Recent quotes:

Sleep Therapy for the Masses May Be Coming to You Soon - The New York Times

CVS Health said it was carefully reviewing the scientific literature on digital therapies to decide which ones to offer employers. The company selected Sleepio first partly because the app was backed by rigorous, published studies, said Dr. Troyen A. Brennan, CVS Health’s chief medical officer.

Using science to sell apps: Evaluation of mental health app store quality claims | npj Digital Medicine

Seventy-three apps were coded, and the majority (64%) claimed effectiveness at diagnosing a mental health condition, or improving symptoms, mood or self-management. Scientific language was most frequently used to support these effectiveness claims (44%), although this included techniques not validated by literature searches (8/24 = 33%). Two apps described low-quality, primary evidence to support the use of the app. Only one app included a citation to published literature. A minority of apps (14%) described design or development involving lived experience, and none referenced certification or accreditation processes such as app libraries.

When the insurance company monitors your driving in real time does it help? New research finds that it helps on a number of levels, from safety to consumer cost -- ScienceDaily

"We found that UBI users tend to improve the safety of their driving in general, and in once specific area by decreasing their daily average number of hard-brakes by an average of 21 percent after six months," said Miremad Soleymanian. "Our research found that the number miles driven tend to stay the same and that both younger drivers and females tend to improve their UBI scores more than older drivers and males."

will.i.am on personal data ownership

Personal data needs to be regarded as a human right, just as access to water is a human right. The ability for people to own and control their data should be considered a central human value. The data itself should be treated like property and people should be fairly compensated for it.

WillIAm-on-consumer-health-data-services

Today, my gadgets may count my steps, but they aren’t seeing the big picture: what I ate, how I felt, what my blood pressure is. New services, built from the point of view of the consumer, will benefit me by sharing and interconnecting my own data, rather than selling it on. When more trust is established, my personal “agent” or “assistant” should merge relevant things together that are currently just disconnected data points.

Can wearable technology identify irregular heart rhythms? -- ScienceDaily

Researchers at Stanford Medicine, in collaboration with Apple, launched the Apple Heart Study last November to determine whether a mobile app that uses the optical sensor on the Apple Watch to analyze pulse rate data can identify atrial fibrillation. The condition, which is characterized by an irregular heartbeat, often remains hidden because many people don't experience symptoms. Atrial fibrillation can increase the risk of stroke and heart failure. A paper to be published online Nov. 1 in the American Heart Journal describes the design of this unique clinical trial, the largest screening study on atrial fibrillation ever done. Enrollment, which was conducted through an iPhone app, is now closed. The study has entered the final phase of data collection and will be completed early next year, the researchers said. The Stanford team is led by principal investigators Mintu Turakhia, MD, associate professor of cardiovascular medicine, and Marco Perez, MD, assistant professor of cardiovascular medicine, and by study chair Kenneth Mahaffey, MD, professor of cardiovascular medicine. "We hope this study will help us better understand how wearable technologies can inform precision health," said Lloyd Minor, MD, dean of the School of Medicine. "These new tools, which have the potential to predict, prevent and manage disease, are finally within our reach."