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Egg Freezing Fertile for Disruption Says Freeze.Health

By JESSICA DaMASSA, WTF Health

Although egg freezing was only approved for general use six years ago, the business is fertile ground for disruption according to Jen Lannon, co-founder of website Freeze.Health.

Jen and her co-founder, Sidonia Swarm, started the site when, through their own consumer research, they found that egg freezing could cost anywhere from $4,000 to $18,000 — at clinics in the same market!

Now that ‘social egg freezing’ is a thing among Millennial women who want to delay motherhood, Freeze.Health hopes to become the go-to resource for price shopping, medical information on the process, and details on the patient experience. Believe it or not, but women rallying around #NoBabiesNow don’t exactly feel like they belong at fertility clinics with so many baby pictures on the walls.

Get a glimpse of the future of healthcare by meeting the people who are going to change it. Find more WTF Health interviews here or check out www.wtf.health. 

Health in 2 Point 00 Episode 52

Today on the 52nd episode of Health in 2 Point 00, Jess reports from InsurTechConnect 2018! In this episode, Jess asks Matthew about RockHealth’s $6.8 billion fundraise to date & its $3 Billion raise in Q3, Weight Watcher’s rebranding itself and pushing into the wellness space, and (just in time we might add) Maven, a women’s digital health clinic, series B round of $27 million from Oak HC/FT

4 Signs that Disruption is Accelerating in Health Care Delivery

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By REBECCA FOGG

Hardly a day goes by that I don’t read the term “Disruptive Innovation” cited in relation to health care delivery. This might seem like a good thing, given that our expensive, wasteful, and in some cases frightfully ineffective traditional delivery model is in dire need of transformation. However, the term is frequently misunderstood to refer to any innovation representing a radical departure from an industry’s prior best offerings. In fact, it actually has a very specific definition.

Disruptive Innovation is the phenomenon by which an innovation transforms an existing market or sector by introducing simplicity, convenience, accessibility, and affordability where complication and high cost have become the status quo—eventually completely redefining the industry. It has played out in markets from home entertainment to teeth whitening, and it could make health care delivery more effective by making providers’ care processes, as well as individuals’ own self-care regimes easier and less costly. This, in turn, would reduce the need for both more, and more expensive, interventions over time.

Unfortunately, disruption has been slow to emerge in the health care sector. It’s been thwarted by the broader health care industry’s unique structure, which tends to prioritize the needs of commercial insurers and large employers (who pay the most for consumer care) over those of health care consumers themselves. It also stacks the deck against disruptive entrepreneurs, since established providers effectively control professional licensing requirements, and (along with insurers) access to patients & key delivery partners.

Continue reading…

Part 2: Bypassing Prior Authorizations

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By NIRAN AL-AGBA, MD

A few weeks ago, I saw a young patient who was suffering from an ear infection. It was his fourth visit in eight weeks, as the infection had proven resistant to an escalating series of antibiotics prescribed so far. It was time to bring out a heavier hitter. I prescribed Ciprofloxacin, an antibiotic rarely used in pediatrics, yet effective for some drug-resistant pediatric infections.

The patient was on the state Medicaid insurance and required a so-called prior authorization, or PA, for Ciprofloxacin. Consisting of additional paperwork that physicians are required to fill out before pharmacists can fill prescriptions for certain drugs, PAs boil down to yet another cost-cutting measure implemented by insurers to stand between patients and certain costly drugs.

The PA process usually takes from 48-72 hours, and it’s not infrequent for requests to be denied, even when the physician has demonstrated an undeniable medical need for the drug in question.

Continue reading…

THCB Spotlights: CY5

By ZOYA KHAN

I know we have been bombarding you all with a bunch of videos and announcements, but there are some really interesting pieces of health tech that are launching and events that are happening in the Fall. Today I wanted to spotlight another really cool startup that Matthew met with at #TechCrunchDisrupt18 called CY-5 (pronounced Sci-5, trust me Matthew & I kept calling it C-Y-5). Their company is developing biometric temporary tattoos to track your vitals. Right now their tattoos can measure your heart rate and your inter-cranial pressure. Also, strangely enough, their tattoos are designed and printed onto a special paper that conducts electricity- that means it requires no exterior electricity source to monitor your biometrics! It is all in the design of the product that powers the tattoo. Their focus right now is to test their product out in the elderly population. For all of you out there that can’t get real tattoos, this would look really cool plus it would track your vitals and keep you healthy- double win.

Zoya Khan is the Editor-in-Chief of THCB as well as an Associate at SMACK.health, a health-tech advisory services for early-stage startups.

Come to the Society for Participatory Medicine conference (Boston, Oct 17)

Join me at the 2nd annual Society for Participatory Medicine (SPM) conference, co-located with the Connected Health Conference at the World Trade Center in Boston. It’s magical and very inexpensive–Matthew Holt

DEMOCRATIZING HEALTH CARE!
Me. You. Us. Healthocracy.
Don’t hesitate another minute! Avoid severe FOMO (fear of missing out) and regrets by registering for the second annual SPM conference!

Hear from amazing speakers Patti Brennan, Rasu Shrestha, Bill Marder, Sarah Krüg, Ivan Handler, Casey Quinlan, Jason Bobe, Brennen Hodge, as well as mother/daughter heroes, Angela & Grace Kennedy, and Kristina & Kate Sheridan. Help create a Participatory Medicine Manifesto in the afternoon. Patients Included!

