Tracking prescription drugs via blockchain

Using blockchain, the US pharmaceutical industry plans to implement the Drug Supply Chain and Security Act (DSCSA), that requires that in 2023 a system must be in place that tracks legal changes of ownership of prescription drugs as they move through the supply chain. At the beginning of 2019, the FDA began accepting pilot project…

Controversial Brain Imaging Uses AI to Take Aim at Suicide Prevention

Researchers are training algorithms to spot tell-tale signs of self-harm in brain scans. But there’s probably better data to use. WHEN SOMEONE TAKES their own life, they leave behind an inheritance of unanswered questions. “Why did they do it?” “Why didn’t we see this coming?” “Why didn’t I help them sooner?” If suicide were easy to…

Medicine Is Going Digital. The FDA Is Racing to Catch Up

The regulatory agency for drugs and medical devices is creating a new unit dedicated strictly to digital health. WHEN BAKUL PATEL started as a policy advisor in the US Food and Drug Administration in 2008, he could pretty much pinpoint when a product was going to land in front of the reviewers in his division. Back…

Wearables Could Soon Know You’re Sick Before You Do

Researchers need to carefully study how biometrics change in individuals over time, and determine which wearables provide data good enough for diagnosis. MIKE SNYDER WAS clearing brush behind his brother’s western Massachusetts house, erecting a fence to keep deer from the blueberries, when the tick bit him. A few days later, on a flight to Norway…

Health insurance disparities and the Affordable Care Act: How did inequality decline?

In 2014, after the implementation of many provisions of the Affordable Care Act, the uninsured rate decreased by just under 3 percentage points from the previous year, and more in states that expanded Medicaid eligibility than in states that did not expand Medicaid eligibility. How did these changes affect disparities in health insurance coverage? This…