| |  By Casey Ross, Katie Palmer, Mario Aguilar, and Mohana Ravindranath | | | | | Humility over hype at Google Health? Google announced plans to roll out a new feature that will show available appointments for participating medical practices, starting with CVS Health. As Mario reports, the tool plays on the company's strengths in search as it looks for ways to make inroads in health care. The company also offered a glimpse at its research pipeline, highlighting artificial intelligence tools to scan ultrasounds for pregnancy complications and screen for diabetic retinopathy with smartphones. But in a rare interview with STAT, the director of health AI for Google’s research division sounded notes of caution. “In the health space, I don’t think technology companies should do anything like ‘move fast and break things,’” said Greg Corrado, who has incorporated AI into core Google products like Gmail and Google Translate. “We actually really, really need to be careful and move at the pace that’s comfortable for caregivers and folks who work in that community.” Communicating the tech’s possibilities with humility, he said, is essential to critical buy-in from those tasked with the practitioners who will ultimately use it. Read more in Casey’s story. | An incubator for UC Berkeley's blind innovators Joshua Miele is an Amazon researcher whose adaptive technologies have helped turn consumer device accessibility — for people who are blind and have other disabilities — into an industry-wide expectation. But in 1987, decades before he was named a MacArthur genius, he was just a freshman at UC Berkeley, finding himself among a unique set of peers in a basement study suite that fostered a generation of blind innovators. “I came to Berkeley for the physics, and stayed for the disability,” said Miele. That year in ‘The Cave,’ there was Marc Sutton, who now works at Apple building solutions for blind phone and computer users; it has fostered countless other leaders. STAT’s Isabella Cueto has the full story. | A path forward for pulse oximetry As the pandemic illuminated the role that remote monitoring could play in patient care, it had a poster child: the pulse oximeter. Many households grabbed the devices to track blood oxygen saturation at home, and some providers checked the values when recommending whether a Covid-positive patient should come in for more intensive care.
In a systematic review of home use during the pandemic, published in The Lancet Digital Health, researchers at Imperial College London found that pulse oximeters helped to triage patients, but couldn’t tell whether it improved outcomes more than other types of check-ins. They did make recommendations for providers using the devices to monitor patients, including patient training, sufficient staffing, and setting thresholds for escalation. | Last Chance: The STAT Breakthrough Science Summit This Thursday, leaders from Pfizer, Bristol Myers Squibb, and Merck will take the stage to discuss what's next for their organizations. We'll also explore the future of CRISPR and unpack the feasibility of pig-to-human transplants. There's so much more, so check out statnews.com/summit to see the full agenda and find more information about our featured speakers. Then, get your ticket to join us! | Who's teaching doctors about digital health?  When digital health companies are regularly racking up billion-dollar valuations, it can be easy to forget just how young these tools are — and how much of a learning curve they present to providers. Doctors are always challenged to keep up with ever-evolving medical practices, and the problem is only compounded by hundreds of new software tools whose usefulness can’t be measured in the same way as drugs and devices, writes Charlotte Grinberg, a palliative care fellow at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in a STAT First Opinion. The result is a gap between the promise and the reality of practice, with little provider education about digital tools, she writes. “And yet, digital health apps often carry the disclaimer, ‘Make sure to consult your health care professional.’” | The latest in a smart thermometer lawsuit A scientist’s critical blog post about the Daysy fertility thermometer isn’t defamatory, three federal appeals judges in New York decided yesterday. The thermometer's maker, Valley Electronics, claimed that reproductive epidemiologist Chelsea Polis defamed the company in posts she made on social media and her personal blog in 2019, damaging the company's sales. Among other things, Polis called a retracted study “junk science.”
Polis and her lawyers argued that the context of her statements clearly indicated that she was expressing her opinion, something that generally can’t be grounds for a defamation lawsuit. Earlier this month, experts told STAT they were concerned that such lawsuits could create a chilling effect on future scientific critique. | A sea of series Cs -
Less than a year after its last round, virtual reality surgical training platform Osso VR, landed $66 million in a Series C round led by Oak HC/FT, with participation from backers including Signalfire, Tiger Global Management, GSR Ventures, and Kaiser Permanente Ventures. -
Podimetrics, which makes a temperature-sensitive mat to detect diabetic foot ulcers, raised $45 million from investors led by D1 Capital Partners to support commercialization of the tool, cleared by the FDA in 2015. Other investors include The Medtech Convergence Fund, Polaris Partners, and Scientific Health Development. - Another drug discovery company aiming to disrupt pipelines with technology, LifeMine Therapeutics brought in $175 million in its Series C to advance its biosphere-mining approach. Fidelity Management & Research Company led the financing, with participation from GlaxoSmithKline, GV, Arch Venture Partners, and more.
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