Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
'Err On The Side Of Patient Care': Doctors Turn To Untested Machine Learning To Monitor Virus
Stat: AI Used To Predict Covid-19 Patients' Decline Before Proven To Work
Dozens of hospitals across the country are using an artificial intelligence system created by Epic, the big electronic health record vendor, to predict which Covid-19 patients will become critically ill, even as many are struggling to validate the tool’s effectiveness on those with the new disease. The rapid uptake of Epic’s deterioration index is a sign of the challenges imposed by the pandemic: Normally hospitals would take time to test the tool on hundreds of patients, refine the algorithm underlying it, and then adjust care practices to implement it in their clinics. Covid-19 is not giving them that luxury. (Ross, 4/24)
Modern Healthcare: Verily, Google Cloud Develop COVID-19 Chatbot For Hospitals
Google's sister company Verily Life Sciences has joined the mix of companies offering COVID-19 screening tools that hospitals can add to their websites. The screener, called the COVID-19 Pathfinder, takes the form of a chatbot or voicebot—essentially personified computer programs that can instant-message or speak to human users in plain English. (Cohen, 4/23)
Boston Globe: Tech From MIT May Allow Caregivers To Monitor Coronavirus Patients From A Distance
A product developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is being used to remotely monitor patients with COVID-19, using wireless signals to detect breathing patterns of people who do not require hospitalization ― but who must be watched closely to ensure their conditions remain stable. The device, developed at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory by professor Dina Katabi and her colleagues, could in some situations lower the risk of caregivers becoming infected while treating patients with the coronavirus. (Rosen, 4/23)
Stat: A Gulf Emerges In Health Tech: Some Companies Surge, Others Have Layoffs
You might expect them to be pandemic-proof: They’re the companies offering glimpses of the future in which you don’t have to go to the doctor’s office, ones that would seem to be insulated from a crisis in which people aren’t leaving their homes. Yet there’s a stark divide emerging among the companies providing high-demand virtual health care, triage, and testing services. While some are hiring up and seeing their stock prices soar, others are furloughing and laying off their workers. (Robbins and Brodwin, 4/24)
