ACC releases guide to medical use of Apple Watch

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The American College of Cardiology this week released a resource for doctors and patients about the Apple Watch's heart monitoring technology. The document clearly spells out how features like irregular heart rhythm notifications and electrocardiogram readings suggesting atrial fibrillation work, helping doctors understand what an alert brought in by a worried patient means — and what it doesn't. Maybe more importantly it offers providers who want to use the watch with patients some practical tips on how to incorporate the device into clinical practice and how the watch should not be used. The document was produced with financial and technical support from Apple.

Relatedly, there's an ongoing survey in which researchers ask how much clinicians know about how smartwatch health features work— if that's you, consider filling it out.

Artificial intelligence

ASCO and Google team up on AI tool for doctors

The American Society of Clinical Oncology announced Wednesday that it had partnered with Google Cloud to develop an AI-based tool to help physicians rapidly question the organization's guidelines on best practices in diagnosing and treating cancer. STAT's Matthew Herper and Casey Ross got a first look at the tech and talked to doctors who have been using it.

medical devices

Medtronic plans to break off diabetes business

Katie Palmer writes: Medtronic plans to separate its diabetes business into a standalone company, the medical device maker announced on Wednesday. Medtronic's diabetes business, which represents 8% of the company's revenue, focuses on delivering insulin with pens and pumps. It also makes continuous glucose monitors, which track blood glucose levels to better target insulin doses, but that market is dominated by competitors Abbott and Dexcom.

To make inroads, Medtronic last year announced a partnership with Abbott: The CGM leader would make a device to be exclusively sold by Medtronic for use with its own insulin delivery devices and software. It's a walled-garden approach that has frustrated diabetes patients who would prefer to mix-and-match devices, and Medtronic's pitch for its new company builds on that exclusivity.

"This full ecosystem not only enables people with diabetes to have a seamless transition between therapies without changing companies, but it also allows them to achieve better control with less burden," said Que Dallara, president of Medtronic's diabetes group, in an earnings call. Under the plan, the unnamed diabetes company would go public within the next 18 months, led by Dallara.

politics

The health techies that met with RFK Jr.

On Monday the federal health department posted on X about a meeting between secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and health tech execs. It didn't say who was there, of course, so we had to do some sleuthing on the accompanying photo.

It turns out it was the CEOs of Whoop, Function Health, knownwell, Talkiatry, Season Health, Turquoise Health, and Hippocratic AI. Venture capital powerhouse Andreessen Horowitz is a lead investor in six out of seven of those companies.

policy

Fresh DTx data to inform questions about adoption

Earlier this week, I wrote about two fresh data points that should help inform insurers and policymakers about how to pay for digital therapeutics:

A new report from the Peterson Health Technology Institute estimates that prescription digital therapeutics for anxiety and depression from Big Health and Otsuka Precision Health could reduce health care costs by $363 per user on commercial insurance and $78 per user on Medicare.
Data from Germany shows that the country's broad coverage for digital treatments resulted in 861,000 app activations at cost of €234 million over four years. (If you read German, here is a link.)

Read my whole story, including a breakdown of the pricing assumptions underlying the Peterson report and how the German data might impact legislation stateside.

Industry news

Hinge Health will begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange today. I'm talking to CEO Dan Perez this morning, so watch for a story on that.
Omada Health, which is also preparing to go public, announced an AI bot meant to help people achieve their goals, including guidance around nutrition.
The Information reports that Abridge is apparently fundraising at a $5 billion valuation.

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What we're reading

Your A.I. radiologist will not be with you soon, New York Times
OpenAI is buying iPhone designer Jony Ive's AI devices startup for $6.4 billion, CNBC
Three big ideas to actually 'Make America Healthy Again', STAT