November 7, 2023

Electrical stimulation helped a Parkinson's patient walk

An experimental treatment in a small study sending electrical currents to a Parkinson's patient's spinal cord appeared to improve his ability to keep balance and walk without freezing up, my colleague Matt Herper reports. If the neurostimulation works in larger studies, experts say it could be a significant development in treatment.

Sixty-two year old Marc, the volunteer who received the experimental treatment, has had Parkison's for 30 years. Without the neurostimulation device, he'd fall several times a day; now, he told reporters, he can go outside alone without assistance. Marc has also taken medication and received another treatment known as deep brain stimulation.

The results "open realistic perspectives to develop a treatment that alleviates gait deficits due to Parkinson's disease," said Jocelyne Bloch, a neurosurgeon at CHUV Lausanne University Hospital in Lausanne, Switzerland and a senior author on the study published in Nature Medicine.

While outside experts were enthusiastic about the results, they and the authors emphasized that much larger studies are needed. Read more here.

Inari Medical to buy LimFlow

Elsewhere in the hardware world, vascular device manufacturer Inari Medical plans to scoop up LimFlow, a company selling last-line therapies targeting limbs with blocked blood flow, Lizzy Lawrence writes.

LimFlow recently scored FDA approval for its system using a stent to connect blocked arteries to open veins, opening blood flow to better heal injuries among patients with artery disease. Inari will pay $250 million up front and a potential additional $165 million depending on LimFlow's success. Read more on the deal here.

On tap today

Next up: UCSF's Algorithmic Justice workshop and the Milken Institute's Future of Health Summit

In the pre-holiday crush, we'll be tracking some industry gatherings this week: The Milken Institute's Future of Health summit kicked off Monday, and today our editor Rick Berke is slated to chat with Verily's Amy Abernethy, Vesalius Therapeutics' Christopher Austin, Novavax's Silvia Taylor and FDA's Janet Woodcock about progress in biomedical innovation. Later today, STAT's Isa Cueto will discuss chronic disease prevention with the Alzheimer's Association's Kristen Clifford, Delta Dental's Joseph Dill, CDC's Karen Hacker, the Bipartisan Policy Center's Anand Parekh, and Biogen's Maha Radhakrishnan.

Tomorrow, our reporter Nicholas St. Fleur discusses health equity with Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum's Juliet K. Choi, Washington Housing Conservancy's Kimberly Driggins, Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing's Jason Farley, and Nemours Children's Hospitals' Kara Odom Walker.

In the Bay Area today, I'll be presenting at a UCSF workshop called "Toward Algorithmic Justice in Precision Medicine"; I'll be discussing what community groups and health workers tell me are the do's and don'ts of engaging patients and communities on precision medicine and algorithms. Send thoughts before that discussion, which happens around 11:00 PT, to mohana.ravindranath@statnews.com.

Virtual care

Treating rural America: The telehealth solution

Rural states are experiencing acute provider shortages; specialists are especially hard to find, with just about 30 for every 100,000 rural residents, according to data from the National Rural Health Association.

In part three of STAT's short documentary series on rural health, Hyacinth Empinado examines South Dakota-based Sanford Health's use of telehealth to bring specialized care to rural patients. Check it out here.

Washington

Medicare forges ahead on price transparency

The federal government is advancing proposals to force hospitals to clearly delineate the prices they charge insurers and patient; the latest set of regulations require that hospitals use a standard template for listing prices so they're easier to understand, Bob Herman writes. While federal law has required hospitals publish prices for years, they haven't always complied — and even if they do, the data's been notoriously tough for patients to interpret. Read more on the latest push here.

Dems push for algorithm oversight in Medicare Advantage

Over in Congress, House Democrats are urging the Biden administration to police the algorithms used in Medicare Advantage plans, citing STAT investigations from Bob and Casey Ross finding that health plays are using AI and algorithmic software to deny patients care even when they need it, Bob writes. Late last week, Reps. Judy Chu of California and Jerry Nadler of New York led a a letter co-signed by 30 other House Democrats to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services calling for more oversight. Read more from Bob.

startups

Why did FTC chair Lina Khan visit Y Combinator?

The Federal Trade Commission chair dropped by the hallowed startup incubator last last week, part of what she said was an effort to hear directly from smaller players who don't have the lobbying clout of tech giants. Y Combinator, for its part, appears to be crafting its own Washington strategy, including by bringing on its first public policy lead, Luther Lowe, earlier this month. ("We want to be the voice of founders in Washington," Lowe said during remarks before Khan's fireside chat.)

In a rare open dialogue between tech startups and Washington regulators, founders pressed Khan for details on the agency's planned approach to regulating AI, including on how open source software could enable competition. Especially on AI, the discussion raised more questions than concrete answers; Khan said the agency is hiring more technical experts to delve into AI models, and noted that open source could be a "really key vector" in opening up competition.

Asked how the agency views venture capital, which has historically lionized businesses with formidable moats and pathways to monopoly, Khan mused on the industry's hyper-focus on potential acquisition by big tech companies — and whether that approach limits innovation by forcing promising startups into deals that could suffocate them. Another audience member argued that Big Tech companies — frequent FTC and DOJ targets — have the financial resources to fuel innovation labs, but Khan maintained that such large players' innovation has historically been incremental compared to breakthrough developments from startups.

FTC will continue cracking down on businesses compromising consumers' sensitive data, including health information, she said.

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What we're reading

Inside Apple's health care plans, Bloomberg
Philips exec approved defective breathing machines despite risks, Pro Publica
American Hospital Association sues government over website tracking restrictions, Healthcare Dive

Thanks for reading! More on Thursday - Mohana

Mohana Ravindranath is a Bay Area correspondent covering health tech at STAT and has made it her mission to separate out hype from reality in health care.