IBM Partners For Advanced Health Data Collection
Trending Now: Apps and partnerships extend medical reach and research.
IBM has established a Watson Health Cloud that will provide a secure and open platform for physicians, researchers, insurers, and companies focused on health and wellness solutions. Extending the company’s exclusive Watson cognitive computing platform, IBM is entering new partnerships with Apple, Johnson & Johnson, and Medtronic to help optimize consumer and medical devices for data collection, analysis, and feedback. Specifically, IBM and Apple will expand their partnership through IBM Watson Health Cloud to provide a secure cloud platform and analytics for Apple’s HealthKit and ResearchKit. This will support health data entered by customers in iOS apps and also arm medical researchers with a secure, open data storage solution with access to IBM’s most sophisticated data analytics capabilities.
Johnson & Johnson is collaborating with IBM to create intelligent coaching systems centered on preoperative and postoperative patient care, including joint replacement and spinal surgery. Solutions will be mobile-based, accessing the Watson Health Cloud and leveraging IBM Watson’s cognitive capabilities. J&J plans to launch new health apps targeting chronic conditions, which currently cost consumers as much as 80% of the $7 trillion global healthcare spend.
Medtronic will leverage the Watson Health Cloud insights platform to collaborate with IBM around delivery of new highly personalized care management solutions for people with diabetes. The solutions receive and analyze patient information and data from various Medtronic devices and use this information to provide dynamic, personalized diabetes management strategies to patients and their providers.
PatientsLikeMe and AstraZeneca Partner for Global Research
A five-year deal provides access to PatientsLikeMe’s global network in support of AstraZeneca’s patient-driven research initiatives. AstraZeneca is using patient-reported data from PatientsLikeMe to shape future medicine development and help improve outcomes across its main therapeutic areas, with an initial focus on respiratory disease, lupus, diabetes, and oncology.
“Understanding what patients are experiencing every day and how they define the value of their treatments is fundamental to our ability to push the boundaries of science in developing the next-generation of medicines," says Briggs Morrison, executive VP, global medicines development, AstraZeneca. “Our partnership with PatientsLikeMe helps us to harness the important perspectives of patients through their advanced technology and real-world, real-time evidence to support our research and development programs."
Razorfish Founder Develops App to Deal with His Disease
At 47, Razorfish Co-founder Jeff Dachis was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Feeling that the healthcare system did not provide him with enough information to learn how to successfully live with the disease, he took matters into his own hands and developed a new app that handles four key components of diabetes management: glucose testing, insulin medication, food, and activity logging. The app, called One Drop, aims to help those with type 1 and type 2 diabetes to log and share information with each other to better manage their disease. The app is both a dashboard and a community available on the iPhone and Apple Watch. Users of the app can enter their personal insulin levels using a glucose meter, log the effectiveness of their medication, what they recently ate, and what types of activities might affect their blood sugar. The food component lets users snap a picture, rather than searching for and adding in the food and nutrition information. The app keeps a running log of how the body reacts to these different data points. One Drop is currently a free app on iOS, but Mr. Dachis plans to launch later this year a monthly subscription model that includes other management tools.
Drchrono brings EHRs to Apple Watch
Physicians can now access EHRs on their Apple Watch, thanks to startup technology company drchrono. According to drchrono, health-record apps will synch together, link to Apple’s HealthKit data repository, and contribute to a patient’s ongoing health narrative as told by their electronic health record.
A separate application for patients, called OnPatient, offers a range of tools for managing health on a daily basis, from offering reminders of upcoming appointments, to messaging with health professionals, to paying bills.
Drchrono offers electronic health records for free, and monetizes its business by charging doctors for medical-billing services. (PV)
