Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Amazon Dips Toes Into Medical Record Industry In Latest Move By Big Tech To Enter Health Care Landscape
The Wall Street Journal: Big Tech Expands Footprint In Health
Amazon.com Inc. is starting to sell software that mines patient medical records for information doctors and hospitals could use to improve treatment and cut costs. The move is the latest by a big technology company into health care, an industry where it sees opportunities for growth. The market for storing and analyzing health information is worth more than $7 billion a year, according to research firm Grand View Research, a business in which International Business Machines Corp.’s Watson Health and UnitedHealth Group Inc.’s Optum already compete. (Evans and Stevens, 11/27)
In other health and technology news —
Stat: America's Scattershot Medical Records Could Frustrate Promise Of ‘Big Data’
Doctors, researchers, and companies have made big promises about how machine learning and AI may someday change medicine. But a particularly American issue may be holding doctors and data scientists here back: electronic medical records. Machine learning algorithms only work if they have data — lots and lots of data. The conclusions they draw about what might happen to a particular person will generally only work if an algorithm has been trained with a bunch of records of people who have some similar characteristics. And especially in the traditional “doctor’s office,” companies that want to work on AI and machine learning must somehow pull in information from a plethora of EMRs — a burden not often seen in other countries. (Sheridan, 11/27)
Reuters: Atrium Health Says Data Of About 2.65 Million Patients Involved In Breach
Atrium Health, previously Carolinas HealthCare System, said on Tuesday data of about 2.65 million patients including addresses, dates of birth and social security numbers may have been compromised in a breach at its third-party provider AccuDoc Solutions. Atrium, which provides healthcare and wellness programs throughout the Southeast region in the United States, said a review revealed an unauthorized access to AccuDoc's databases between Sept. 22 and Sept. 29. (11/27)
