Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
We May Be Moving Toward A Future Where Visits To The Doctor's Office Are Unnecessary
San Francisco Chronicle: Why Doctors’ Offices Could Become Obsolete
Technological advancements are ushering in a new era of health care, eroding the long-held model of hospitals and doctors’ offices as the physical center of the health system... This rapidly changing landscape raises the question: Will there come a day when we won’t need to go to the doctor’s office anymore? (Ho, 6/12)
San Francisco Chronicle: Why Doctors Hate Electronic Records — And What Could Change That
The health care industrial complex has spent billions of dollars and untold amounts of time trying to make medical records as flexible, invisible and unobtrusive as possible for patients and clinicians alike... But after nearly two decades of concerted innovation, amid a push to do away with paper records, many physicians say they’re still hamstrung by issues that have dogged them for years. (Francassa, 6/12)
San Francisco Chronicle: Did You Take Your Pill? Ingestible Sensors Can Tell
Some experts say ingestibles — also dubbed “smart pills” — can help solve one of the biggest problems plaguing the health care industry: patients simply not taking their medication as prescribed. The Proteus sensor can indicate if and when a pill is taken. It was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2012 — the first such device to receive the agency’s OK. (Thadani, 6/12)
San Francisco Chronicle: How Apple AirPods Could Make Future Hearing Aids Cool
Inside Starkey’s Shattuck Avenue lab, Carlile and his team are researching brain-sensing technologies that may enhance hearing aids in the next five or six years... Using a skullcap dotted by round electrodes, the researchers are measuring brain-wave activity to pinpoint which talker a person is trying to hear in noisy situations. (Evangelista, 6/12)
Arizona Republic: Hacking A Heart Pacemaker Isn't Science Fiction. See What Experts Are Doing To Prevent It
Newer models of medical devices like pacemakers, insulin pumps and medication pumps have wireless connectivity so doctors can remotely access the device to monitor the patient or to make changes to how it operates. But those very features also provide a backdoor for hackers to gain access to the device, just as they could hack into any other information stored online. (Stanford, 6/12)
