Focus on: The Future of Pharma

Chronicling and predicting pharma's moves into digital

It was only a few years ago that digital innovation at pharmaceutical companies was the province of tiny siloed innovation groups, churning out the odd companion app for a drug. These days, innovation is front and center, with big pharma acquiring, partnering and innovating in-house in all kinds of areas from digital therapeutics to remote clinical trials to connected drug delivery devices. And that's not even mentioning the incredible transformative power of AI for drug development or pharma's increasing presence as strategic investors in promising digital health companies.

The question is no longer, "Will pharma innovate?"; it's "How is pharma innovating?". In the month of July, we'll take a closer look at the many answers to this question, as well as exploring what the changing face of pharma means for other healthcare stakeholders.

What you need to know

News

Amazon contemplating lawsuit against Surescripts

by Jeff LagasseJuly 22, 2019

Surescripts is seeking to cut off PillPack's access to patient data, and the latter, an Amazon-owned company, isn't taking the matter lightly.

News

Pear Therapeutics' digital insomnia therapeutic will put FDA's PreCert framework through its paces

by Dave MuoioJuly 22, 2019

CEO and President Dr. Corey McCann said that Somryst, a digital treatment for chronic insomnia and depression, is the first software as a medical device product to be submitted through the regulator's pilot pathway. 

News

Yale, Mayo Clinic to use biometric data from wearables to improve drug development for heart failure

by Nathan EddyJuly 17, 2019
Researchers are working with digital therapeutics specialist Biofourmis, using machine learning technology and the Apple Watch to analyze dozens of physiology biomarkers.
 
News

How Finland is teaming up with pharma to identify genetic variants in disease

by Laura LovettJuly 12, 2019

The country's FinnGen Project seeks to use its unique population bottleneck and cohesive health records to drive genetic insights.

News

From start to finish, drug development could benefit from cloud computing

by Nathan EddyJuly 09, 2019

From streamlining operations to fine-tuning optimal treatments, the technology makes a business case for pharma.

News

Security, control of data seen as key barriers to cloud adoption by pharma

by Nathan EddyJuly 08, 2019
There's continued resistance from many pharmaceutical industry executives, who think it's never possible to safely store sensitive data in the cloud.
 
News

UCB, DEARhealth team up on epilepsy initiative

by Laura LovettJuly 08, 2019

The companies will be using DEARhealth's platform, which integrates AI into EHRs to predict health outcomes. 

News

How the cloud enables innovation for pharma and life sciences

by Nathan EddyJuly 05, 2019
For all the potential benefits of SaaS-based analytics and AI apps, privacy concerns remain, slowing data sharing and suggesting the need for new approaches to cloud security.
 
News

Pharma's 2019 Q2 saw several clinical trial, medication management partnerships

by Laura LovettJuly 03, 2019

Pharma companies also continued to explore the promises of digital therapeutics. 

News

Clinical trials can benefit from cloud tech's data security, ease of access

by Nathan EddyJuly 03, 2019

A knee-jerk reaction to the technology would keep pharma from its benefits.

News

Pfizer working with Finnish tech startup to improve patient adherence

by Tammy LovellJune 24, 2019

The pharmaceutical giant will offer Popit’s pill detection device to rheumatoid arthritis patients.

News

Allscripts purchases digital specialty prescription startup ZappRx

by Dave MuoioJune 14, 2019

A representative of the EHR vendor said that the cloud-based platform would be integrated within the Veradigm business unit.

News

Respect, communication key in pharma, digital collaborations

by Laura LovettJune 12, 2019

At Health 2.0 Europe, pharma, patient and academic representatives weighed in on challenges of working together.

News

Nebula Genomics, Merck KGaA's EMD Serono partner on lung cancer pilot

by Laura LovettJune 11, 2019

The blockchain-enabled startup's new pilot will rely on its database of sequenced genomes. 

News

Pharma won't benefit from digital innovation without anticipating its challenges

by Dave MuoioJune 05, 2019

At BIO 2019, Sanofi's chief medical and digital officer advised fellow pharma leaders on embracing new technologies and preparing for the challenges they'll bring.

News

How can pharma and tech come together for the benefit of patients?

by Tammy LovellJune 05, 2019

Cross-sector collaboration creates enormous potential for people-centred healthcare innovations, but there are challenges to be overcome.

News

Roche, J&J regulatory leads weigh in on Pre-Cert's progress, challenges of regulating digital health

by Dave MuoioJune 04, 2019

At BIO 2019 in Philadelphia, a panel of industry experts discussed their experiences with the FDA's pilot program; ambiguities in drug, device and software pathways; and the hurdles digital health regulation has yet to properly address.

News

AbbVie employs MC10's wearables for new MS clinical trials

by Laura LovettMay 28, 2019

The pair plans to use MC10's FDA-cleared wearable sensors, called BioStamp nPoint, to get insights into a patient's physiological data during the studies. 

News

Wearables, voice assistants face HIPAA hurdles but remain promising in clinical trials

by Laura LovettMay 22, 2019

This morning MassBio hosted a panel on the use cases for the technology in clinical trials and beyond. 

News

AI-enabled monitoring, decision support platform Biofourmis raises $35M

by Laura LovettMay 21, 2019

The Singaporean company will be moving its headquarters to Boston. 

Other special projects

Collection

Focus on: Planning for Innovation

by May 31, 2019

Now that the healthcare system is digitized, the table is set for a whole raft of innovation: Apps, devices, digital health software and services, APIs and information that is exchanged and actually useable.

But innovation doesn't just happen for technology's sake.

Instead, health IT executives must craft strategies to create a culture of innovation, absorb and operationalize ideas, determine which to pursue, fail or succeed, and deliver on high-level strategies. During June, Healthcare IT News and MobiHealthNews will interview experts, talk to thought leaders and glean insights about how to harness the cutting-edge, ideas in every corner of your healthcare organization.

Collection

How the consumerization of healthcare is changing the industry

by March 27, 2019

As digital health puts power in the hands of patients, the nature of their role is shifting toward that of a healthcare consumer. What does this mean for patients? And how should industry stakeholders evolve to accommodate them?

For the month of April, we'll look at this trend from a variety of angles, including how hospitals, pharma organizations and payers can treat patients as customers, and how these healthcare consumers are cutting out traditional intermediaries through new D2C health and wellness businesses.

News

Focus on: Aging and the Silver Tsunami

by March 20, 2019

HIMSS Media's information brands Healthcare IT News, Healthcare Finance News, MobiHealthNews and HIMSS TV are diving into one of the most pressing issues facing healthcare today – baby boomers and their swelling demands on our system. We'll look at the challenges, opportunities, emerging technologies, and other tactics hospitals, health systems and payers are deploying to manage the needs of the aging-population wave.

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Interoperability: Health IT's hardest problem is (finally) at an inflection point

by Healthcare IT News StaffApril 08, 2019

During April, we'll talk to experts and thought leaders about what's really happening in interoperability, present original HIMSS Media research on the state of data exchange, delve into the newly proposed rule from HHS and share insights about what the future holds.

Collection

Blockchain: Is it ready for you? Are you ready for it?

by November 27, 2018
Blockchain is real. Blockchain is more mired in buzz than ever. The distributed ledger technology has been touted for potential use cases relating to everything from claims adjudication, clinical trials, interoperability, EHRs and longitudinal health records to security and supply chain.
 
For December we’ll dive deep to separate what’s really happening today from the marketing speak all over the healthcare industry by interviewing experts, talking to innovators and looking at what’s coming next.