. Drinan spoke at today's Digital Health Summit at CES.

Presumably it measures calories good and bad, but still...wow.

Intake monitoring: Somewhere down the road

Last month I saw the academy Award-nominated documentary Food Inc. It's only free-range beef and chicken for me from now on. With the movie fresh in my mind, I asked several Digital Health Summit panelists what more can be done to make eating behaviors healthier.

It's challenging. Gadgets are good at tracking physical activity but recording food intake is a manual process subject to error and cheating.

Dr. L. Miguel Encarnacão of Humana said there are food intake sensors under development, but not available yet. Until then digital health care won't offer true management of both exercise and diet.

One bathroom scale, two thoughts on regulation

Bradley Merrill Thompson of the law firm of Epstein, Becker & Green, P.C. Moted that the FDA regulates a bathroom scale if it's connected to another regulated device, or if it's part of an obesity treatment program. But if the device is not connected to anything, and just tells you your weight, the FDA doesn't regulate it. But these days we're talking about the same scale -- just one device. the FDA needs to come to grips with this new reality of health care tech. Thompson spoke at today's Digital Health Summit at CES.

IdealLife: the health tech claims get vaguer

Jason Goldberg, president of Ideal Life, hints that its products (including scales and pedometers) are lowering hospital readmission rates by 60 percent, but he didn't provide any specifics in his CES Digital Health Summit talk.

DocGPS is a United Health phone app that finds doctors and specialists, and provides ratings and other performance metrics. The app is free, said Richard Migliori, MD, executive VP at UnitedHealth Group, speaking at the CES Digital Health Summit today.

Find a doctor near you on your mobile phone

DocGPS is a United Health phone app that finds doctors and specialists, and provides ratings and other performance metrics. The app is free, said Richard Migliori, MD, executive VP at UnitedHealth Group, speaking at the CES Digital Health Summit today.

Cleveland Clinic reduces need for patient visits through telemedicine

C. Martin Harris, MD, CIO of Cleveland Clinic, says a Microsoft HealthVault trial was able to reduce frequency of required office visits by patients, saving time and money. Harris spoke at the CES Digital Health Summit today.

Army looks at Text4baby; also plans a cell phone for every soldier

The U.S. Army will study the effeciveness of Text4baby, a mobile-based messaging system for expectant moms and their babies, in 1,000 women, according to Col. Ron Poropatich speaking at the CES Digital Health Summit. Will the FDA call the cell phone a medical device and regulate it? No one knows yet. Electronic medical record integration is a key issue.

A Dec. 13 Army Times story highlights a plan to issue every soldier an off-the-shelf cell phone.