| | | |   | Good morning. Mario here with a fascinating story about AlphaFold’s potential. | | | AlphaFold hype meets reality AlphaFold has been one of the most hyped artificial intelligence projects in recent years. Developed by Alphabet-owned DeepMind, the technology can very accurately predict protein structures based on their amino acid sequences, which proponents say could speed drug development. The hype went into overdrive last summer when DeepMind dumped a database of 200 million structures predicted by AlphaFold, accounting for nearly every known protein. Of course, not everyone is convinced the technology will magically result in breakthrough disease cures. It’s possible that like the Human Genome Project, AlphaFold’s remarkable discoveries will merely broaden the questions we can ask. STAT’s Brittany Trang unpacks what AlphaFold can do — and what it can’t. | Ditching the formalities — but only for women Women doctors were more than twice as likely to be addressed by their first names, according to an analysis of 91,000 messages sent from patients in Mayo Clinic’s electronic medical record. As one observer noted, the findings highlight the bias experienced by women in medical settings, which can add up over time and lead to burn out and attrition in the workforce. Read Jayne Williamson-Lee’s whole story here. | City dwellers are more likely to use telehealth  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a swath of new data suggesting that white, urban, and higher-educated people were more likely to use telehealth than other adults. The new report uses data from the 2021 National Health Interview Survey, breaking down telehealth utilization by geography and demographics. The results show that after the pandemic boom, telehealth is reaching more people in groups that tend to be better off. Despite this disparity, no matter how you slice up the data, telehealth reached at least 30% of people across most categories. | The first EMA qualified machine learning method for faster randomized controlled trials The European Medicines Agency has qualified Unlearn’s PROCOVA™ framework for planning and conducting a Phase 2 or 3 TwinRCT™. This qualification opinion represents the first time a regulatory body has formally supported a machine learning-based method for reducing sample size in pivotal trials, and is also a historical milestone on the company’s path as they advance AI to eliminate trial and error in medicine. Read the summary of the qualification here. | Medtech regulation updates -
Top officials from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services published a viewpoint outlining the agency’s vision for how it intends to facilitate expedited review for novel technologies. There’s often a substantial lag between when medical devices are cleared by the Food and Drug Administration and when CMS covers them, which critics argue is bad for patients and business. This new plan, which is vague and remains in the planning stages, follows last year’s repeal of a Trump-era rule that would have granted automatic coverage for devices that received breakthrough device designation from the FDA. For more on the debate about that rule and the Breakthrough Devices Program, please see our investigation on the topic. -
FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health launched its Total Product Life Cycle Advisory Program Pilot. The program will experiment with providing earlier and more frequent communication between the FDA, manufacturers, and other stakeholders in an effort to speed up development of products and in hopes of avoiding “the medical device valley of death,” according to the agency. Over the next year, the pilot will enroll a handful of cardiovascular products. - Speaking of device regulation, we made a few updates to our Breakthrough Device Tracker.
| Funding rounds and new launches - Folx Health, a telehealth provider focused on queer and trans people, raised a $30 million Series B round led by 7wireVentures with participation from Foresite Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Define Ventures, and Polaris Partners. The company will use the investment to develop newly launched offerings like expert-led support groups, and it will soon launch a companion smartphone app for an emotional- and behavioral-support offering.
- NeuroFlow, which makes technology supporting behavioral health care delivery, raised $25 million in funding led by SEMCAP Health. The company previously raised a $20 million Series B investment in January 2021.
- Brave Health, which delivers virtual behavioral health care to people on Medicaid, raised a $40 million Series C round led by Town Hall Ventures.
- Zócalo Health, which announced $5 million in seed funding last month. launched its virtual primary care offering tailored to the Latino community. The membership costs $40 per month and is currently available in California and Texas.
-
Shimmer announced it raised $1.3 million for its coaching platform for adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Investors include Y-Combinator and Honeystone Ventures. The service costs $99 per month and includes weekly video sessions and ongoing support through a smartphone app. -
GoodRx launched a new “Provider Mode” designed specifically for clinicians and medical practice staff, who the company claims frequently use the service to search for drug discounts on behalf of patients. | What we’re reading -
Walmart to compete with Walgreens, CVS in recruiting clinical trial subjects, Reuters -
An analysis of the FDA’s list of AI- and ML-enabled devices, Rock Health - Global health care fairness: We should be sharing more, not less, data, PLOS Digital Health
- Human neurons implanted in a rodent’s brain lead a rat to water — and make it drink, STAT
| Thanks for reading! More next week,  | | | |
No comments