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Digital Health – A Fast Track Guide for Healthcare Workers

September 24, 2023

In today’s rapidly evolving healthcare landscape, embracing digital health is no longer an option – it’s a necessity. The benefits of integrating technology into healthcare are undeniable: enhanced patient care, streamlined operations, improved outcomes, and, when done well, higher satisfaction for all stakeholders with lower burnout for employees and staff. Given the benefits, you cannot afford to delay. It’s essential to create a fast track to digital health.

Before listing 10 actions you can take now, I want to address one factor that deserves special attention: vendor loyalty. Too much or too little is unwise. If you’re fortunate, you will view and work with your primary vendor as a partner, a key member of your team. That said, no primary vendor provides all the IT solutions you need. Every shop is multivendor. Even if you buy all your products and services from one vendor, they have integrated products and services from many other sources (vendors). Think of your vendor as a platform provider.

Embracing your vendor for as many solutions as possible is great ONLY IF they can deliver the products and services you need quickly and cost-effectively. If you wait for that vendor to develop a product or provide a service that you could get from another vendor, you decelerate the benefits realization that could potentially save lives, alleviate suffering, reduce expenses, increase revenues, and/or improve satisfaction.

In our mobile-centric world, it’s beneficial to deploy as much functionality as possible on a device carried by patients and their families and providers. If your vendor doesn’t provide the broadest range of functionality on a mobile platform, find a partner who can. Often, mobile platform providers can integrate broad functionality from a range of applications that uses your company’s brand and masks the family of technologies you’re using, enhances usability, improves care, and increases provider brand loyalty.

ACTIONS

Adopt a Consumer-Oriented Attitude. Healthcare delivery is no longer limited to traditional healthcare providers. To compete with non-traditional participants and because it makes sense, you must become more consumer oriented. Make care convenient and affordable (think pricing transparency), efficient, personalized, mobile-enabled, and easily customized. Ensure your care teams mirror the makeup of your community and develop cultural competency. Do whatever you can to help patients and their families establish, preserve, or restore a sense of self-control.
Enable Mobile Health (mHealth) Solutions. The ubiquity of smartphones opens doors to what should be your sponsored or provided mHealth applications that empower your patients to take control of their health. From medication reminders to fitness tracking, mHealth apps can enhance patient engagement and adherence to treatment plans. Let your technology help manage their care.
Invest in AI and Machine Learning. You must use Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to assist in healthcare diagnostics, treatment recommendations, and predictive modeling. Integrate AI-powered tools to aid clinicians in producing documentation and making accurate and timely decisions. For AI in particular, discuss all the potential consequences of relying on AI for decision making. Use the same discipline, processes, and governance as you would for clinical trials.
Harness the Power of Data Analytics. Data-driven insights are a game-changer, particularly in healthcare. Leverage advanced analytics to identify trends, predict outbreaks, and optimize resource allocation.
Stay Agile and Open to Innovation. The digital health landscape is dynamic, with innovations emerging frequently. Maintain an agile mindset and be open to reviewing current investments and optimizing existing processes, often with little investment. Cautiously experiment with new technologies that can enhance patient care and operational efficiency.
Embrace Telemedicine with Open Arms. Telemedicine has revolutionized patient-doctor interactions, offers convenience and accessibility like never before. If you have not already done so, invest in user-friendly telemedicine platforms that facilitate virtual consultations, remote monitoring, and secure data sharing. Prioritize patient privacy and ensure compliance with relevant regulations (such as HIPAA) to build trust in the digital healthcare ecosystem.
Prioritize Data Security and Privacy. The digital health realm comes with cybersecurity challenges. Invest in robust data security measures to safeguard patient information from breaches and cyberattacks. Encryption, regular security audits, and staff training are crucial components of a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy.
Foster Collaboration and Interconnectivity. Seamless communication among healthcare professionals is pivotal. Embrace collaboration tools and platforms that enable secure messaging, video conferencing, and real-time information sharing.
Engage in Continuous Training. Digital health technologies evolve rapidly. Keep your staff well-trained to adapt to new tools and techniques. Organize workshops, webinars, and training sessions to ensure that everyone is up to speed with the latest developments.
Promote Patient Education. Empower patients with digital resources that provide accurate medical information, lifestyle tips, and self-care guidance. Work with patients to instill a sense of personal accountability to improve their overall situation and reduce unnecessary visits to your facilities.

By embracing any or all of these strategies, you can help your organization get on the fast track to digital health. The journey will be challenging, but the rewards in terms of improved patient outcomes and operational excellence make every step worthwhile.

