Digital Health: Apps, Analytics & Agencies

I presented an overview of digital health: consumer and provider facing apps, big data analytics and mobile health devices. We discussed privacy and security issues surrounding the collection and use of individual data, whether or not it is covered by HIPAA or the FTC data breach rules applicable to PHRs, questions surrounding the utility of mHealth applications and their regulation by the FDA, overlapping guidance and jurisdiction of OCR, FTC and ONC — and the recent 23andMe saga.

The program chair and my co-panelists presented fascinating insights into a whole host of issues of interest: mental health parity, medical marijuana from the physician’s perspective, state regulation of accountable care organizations, the state’s all-payor database, regulatory and market challenges facing the hospital industry and the final version of the HIPAA breach notification rule.