Wearables
The latest on Apple's patent spat with Alivecor
Wearable heart monitor company Alivecor faces yet another setback in its ongoing dispute with the Apple Watch maker; the federal government has determined that the Apple watch's ECG function doesn't violate Alivecor's patents, Apple Insider reports. If you need a refresher on the companies' legal battles, check out Mario's rundown from a couple years ago.
cybersecurity
Lurie Children's slapped with class action suits
Chicago children's hospital Lurie is still dealing with the fallout of a widespread cyberattack in January that forced it to take down its network for weeks: now, it faces several potential class action law suits alleging that it didn't promptly notify patients that their information had been exposed and that it failed to protect their data in the first place, HealthcareDive reports.
As we reported during the outage, Lurie's attack came as the health sector faces rising threats from malicious hackers eager to exploit sensitive health information typically in exchange for ransom; another attack on Change Healthcare just weeks later brought health care payment processing to a halt across the country.
Virtual care
Think tank asks Congress for longterm telehealth plan
The Bipartisan Policy Center is urging Congress to establish a sustainable, long-term strategy for virtual care instead of haphazardly extending temporary policies — and it's also calling for strict oversight of the technology to guard against fraud, waste and abuse, the think tank wrote in a recent policy brief. Among a laundry list of more specific policy proposals, the group also called on CMS to require providers offering audio-only visits to attest that they offered patients the option of a video visit but that the "patient was either unable or unwilling to complete a video visit" — an attempt to shore up potential quality gaps between appointments conducted over the phone and video calls. Not surprisingly, the report cites Ateev Mehrotra, the telehealth researcher I profiled last month who has warned lawmakers to be judicious as they consider expanding virtual care coverage.
Also on telehealth, Teladoc is now offering pediatric, adolescent and family mental health care through a partnership with Brightline, the companies announced today.
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