Below is a list of 10 digital health blogs I wrote that might be useful. Each takes about 3 minutes to read.

Link: Digital Health – Is Healthcare Ready? Are You and Your Organization Ready? (Jan 2020)
Link: Becoming a Digital Health System (Mar 2020)
Link: Digital Health – Governance in a Digital Health System (Jul 2020)
Link: Digital Health – The Role of Empathy and Understanding (Oct 2020)
Link: Digital Health – Language and Comprehension (Oct 2020)
Link: In a Digital World, The Human Elements are Essential (Feb 2021)
Link: Digital Health – Planning for the Virtual Campus (May 2021)
Link: Digital Health – A Practical Model for Change Management (Jul 2021)
Link: Digital Health – Literacy Matters (Oct 2021)
Link: Data Transformation Model – Deliberate Approach to Achieve Widespread Data Utility (May 2023)

The Intellectual Property Journey Of Patients' Digital Health Data

September 24, 2023

If you have used or are using a digital health device or service to gain insights about your own health, you have a digital health data trail. Whether it’s your smartwatch or that genetic sequencing you took to know about your risks for certain ailments, your personal data has been logged digitally. The latter is often used by companies providing digital health services to fine-tune their products and generate intellectual property (IP).

As users of such services, it becomes ever important to understand (or at least try to) where that data ends up and consider who should own the resulting IP. We decided to follow the digital health data trail and resulting IP through the patient journey; as the conundrums it poses will become ever more relevant in the digital health era.

Generating IP from data patients already own

Let’s say you’ve had a close elderly relative who has been diagnosed with a condition such as diabetes. Concerned about your own risks of developing this condition, you take a genetic test from a company offering direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic tests such as Dante Labs or 23andMe.

After a few weeks, they will share your genetic report, indicating your risks for diabetes as well as other conditions. This provides you a snapshot of what your future health might look like so that you can take preventative measures such as screenings or undertake lifestyle changes as appropriate.

This scenario applies to hundreds of people on a daily basis whether it’s to assess their disease risk or gain tailored nutrition advice. In sending their genetic sample, they are providing one of their most intimate health data to a company in exchange for a service. These companies might be looking further than just providing disease risk assessments to their consumers.

In fact, 23andMe leveraged its gold mine of genetic databases of millions of individuals for drug development and sold some of their IP. While 23andMe’s customers have agreed in the terms of service to allow the use of their data and not receive any remuneration, such drugs would not have been developed without them in the first place.

Personal digital health tools that collect patient data

Now, if that genetic test you took indeed indicated a higher risk of you developing diabetes, you might want to take some preventative measures towards that. In addition to some lifestyle and eating habit changes, you might want to consider food logging apps or even a 24/7 glucose monitor to assist in and supplement those changes.

The smartphone market is inundated with such options. There are over 300,000 health apps targeting a myriad of health-related topics from mental health to chronic condition management. Software aside, there are also digital health devices that can measure health parameters from head to toe. Patients can use these to obtain personalised health data which they can use to make informed decisions about their health and lifestyle.

In tandem, they continue the health data trail from external companies’ services to tools that patients carry with them throughout the day. As with DTC genetic companies, data collected from apps and wearables can even be sold to third parties or generate new IP.

For example, in the case of fertility tracking apps, a study conducted in Australia earlier this year found that the country’s most popular fertility tracking apps collect extensive data that is not required for the app. This includes information on aspects such as financial situation and education level which they can monetise.

This was exemplified in the case of period tracking app Flo. The company behind the app shared Flo users’ private health information with third-party firms such as Facebook and Google. This could enable those third parties to further improve their algorithm managing targeted ads, without the original data owners knowing about it, let alone benefit from such transactions.

Doctor-patient visits: the traditional health data generation point

Having tracked your blood glucose level with a smart glucose sensor for some weeks, you decide to have it assessed by your physician. During the visit, the doctor will likely take a glucose measurement of their own and compare the readings with those obtained from the sensor.

Based on the assessment, medical history and physical examination, the doctor will advise on the next steps, and generate an entry in your medical record for that visit. This further extends the patient health data trail to a scenario that has been unfolding for centuries.

The medical data IP issue it raises pertains to who owns the medical record’s IP if the physician was the person to create it. For example, in the case of a surgery or treatment pathway, each surgeon/physician might adopt a particular approach based on their own reasoning with little or no input from the patient; and their decision will be added to the medical record.