Spotlight on Casey Quinlan, Mighty Casey Media

Casey’s work in standup comedy, network news and health policy will entertain, enlighten and inform. After a cancer diagnosis 5 years ago, Casey wrote Cancer for Christmas: Making the Most of a Daunting Gift and produces the Podcast Healthcare Is HILARIOUS. Her favorite people to work with are those who want to fix the system, not serve the status quo.

Learn more about all of the speakers here.

Learn more about the conference or register today (seating is limited).

CONFERENCE DETAILS:
Wednesday, October 17, 2018 (7:30 am – 5:00 pm)
Seaport World Trade Center, Boston, MA
$100 for SPM Members ($150 for non-members)

THCB Spotlights: TestCard

By ZOYA KHAN

A few weeks back, Matthew met with TestCard (another Brit like him) at TechCrunch Disrupt 2018. Greg, from TestCard, spoke to Matthew about how their device can test multiple different illnesses using urine and a clinical grade camera, which then spits out results (almost) immediately on your smartphone. Currently, the device can be used for detecting pregnancy, glucose, STIs, UTIs, and many more diseases. Their focus is on preventative care for patients, so they are working with insurance companies to use their product as a kit to diagnose problems that are prevalent in UK’s population. Not to mention their slogan is “A bit like Theranos, but our flagship products work.”

Zoya Khan is the Editor-in-Chief of THCB as well as an Associate at SMACK.health, a health-tech advisory services for early-stage startups.

Apple Watch Leaves Patients Connected with No Where To Go

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By GRACE CORDOVANO, Ph.D., BCPA

The highly anticipated unveiling of the Apple Watch Series 4 caused a news and social media sensation. Apple coined the iconic timepiece as the “guardian of your health”, with health tracking functionalities such as the ability to detect atrial fibrillation (AFib) by a self-performed electrocardiogram (ECG). But from patients’ and carepartners’ perspectives, there is a long road to a universally accessible, seamlessly implemented, mass-adoption, and meaningful use for this wearable technology.

Many experts, such as Dr. Eric Topol a cardiologist at the Scripps Research Institute, and other reports, were quick to highlight concerns about the consequences of false positives. The Apple Watch was criticized as a source for unnecessary anxiety. A letter from the Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) of the FDA, which cleared the ECG app as a class II over-the-counter (OTC) device, highlighted the risks to health and potential mitigation measures that the Apple Watch posed. Unfortunately, the vast majority of concerns in the public domain haven’t emphasized the risks to health due to poor implementation, integration, and adoption strategies of digital tools and wearables.

The current health care system needs to be significantly refreshed as it is not positioned to simply drop in advancements, such as those offered by the Apple Watch Series 4, into everyday patient care. Having Dr. Ivor Benjamin, president of the American Heart Association (AHA), endorse the Apple Watch at the Apple Keynote Event did wonders for the mass marketing appeal. It would’ve have been more credible and demonstrated more value if he stated that the AHA devised a strategic clinical practice implementation guide for cardiologists, created patient education materials for using the Apple Watch, partnered with payers to incentivize doctors to adopt the technology, and reimburse for virtual consults to support remote patient monitoring (RPM).

Continue reading…

Will Apple Track Your Mind, Not Just Your Heart?

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By MICHAEL MILLENSON

If your heart throbs with desire for the new Apple Watch, the Series 4 itself can track that pitter-pat through its much-publicized ability to provide continuous heart rate readings.

On the other hand, if you’re depressed that you didn’t buy Apple stock years ago, your iPhone’s Face ID might be able to discover your dismay and connect you to a therapist.

In its recent rollout of the Apple Watch, company chief operating officer Jeff Williams enthused that the device could become “an intelligent guardian for your health.” Apple watching over your health, however, might involve much more than a watch.

The iPhone models introduced at the same time as the Series 4 all deploy facial analysis software. The feature works in part by projecting a grid of more than 30,000 infrared dots on the user’s face in order to create a three-dimensional map for user recognition. Continue reading…

Making Healthcare a Consumer Biz: Livongo’s Glen Tullman on his New Book & IPO Rumors

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By JESSICA DA MASSA, WTF Health

“If we just shop for healthcare like we shop for everything else…we would take care of a lot of the problems…”

So says Glen Tullman, CEO of Livongo, a very hot startup with a chronic condition management platform that has been batting away IPO rumors since earlier this year when it closed a $52.M round funded by existing investors.

Glen has just literally written the book on consumerizing healthcare and stopped by to talk about it at the HIMSS TV set on location at Health 2.0’s Fall Conference (where I was guest hosting interviews!)

Called On Our Terms the book tries to push us toward thinking about the buying-and-selling of healthcare the same way we’d think about buying-and-selling anything else. Glen argues it’s possible if we start looking at healthcare as an ‘information business’ – and pivot our thinking and our business models accordingly to provide greater access to that information.

Are we as consumers ready for all this responsibility? Is the healthcare system ready for us and our purchasing power? Is anyone doing this right?? Glen fires back with some strong examples of where he already sees this working, and gets real about who’s in trouble if they don’t pivot and pivot fast. (We’re looking at you, payers.)

Bonus Intel: Will Glen take Livongo to an IPO like he did Allscripts? It’s a multi-million dollar question…

Get a glimpse of the future of healthcare by meeting the people who are going to change it. Find more WTF Health interviews here or check out www.wtf.health. Filmed at Health 2.0’s Fall Conference in Santa Clara, September 2018.

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