policy
HHS will not enforce medical record requirements around gender and sexual orientation
In March, an office at the federal health department announced it would not enforce requirements that electronic health records have fields to record and exchange patients' sexual orientation and gender identity. The new standards, which have been in development for several years, were set to be enforced by January 1 next year. The move is an effort to comply with President Trump's executive order that called for federal agencies to reject the concept of gender identity and "recognize two sexes, male and female."
As STAT's Katie Palmer reports in a new story, the lack of standards for collection of this information will make it more difficult for LGBTQ+ patients to receive the care they need, and for researchers to understand the ways their care access, quality, and outcomes can differ.
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Money
Isomorphic banks $600 million
Isomorphic Labs, the AI drug development spinout from Google DeepMind, announced it raised $600 million led by Joshua Kushner's Thrive Capital with additional funds from Alphabet and GV (aka Google Ventures). That's a very big number in the world of health tech, a kind of more reasonable number if you think about this as a biotech or AI company, and practically peanuts considering the size of the Silicon Valley giant backing this effort.
Alphabet through its many subsidiaries and most notably Google, which makes the lion's share of the company's money, has made no secret about its willingness to spend lavishly on AI. With AI now at the center of Google's health efforts as well, it's been talking a lot about DeepMind and the organization's groundbreaking protein-folding model AlphaFold. Isomorphic for its part has disclosed partnerships with Eli Lilly and Novartis.
It's not unusual for Alphabet's money burning subsidiaries to go to outside investors for some funding. For example, Silver Lake previously invested in substantial rounds for Verily and Waymo.
policy
Telehealth trade group eats key DTx advocates
The American Telemedicine Association's advocacy arm, ATA Action, this week announced it acquired the Digital Therapeutics Alliance (DTA), a key a group that advocates for developers of software-based medical treatments. Andy Molnar, CEO of DTA, will now lead ATA Action's new Advancing Digital Health Coalition.
Founded in 2017, DTA has served as an important convener and voice for digital therapeutics companies, but there's been a shift in the industry over the last few years. Originally the group and industry was focused on securing drug-like insurance reimbursement for digital health products, and in particular, on legislation that would make it possible for Medicare to cover so-called prescription digital therapeutics. This effort stalled both because legislation can take forever and because some of the leading players went bankrupt or changed strategies.
Last year, Medicare regulators found a work around to start paying for some mental health apps provided to patients as part of care. Other similar reimbursement exists through remote monitoring payment structures. Broadly, there's a feeling that standalone reimbursement, which may be desirable in the long-term, isn't the most pragmatic path forward for the industry. Some believe it makes more sense to think of therapeutic apps integrated with other parts of the health care system. And in that way, it's probably logical for DTA's efforts to be more aligned with a telehealth group that's pushing a larger agenda on health tech.
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