The laws vary depending on countries but generally healthcare providers control and safeguard that data, while not owning the information itself. However, in certain cases, healthcare institutions will use those medical record’s IP during partnerships with tech companies for research and product development. In some cases, identifiable information might not even have been adequately removed.

Such deals take place while patients themselves are often unable to easily access their own health records. There has even been a traditional belief that providing patients access to their records might be more harmful than beneficial. However, a pilot study has shown that providing patients full access to their medical records not only improved patient satisfaction and education, but might also lead to significantly improved patient safety.

Future digital health IP will still rely on patients' data

Throughout the patient journey, the health data trail that ensues is a coveted commodity considering the growing digital health market. This will hold true for the future of the field as other technologies with promising healthcare applications such as artificial intelligence (AI) become more commonplace. For instance, a COVID-19 health data storage deal enabled tech companies to access the UK’s NHS data to test and develop their AI models, leading to an outcry over data misuse. With the rise in popularity and healthcare potentials of generative AI models, health data to train these models and refine the IP will be needed and more partnerships between healthcare institutions and tech companies are to be expected.

However, not involving or not informing the source of that data - the actual patient - will remain a contentious issue. While there might be no straight answer to IP ownership when patient data is involved, the issue has caught the attention of researchers who have proposed a regulatory model.

The reality is that there is no digital health without sacrificing part of one’s health data and privacy; even if it means contributing that to someone else’s IP. This is how we are able to get tailored health information from external services and wearable tools that can help us better manage our lifestyle.

Judy Faulkner touts new plans for Epic

September 24, 2023

Epic Systems founder and CEO Judy Faulkner told audiences at the company's annual Users Group Meeting that the healthcare industry is adrift at sea because of challenges like provider burnout, staffing shortages, and provider and customer satisfaction, The Cap Times reported Aug. 23.

"Things have washed away, healthcare staff have left, hospitals have closed, important services such as maternity have closed, access to many services has slowed down considerably — appointments may take months," she told the audience. "But we're going to make our new healthcare world better than it was before."

The CEO said that Epic is looking to address these problems by providing more training with software systems, connecting millions more patient records to data systems, and using generative AI to reduce provider workload.

Ms. Faulkner highlighted a few of the company's recent milestones, one being Epic's move to offer ongoing training for workers struggling with its software, as well as launching Lyceum, a training program to help medical and nursing students learn its software.

The company is also looking to expand its databases of patients so that sharing health information for research and treatment purposes becomes easier. This initiative is called Look-Alikes.

Look-Alikes matches patients who have unidentified conditions with others who share similar symptoms. The program aims to provide more information or potential treatments for the conditions, according to the publication.

The EHR vendor is also working with Microsoft on several generative AI integrations.

With generative AI tools being integrated into Epic's software systems, the company aims to save providers time.

Currently, the company is using generative AI-based summarization of recorded conversations between physicians and patients, as well as using the technology to create first drafts of reports and using it to search medical and research databases.

‘We’re in the 1999 of the internet era’: a16z’s Julie Yoo on fintech’s potential and the digital health market

September 24, 2023

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Julie Yoo is a staunch advocate for companies at the intersection of healthcare and finance. And as a general partner and leader of health tech investment at Andreessen Horowitz, she’s well-situated to fuel companies looking to ameliorate payment problems in healthcare.

Yoo joined Andreessen Horowitz, otherwise known as a16z, in 2019 after co-founding patient access startup Kyruus — an experience that Yoo says gave her a front seat to the financial challenges faced by both healthcare companies and patients.

Andreessen Horowitz — the biggest venture capital firm by assets under management — has been an active digital health investor after the pandemic spurred record fundraising in the sector, according to Pitchbook data. The VC recently inked a broad thesis outlining where it sees attractive investment opportunities in the healthcare fintech landscape.

Yoo shared that investment thesis in a wide-ranging interview with Healthcare Dive that also touched on her advice for founders going up against entrenched behemoths and why the industry is at a tipping point for fintech adoption.

Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

HEALTHCARE DIVE: Why is fintech in healthcare such an area of interest for you?

JULIE YOO: While at Kyruus, I got fascinated about the financial flow of payments, which drives all the things that work and, more importantly and more frequently, the things that don’t work in our system.

In addition, if you think of insurance as fintech, those are clearly the biggest companies in the space. We’ve done a lot of work to understand and unbundle those business models. What are the components of giants like UnitedHealth Group? How do they tick? Where are opportunities for startups to compete head-to-head to provide a 10 times better experience or 10 times better competency? And where are the white spaces where UnitedHealth doesn’t have a good footprint that startups can go after? We’ve made a number of investments based on that thesis.

