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The Guardian
a minute ago
- The Guardian
Trump administration launching health tracking system with big tech's help
The Trump administration is pushing an initiative for millions of Americans to upload personal health data and medical records on new apps and systems run by private tech companies, promising easier to access health records and wellness monitoring. Donald Trump is expected to deliver remarks on the initiative Wednesday afternoon in the East Room. The event is expected to involve leaders from more than 60 companies, including major tech companies such as Google and Amazon, as well as prominent hospital systems like the Cleveland clinic. The new system will focus on diabetes and weight management, conversational artificial intelligence that helps patients, and digital tools such as QR codes and apps that register patients for check-ins or track medications. The initiative, spearheaded by an administration that has already freely shared highly personal data about Americans in ways that have tested legal bounds, could put patients' desires for more convenience at their doctor's office on a collision course with their expectations that their medical information be kept private. 'There are enormous ethical and legal concerns,' said Lawrence Gostin, a Georgetown University law professor who specializes in public health. 'Patients across America should be very worried that their medical records are going to be used in ways that harm them and their families.' Officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, who will be in charge of maintaining the system, have said patients will need to opt in for the sharing of their medical records and data, which will be kept secure. Those officials said patients will benefit from a system that lets them quickly call up their own records without the hallmark difficulties, such as requiring the use of fax machines to share documents, that have prevented them from doing so in the past. 'We have the tools and information available now to empower patients to improve their outcomes and their healthcare experience,' Dr Mehmet Oz, the administrator for CMS, said in a statement Wednesday. CMS already has troves of information on more than 140 million Americans who enroll in Medicare and Medicaid. Popular weight loss and fitness subscription service Noom, which has signed on to the initiative, will be able to pull medical records after the system's expected launch early next year. That might include labs or medical tests that the app could use to develop an AI-driven analysis of what might help users lose weight, the CEO, Geoff Cook, told the Associated Press. Apps and health systems will also have access to their competitors' information, too. Noom would be able to access a person's data from Apple Health, for example. 'Right now you have a lot of siloed data,' Cook said. Patients who travel across the country for treatment at the Cleveland clinic often have a hard time obtaining all their medical records from various providers, said the hospital system's CEO, Tomislav Mihaljevic. He said the new system would eliminate that barrier, which sometimes delays treatment or prevents doctors from making an accurate diagnosis because they do not have a full view of a patient's medical history. Having seamless access to health app data, such as what patients are eating or how much they are exercising, will also help doctors manage obesity and other chronic diseases, Mihaljevic said. 'These apps give us insight about what's happening with the patient's health outside of the physician's office,' he said. Sign up to TechScape A weekly dive in to how technology is shaping our lives after newsletter promotion CMS will also recommend a list of apps on that are designed to help people manage chronic diseases, as well as help them select healthcare providers and insurance plans. Digital privacy advocates are skeptical that patients will be able to count on their data being stored securely. The federal government, however, has done little to regulate health apps or telehealth programs, said Jeffrey Chester at the Center for Digital Democracy. The new initiative would deepen the pool of information on patients for the federal government and tech companies. Medical records typically contain far more sensitive information, such as doctors' notes about conversations with patients and substance abuse or mental health history. 'This scheme is an open door for the further use and monetization of sensitive and personal health information,' Chester said. The health and human services secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, and those within his circle have likewise pushed for more technology in healthcare, advocating for wearable devices that monitor wellness and telehealth. Kennedy also sought to collect more data from Americans' medical records, which he has previously said he wants to use to study autism and vaccine safety. Kennedy has filled the agency with staffers who have a history of working at or running health technology startups and businesses.
The Independent
31 minutes ago
- The Independent
Ousted vaccine panel members say rigorous science is being abandoned
The 17 experts who were ousted from a government vaccine committee last month say they have little faith in what the panel has become, and have outlined possible alternative ways to make U.S. vaccine policy. U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. abruptly fired the entire Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, accusing them of being too closely aligned with manufacturers and of rubber-stamping vaccines. He handpicked replacements that include several vaccine skeptics. In a commentary published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, the former panel members wrote that Kennedy — a leading voice in the anti-vaccine movement before becoming the U.S. government's top health official — and his new panel are abandoning rigorous scientific review and open deliberation. That was clear, they said, during the new panel's first meeting, in June. It featured a presentation by an anti-vaccine advocate that warned of dangers about a preservative used in a few flu vaccines, but the committee members didn't hear from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention staffers about an analysis that concluded there was no link between the preservative and neurodevelopmental disorders. The new panel recommended that the preservative, thimerosal, be removed even as some members acknowledged there was no proof it was causing harm. 'That meeting was a travesty, honestly,' said former ACIP member Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, a pediatric infectious diseases expert at Stanford University. The 17 discharged experts last month published a shorter essay in the Journal of the American Medical Association that decried Kennedy's 'destabilizing decisions." The focus was largely on their termination and on Kennedy's decision in May to stop recommending COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children and pregnant women. In the new commentary, the ousted committee members took it one step further and prescribed some steps that could be taken to maintain scientifically sound vaccine recommendations. 'An alternative to the Committee should be established quickly and — if necessary — independently from the federal government," they wrote. 'No viable pathway exists to fully replace the prior trusted and unbiased ACIP structure and process. Instead, the alternatives must focus on limiting the damage to vaccination policy in the United States.' Options included having professional organizations working together to harmonize vaccine recommendations or establishing an external auditor of ACIP recommendations. There are huge challenges to the ideas, including having access to the best data, the authors acknowledged. There's also the question of whether health insurers would pay for vaccinations that are recommended by alternative groups but not ACIP. They might pick and choose which vaccines to cover, said the University of North Carolina 's Noel Brewer, another former ACIP member. For example, they might pay for vaccines that offer more immediate cost savings for health care, like the flu vaccine. 'But maybe not ones that have a longer-term benefit like HPV vaccine,' which is designed to prevent futures cancers, Brewer said. Officials with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Reuters
31 minutes ago
- Reuters
Brown University reaches deal with US government to restore federal funding
WASHINGTON, July 30 (Reuters) - Brown University said on Wednesday it reached a voluntary agreement with the U.S. government to restore funding for the university's federally sponsored medical and health sciences research and to resolve some compliance reviews.
