Information technology
Teladoc announces pilot project with Red Cross to provide telehealth during crises | D Healthcare DailyLewisville, Texas-based Teladoc announced Wednesday that it is launching a pilot project with the American Red Cross to provide telemedicine services to patients in disaster areas.
Monitoring gets personal | Nature
In the past decade, as smartphones, smartwatches and exercise trackers have become more pervasive, the sensors they carry have got more advanced. These are tantalizing tools for researchers looking to monitor everyday movements. And because Parkinson's is a progressive disorder that affects a person's motor skills, it is a good candidate to test the sensors. Scientists are tapping into this technology to gain a more granular look at the symptoms and progression of this insidious disease.
Pharmaceuticals
Sanofi partners with Brazil to accelerate Zika vaccine work | ReutersSanofi has struck a collaboration deal with a leading Brazilian research institute to speed development of a Zika vaccine, consolidating the French drugmaker's position in the race to defeat the mosquito-borne virus.
These pricey cholesterol drugs aren't selling. And that has the biotech industry sweating | Statnews.com
A year ago, two new drugs that used a novel mechanism to drive down cholesterol levels came on the market, and were promptly crowned as blockbusters in waiting. But the two drugs have been commercial flops, in part due to a complicated reimbursement system that has frustrated doctors, confused patients, and left the biotech industry worried about the implications for other high-priced drugs in the pipeline.
EpiPen price hikes add millions to Pentagon costs | Reuters
Mylan's price hikes on EpiPens have added millions to U.S. Defense Department spending since 2008 as the agency covered more prescriptions for the lifesaving allergy shot at near retail prices, government data provided to Reuters shows.
Medical devices and equipment
Zimmer Biomet picks up tele-rehab provider RespondWell | MassDevice.comZimmer Biomet says it paid an unspecified amount for tele-rehabilitation provider RespondWell, which it plans to fold into its recently launched Signature Solutions business. RespondWell provides personalized, clinician-supervised post-surgical physical therapy programs for patients to complete at home after joint replacement surgery.
Physicians
Massachusetts doctor files lawsuit seeking right to die: 'It's an option that I want to have' | Boston GlobeA retired Falmouth, Mass., physician who has metastatic prostate cancer filed a lawsuit this week in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston asserting he has a constitutional right to obtain a lethal dose of medication from his doctor and choose when he dies to avoid needless suffering.