What are the biggest opportunities you’ve identified for fintech startups in healthcare?

YOO: The simplest is administrative bloat. The majority of waste in our industry is administrative overhead of unnecessary or redundant tasks that are done through inefficient human labor that can absolutely be automated. We have a number of companies in our portfolio that represent that thesis, of how do you use cutting-edge technologies to do some of the simplest tasks across the revenue cycle.

We have companies doing that on the reimbursed revenue side, like Akasa, and companies doing that on the patient side, like Cedar. I show these products to my colleagues in our consumer and enterprise practices and they’re kind of like, what’s special about that? And I’m like, it’s special in healthcare.

The second bucket is the actual payment model, and how we can create technology solutions that actually contemplate value-based payment models versus fee-for-service. We have a company in our portfolio called Pearl Health that provides software to provider groups to help them bear risk, creating a recurring revenue model that’s far more resilient for these practices. We’re getting a lot of interest from providers who want to stay independent.

How do you advise your startups that are going head-to-head with larger companies to carve out market share?

YOO: A lot of investors are averse to starting with a wedge. Some people look at the segment of the universe that’s attainable to Pearl today and say oh, that’s too small, it’s not worth our while.

Pearl is going to that underserved long tail of practices that no one else cares about, including other risk-assumption companies like Optum or Agilon or Aledade — because they’re big and have growth targets, there’s just a certain floor of what they can go after. But we believe every niche in healthcare can be $10 billion over time.

We are taking a bet that value-based, risk-bearing primary care is the future and the industry is going to continue to move in that direction. But if it does, then the seemingly small segment that Pearl is able to go after today will be 100 times what it was.

Where else do you see opportunity besides value-based care?

YOO: It’s all about finding the severely underserved pockets of the market. On the employer benefits side, direct purchasing from employers is to me a signal of where they aren’t being served by their health plan. All of the point solutions in these areas — employers aren’t getting what they need from their payers.

From a fintech lens, we’ve invested in a couple of companies here, like Thatch. They’ve created a single card — you can swipe your medical expenses on that card, and they’ve built a software layer that allows for real-time adjudication of whether that expense is a covered benefit. And they have a marketplace of health plan products you can buy too.

Turquoise is another company that’s operating in the payer-provider interface. They’re digitizing payer-provider contracts, and becoming a system of record for that. They can forecast out — using price transparency data — how much a provider’s revenue would change if you were to negotiate this one term in a contract. That allows you to scenario plan.

We’ve been very surprised by the upside on how many people are buying Turquoise’s data. Payers and providers are using it for competitive intelligence, because now they can see everyone in their markets and what they’ve contracted for. They also can use it to get their own house in order. We’ve also had some hedge funds reach out to us who wanted visibility into the publicly traded providers and payers to inform their market research.

Are we at an inflection point for fintech adoption?

YOO: I do think we’re at a tipping point. With value-based care, we’ve demonstrated scale, specifically in the primary care and Medicare Advantage world. The CVS-Oak Street acquisition was a nice crucible moment where people recognized now the big players are paying attention — this is a viable strategy.

We believe that will be replicated in different forms across the commercial market. We have an investment called Firefly Health that’s a payvider focused entirely on value-based models for employer markets. We have a company called Waymark that’s doing this in Medicaid.

On the employer side, companies will go bankrupt if they don’t figure out their healthcare benefits financing strategy.

And on the administrative layer piece, hospitals are finally waking up and realizing they need to transform their operating model to survive. They’re losing staff left and right. That’s where we’re seeing a lot of movement on automation.

Are there roadblocks?

YOO: So many. Any time you’re selling to enterprises, there’s just general inertia, and conservatism of doing new things. It’s the paradox of, you’re bleeding money, and this solution can make you more money, but you have to make the investment to get the new solution in place.

Then there’s the, we’re going to build it ourselves. So large companies like United — their bias is we’re going to do this ourselves. Why would we waste our time working with startups? But that can be a benefit. Their competitors, the underdogs, want any kind of competitive edge they can get.

Digital health funding is waning. How would you characterize the current state of the market?

YOO: I keep telling my founders, even in this downturn it is 10 times better today than it was in 2010. This is a very normal, healthy environment, frankly, where people care about your economics and efficiency. That’s how it was before the pandemic.

