• Rare Genomics Institute Announces Technology Winners

    Clinical Informatics News | Yesterday, the Rare Genomics (RG) Institute announced the winners of the 2015 BeHEARD (Helping Empower and Accelerate Research Discoveries) science challenge, a global competition that offers technology tools to rare disease researchers. Tools and technology were provided by Jackson Lab, Taconic Biosciences, Tute Genomics, Cypher Genomics, Maverix Biomics, Biovista, and more.

    Aug 20, 2015

  • Early Reports Back on Trials Focusing on Driving Mutations

    TIME | The brain cancer patient featured on the March cover of TIME is cancer-free, thanks to a clinical trial methodology researchers called a "basket trial". In a follow up article, TIME recounts her progress and Rather than group cancers by tissue of origin, the trial grouped 122 cancer patients by driving mutation, then tested drugs thought to target those mutations.

    Aug 20, 2015

  • For a Rare Disease Drug Trials Scramble for Patients

    WSJ | After years of effort, scientists and families of young patients with a rare genetic condition are facing the prospect of three companies launching clinical trials to develop therapies. But can the community support more than one trial at the same time?

    Aug 20, 2015

  • Registered Clinical Trials Make Positive Findings Vanish

    Nature News & Comment | A study showing a fall in positive trial results after the roll-out of clinicaltrials.gov. Having to state methods and measurements before starting a trial precluded cherry-picking data afterward, the authors theorized.

    Aug 18, 2015

  • Why Digital Health is Harder Than You Might Think: A Reality Check From the Clinical Trenches

    Clinical Informatics News | We’re told that modern technologies are dramatically transforming healthcare for the better. We need a reality check. This grand vision is not yet clear for many of us testing the science of digital health and seeking to understand how it will improve care. Digital health is at its infancy.

    Aug 12, 2015

  • Clinical Trial Innovation Prize Backs Ideas Using Health Records Apps

    Xconomy | A system that uses electronic health records data to better match eligible patients with clinical trials took the top prize in the first round of the Clinical Trial Innovation Prize.

    Aug 12, 2015

  • Yelp Partners with ProPublica to Add Data to Healthcare Listings

    WIRED | The new partnership will allow Yelp users to see emergency room waiting times at hospitals, among other useful information about healthcare services.

    Aug 12, 2015

  • How Reaching Minority Physicians Increases Minority Representation in Clinical Trials

    Clinical Informatics News Brief | Minorities are under-represented in clinical trials even as they carry greater disease burden, particularly for cardiovascular diseases. Dr. Priscilla Pemu, director of clinical trials at Morehouse School of Medicine, spoke with NPR about the challenges and opportunities increasing the number of minorities in clinical trials.

    Aug 11, 2015

  • Why TPP Threatens To Undermine One Of The Fundamental Principles Of Science

    Techdirt | The TransPacific Partnership is stalled on data exclusivity--the protection of clinical trial data submitted to regulatory agencies from use by competitors. US pharma companies want the TPP to require a 12 year period of data exclusivity for clinical trial data for biologics.

    Aug 11, 2015

  • Allscripts CEO lays out genomics strategy to users

    SearchHealthIT | The CEO of Allscripts revealed the company's corporate strategy to compete with Epic and Cerner. The key to its comeback bid is a new genomics system deal with NantHealth.

    Aug 10, 2015

  • Frances Oldham Kelsey, Early Heroine of the FDA, Dies at 101

    Washington Post | As a new FDA medical officer in 1960, Kelsey fought for more safety testing for the morning sickness drug thalidomide - efforts that prevented perhaps thousands of birth defects and led to meaningful new drug regulations.

    Aug 10, 2015

  • Emergency Physician Workgroup Publishes Top Recommendations for Health Information Exchange

    Clinical Informatics News Brief | A workgroup convened by the American College of Emergency Physicians, in support of a proposed national Health Information Exchange, has published a set of priority items for improving the usefulness of these exchanges in emergency care.

    Aug 7, 2015

  • IBM Adds Medical Imaging to Watson Health with Billion-Dollar Acquisition

    New York Times | IBM has announced the $1 billion purchase of Merge Healthcare, whose software for managing huge volumes of medical imaging data will now be linked to IBM's Watson machine learning programs in healthcare.

    Aug 7, 2015

  • Steven Pinker and the Price of Bioethics

    Clinical Informatics News Roundup | Over the weekend, the popular philosopher Steven Pinker published an opinion piece in the Boston Globe titled “The moral imperative for bioethics,” which has set off a flurry of blog posts and ripostes about the nature and purpose of bioethical review in medical research.

    Aug 4, 2015

  • Novel Ring Vaccination Trial Yields Rapid Results for Ebola Vaccine

    Clinical Informatics News | Public health workers are excited today about the newly published results of a clinical trial of an Ebola vaccine, which in an interim analysis has proved at least 75% protective against the disease. The creative trial design and analysis are likely to be a model for rapid clinical studies in future emergency situations.

    Aug 2, 2015

  • Rare Genomics Institute Quantifies Crowdsourcing, Weighs in on Patient Engagement

    Clinical Informatics News | The Rare Genomics Institute works to connect patients and their families with the tools, knowledge, and experts necessary to understand the cause of their rare diseases. With a history of working closely with patients, RGI’s president, Jimmy Lin, is weighing in on patient engagement for the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). The group has also launched a Crowdfunding Bootcamp to train families raising money for their diagnostic odysseys.

    Aug 2, 2015

  • Next stop for IBM’s Watson supercomputer Your local CVS pharmacy

    Washington Post | The companies are partnering to create a system to predict when you're getting sicker before you do.

    Aug 2, 2015

  • Pfizer's Failed Over-the-Counter Lipitor Trial Highlights Limits of Patient Engagement

    Clinical Informatics News | Pfizer has abandoned an effort to get its blockbuster statin Lipitor cleared for over-the-counter sales, after a trial demonstrated that patients would not follow up with necessary testing and behavior changes when their physicians were not involved in their use of the drug.

    Jul 29, 2015