DIGITAL HEALTH BRIEFING: Facebook pauses medical research program - AI hype fails to impress investors - The downside to one-size-fits-all EHRs

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FACEBOOK PAUSES MEDICAL RESEARCH PROGRAM: Facebook was reportedly exploring partnerships with several major US hospitals to match user data with patient data, according to CNBC. Facebook planned to match anonymized patient data, including health issues and age, with their anonymized social profile data using a technique known as "hashing." This data could then be used to help medical professionals develop specific treatment and intervention plans that took "social connection" into account. For now, the program has been halted. However, as recently as March, Facebook was in talks with several health organizations.

A partnership between Facebook and US hospitals could have produced significant insights into patient behavior outside of the clinical setting. This could help medical professionals in several ways, here are a couple of examples:

• Filling in gaps in patient data: The social media giant's consumer data could have filled gaps in existing electronic health records (EHR), such as environmental factors and social behaviors, providing physicians and researchers with more robust patient histories.
• Powering remote patient monitoring: In theory, the data could determine if an elderly patient didn't have many local friends or family, enabling the hospital to send a caregiver to check in on them while recovering from surgery.

Down the line, social media data could help power population health. This refers to an approach to health that aims to improve the health of an entire population. For example, if a patient came into urgent care with a highly contagious disease, Facebook's data could feasibly determine where they've been, where they live, and who they've been in contact with. This would enable the hospital to not only determine the source of the outbreak, but also mitigate further spreading of the illness.

However, data security needs to be much stronger and requires compliance with local health regulations, such as HIPAA in the US. Health data is highly valuable to nefarious players and is often the target of hackers. There were 120,000 reported US health data breaches in March alone. Tying in even more data about a patient, such as their social media info, could make it that much more enticing. Given Facebook's recent fallout following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, it's unlikely that consumers will be willing to trust Facebook to match their data with their medical records any time soon, potentially opening the door to other companies to explore the space.

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AI FAILS TO MEET HYPE FOR INVESTORS: Despite $2.8 billion being poured into digital health startups during Q1 2018, investments in artificial intelligence (AI) amounted to just $230 million, according to StartUp Health. StartUp used a new methodology which means it's unclear whether AI-specific digital health funding rose or fell since last year, but the small figure contrasts the technology's media coverage to how investors actually feel about the technology's value within health. Meanwhile, web apps, genetic sequencing, medical devices, and mobile apps took the top four positions by gross investment in Q1 2018. These technologies have a more tangible and immediate use case that makes them more valuable in the eyes of investors and VCs - using online or mobile portals for virtual doctor visits, for example. While AI and machine learning have yet to prove their worth in a clinical setting, it's likely to change within five years as more research and pilot studies demonstrate how the emerging tech can improve workplace efficiency and enhance care outcomes.

EHRS AREN'T ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL: Centegra Health System has demonstrated the need for designated electronic health record (EHR) systems for different hospital departments, according to Healthcare IT News. The Chicago-based network found that after implementing a universal EHR in its hospitals, the system wasn't suited to the high-capacity needs of the emergency department (ED), causing their processes to slow to a crawl. Centegra instead implemented an EHR system developed specifically for EDs, resulting in a 64% reduction in door-to-doc times since 2016, falling from an average 67 minutes to just under 30 minutes. In turn, Centegra's new system also reduced the number of ED patients who left without seeing a physician from 2% in 2016 to 1% in 2018. As more health organizations roll out EHR systems, the case study demonstrates the importance of taking each department's needs into consideration to ensure optimal workflow. Business Insider Intelligence forecasts that more than 80% of all doctors will work at a facility that uses an EHR system by 2019. By 2025, nearly all facilities in the US will use EHR, with only a small fraction of private offices, generally owned by older physicians, still relying on physical records. Those may even be phased out faster than expected should governments implement regulations that require the use of EHR systems.

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PERSONAL EMERGENCY RESPONSE SYSTEM FOR APPLE WATCH: FallCall Solutions, a company developing a software-based personal emergency response system (PERS) for the Apple Watch, raised a sub-$1 million seed round led by Connecticut Ventures, according to MobiHealthNews. The company's solution, which comes as an app for the Apple Watch and iPhone, lets users call for help either by voice or touch. The app will be free to download with the choice of joining a paid subscription service that gives users access to a 24/7 central monitoring system. The PERS market is growing rapidly, driven by the aging population, and is projected to surpass $11 billion by 2025. However, it's largely controlled by companies that manufacture designated PERS devices that can be worn by consumers. FallCall hopes that by targeting Apple Watch users, they'll find a niche in the market. That makes sense given that around 30% of Apple Watch owners are over the age of 55 years, amounting to an addressable market of between 8 million and 9 million users, according to FallCall founder Dr. Shea Gregg. Having a pure-software offering also allows the company to take advantage of the sensors baked into Apple's devices. That will allow FallCall to develop things like an automated fall detection service, without needing to carry the manufacturing or hardware costs.