We’re just so early. We’re in the 1999 of the internet era in digital health. We truly have not even gotten started with respect to these tech-oriented models. These companies just haven’t grown up yet. It’s still going to be another five to 10 years before we see the real scale of potential outcomes in this domain.

For that to occur we need more funding in growth stages. I think there’s a tremendous investment opportunity coming in the next couple of years.

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Digital Health – A Fast Track Guide for Healthcare Workers

September 24, 2023

In today’s rapidly evolving healthcare landscape, embracing digital health is no longer an option – it’s a necessity. The benefits of integrating technology into healthcare are undeniable: enhanced patient care, streamlined operations, improved outcomes, and, when done well, higher satisfaction for all stakeholders with lower burnout for employees and staff. Given the benefits, you cannot afford to delay. It’s essential to create a fast track to digital health.

Before listing 10 actions you can take now, I want to address one factor that deserves special attention: vendor loyalty. Too much or too little is unwise. If you’re fortunate, you will view and work with your primary vendor as a partner, a key member of your team. That said, no primary vendor provides all the IT solutions you need. Every shop is multivendor. Even if you buy all your products and services from one vendor, they have integrated products and services from many other sources (vendors). Think of your vendor as a platform provider.

Embracing your vendor for as many solutions as possible is great ONLY IF they can deliver the products and services you need quickly and cost-effectively. If you wait for that vendor to develop a product or provide a service that you could get from another vendor, you decelerate the benefits realization that could potentially save lives, alleviate suffering, reduce expenses, increase revenues, and/or improve satisfaction.

In our mobile-centric world, it’s beneficial to deploy as much functionality as possible on a device carried by patients and their families and providers. If your vendor doesn’t provide the broadest range of functionality on a mobile platform, find a partner who can. Often, mobile platform providers can integrate broad functionality from a range of applications that uses your company’s brand and masks the family of technologies you’re using, enhances usability, improves care, and increases provider brand loyalty.

ACTIONS

Adopt a Consumer-Oriented Attitude. Healthcare delivery is no longer limited to traditional healthcare providers. To compete with non-traditional participants and because it makes sense, you must become more consumer oriented. Make care convenient and affordable (think pricing transparency), efficient, personalized, mobile-enabled, and easily customized. Ensure your care teams mirror the makeup of your community and develop cultural competency. Do whatever you can to help patients and their families establish, preserve, or restore a sense of self-control.
Enable Mobile Health (mHealth) Solutions. The ubiquity of smartphones opens doors to what should be your sponsored or provided mHealth applications that empower your patients to take control of their health. From medication reminders to fitness tracking, mHealth apps can enhance patient engagement and adherence to treatment plans. Let your technology help manage their care.
Invest in AI and Machine Learning. You must use Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to assist in healthcare diagnostics, treatment recommendations, and predictive modeling. Integrate AI-powered tools to aid clinicians in producing documentation and making accurate and timely decisions. For AI in particular, discuss all the potential consequences of relying on AI for decision making. Use the same discipline, processes, and governance as you would for clinical trials.
Harness the Power of Data Analytics. Data-driven insights are a game-changer, particularly in healthcare. Leverage advanced analytics to identify trends, predict outbreaks, and optimize resource allocation.
Stay Agile and Open to Innovation. The digital health landscape is dynamic, with innovations emerging frequently. Maintain an agile mindset and be open to reviewing current investments and optimizing existing processes, often with little investment. Cautiously experiment with new technologies that can enhance patient care and operational efficiency.
Embrace Telemedicine with Open Arms. Telemedicine has revolutionized patient-doctor interactions, offers convenience and accessibility like never before. If you have not already done so, invest in user-friendly telemedicine platforms that facilitate virtual consultations, remote monitoring, and secure data sharing. Prioritize patient privacy and ensure compliance with relevant regulations (such as HIPAA) to build trust in the digital healthcare ecosystem.
Prioritize Data Security and Privacy. The digital health realm comes with cybersecurity challenges. Invest in robust data security measures to safeguard patient information from breaches and cyberattacks. Encryption, regular security audits, and staff training are crucial components of a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy.
Foster Collaboration and Interconnectivity. Seamless communication among healthcare professionals is pivotal. Embrace collaboration tools and platforms that enable secure messaging, video conferencing, and real-time information sharing.
Engage in Continuous Training. Digital health technologies evolve rapidly. Keep your staff well-trained to adapt to new tools and techniques. Organize workshops, webinars, and training sessions to ensure that everyone is up to speed with the latest developments.
Promote Patient Education. Empower patients with digital resources that provide accurate medical information, lifestyle tips, and self-care guidance. Work with patients to instill a sense of personal accountability to improve their overall situation and reduce unnecessary visits to your facilities.

