health tech
Here's the deal with 'digital twins'
Adobe
It's an ambitious goal: personalized health predictions based on a virtual model, or "digital twin." Want to know how a patient will respond to a certain drug or surgery? Uncertain when another might need a knee replacement? Imagine if all a doctor had to do was "treat" the patient's "twin" to find the answer.
Industries like aerospace and auto manufacturing have been able to widely adopt such predictions. Health care, on the other hand, has lagged behind. "When you start to throw humans into it … it's not as nicely deterministic," said Michael Grieves, who's credited with originating the idea in hardware manufacturing about two decades ago.
Read more from STAT contributor Mohana Ravindranath about what piecemeal implementation in health care has looked like so far and what the future might hold.
one small number
30%
While several drugs can be used to address inflammatory bowel disease, only about 30% of people living with the condition find relief. But as STAT's Allison DeAngelis reports, a new wave of treatments are being studied to address the chronic autoimmune condition. And here's one corresponding big number: AbbVie, Eli Lilly, Pfizer, and Merck have spent a combined $30 billion over the last few years acquiring startups with drug candidates that target unexplored avenues of inflammation. Read more from Allison on what's coming down the pipe.
first opinion
A new era of advocacy for physicians
The voice of a physician has always carried weight, especially when it comes to advocacy for public policies. In a new First Opinion essay, Sarah C. Nosal, the president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, argues that it's more important than ever for doctors to leverage their authority to push for a variety of changes that shape care both inside and beyond the exam room.
Advocacy isn't easy, Nosal acknowledges. It can take up time that doctors don't have and provoke public criticism. Still, "physician advocacy must stop being so quiet," she argues. "It needs to be a roar." Read more on how doctors can find their voice.
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