By embracing any or all of these strategies, you can help your organization get on the fast track to digital health. The journey will be challenging, but the rewards in terms of improved patient outcomes and operational excellence make every step worthwhile.

Below is a list of 10 digital health blogs I wrote that might be useful. Each takes about 3 minutes to read.

Link: Digital Health – Is Healthcare Ready? Are You and Your Organization Ready? (Jan 2020)
Link: Becoming a Digital Health System (Mar 2020)
Link: Digital Health – Governance in a Digital Health System (Jul 2020)
Link: Digital Health – The Role of Empathy and Understanding (Oct 2020)
Link: Digital Health – Language and Comprehension (Oct 2020)
Link: In a Digital World, The Human Elements are Essential (Feb 2021)
Link: Digital Health – Planning for the Virtual Campus (May 2021)
Link: Digital Health – A Practical Model for Change Management (Jul 2021)
Link: Digital Health – Literacy Matters (Oct 2021)
Link: Data Transformation Model – Deliberate Approach to Achieve Widespread Data Utility (May 2023)

The Intellectual Property Journey Of Patients' Digital Health Data

September 24, 2023

If you have used or are using a digital health device or service to gain insights about your own health, you have a digital health data trail. Whether it’s your smartwatch or that genetic sequencing you took to know about your risks for certain ailments, your personal data has been logged digitally. The latter is often used by companies providing digital health services to fine-tune their products and generate intellectual property (IP).

As users of such services, it becomes ever important to understand (or at least try to) where that data ends up and consider who should own the resulting IP. We decided to follow the digital health data trail and resulting IP through the patient journey; as the conundrums it poses will become ever more relevant in the digital health era.

Generating IP from data patients already own

Let’s say you’ve had a close elderly relative who has been diagnosed with a condition such as diabetes. Concerned about your own risks of developing this condition, you take a genetic test from a company offering direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic tests such as Dante Labs or 23andMe.

After a few weeks, they will share your genetic report, indicating your risks for diabetes as well as other conditions. This provides you a snapshot of what your future health might look like so that you can take preventative measures such as screenings or undertake lifestyle changes as appropriate.

This scenario applies to hundreds of people on a daily basis whether it’s to assess their disease risk or gain tailored nutrition advice. In sending their genetic sample, they are providing one of their most intimate health data to a company in exchange for a service. These companies might be looking further than just providing disease risk assessments to their consumers.

In fact, 23andMe leveraged its gold mine of genetic databases of millions of individuals for drug development and sold some of their IP. While 23andMe’s customers have agreed in the terms of service to allow the use of their data and not receive any remuneration, such drugs would not have been developed without them in the first place.

Personal digital health tools that collect patient data

Now, if that genetic test you took indeed indicated a higher risk of you developing diabetes, you might want to take some preventative measures towards that. In addition to some lifestyle and eating habit changes, you might want to consider food logging apps or even a 24/7 glucose monitor to assist in and supplement those changes.

The smartphone market is inundated with such options. There are over 300,000 health apps targeting a myriad of health-related topics from mental health to chronic condition management. Software aside, there are also digital health devices that can measure health parameters from head to toe. Patients can use these to obtain personalised health data which they can use to make informed decisions about their health and lifestyle.

In tandem, they continue the health data trail from external companies’ services to tools that patients carry with them throughout the day. As with DTC genetic companies, data collected from apps and wearables can even be sold to third parties or generate new IP.

For example, in the case of fertility tracking apps, a study conducted in Australia earlier this year found that the country’s most popular fertility tracking apps collect extensive data that is not required for the app. This includes information on aspects such as financial situation and education level which they can monetise.

This was exemplified in the case of period tracking app Flo. The company behind the app shared Flo users’ private health information with third-party firms such as Facebook and Google. This could enable those third parties to further improve their algorithm managing targeted ads, without the original data owners knowing about it, let alone benefit from such transactions.

Doctor-patient visits: the traditional health data generation point

Having tracked your blood glucose level with a smart glucose sensor for some weeks, you decide to have it assessed by your physician. During the visit, the doctor will likely take a glucose measurement of their own and compare the readings with those obtained from the sensor.

Based on the assessment, medical history and physical examination, the doctor will advise on the next steps, and generate an entry in your medical record for that visit. This further extends the patient health data trail to a scenario that has been unfolding for centuries.