Giant strides
This week brought some interesting developments related to medical innovation that might have profound impact.
Apple unveiled its highly anticipated smartwatch, which will be available starting April 24. “The Apple Watch is the most personal device we’ve ever created,” Apple CEO Tim Cook told the audience at the debut. “It’s not just on you, it’s with you.”
Cook showed off the watch’s sleek style, ability to make and receive phone calls and emails and health features. The device includes a heart monitor and measures how long the wearer has been standing, sitting and getting exercise.
Apple also introduced ResearchKit, an open source software framework that makes it easy for researchers and developers to create apps that could simplify and improve the efficiency of medical studies. Since the news on Tuesday, reports indicate that thousands of people already have signed up for a variety of medical research efforts.
Meanwhile, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee held its first hearing on advancing medical innovation on March10.
Committee Chair Sen. Lamar Alexander noted there is no real political bipartisanship on this issue so it is “an area we ought to succeed in. Every member of this committee is interested in identifying what we can do to make it easier to go from discovery through to the medicine cabinet.”
Alexander cited President Obama’s precision medicine initiative and the House 21st Century Cures effort as evidence of interest and momentum in this area.
These could be giant strides toward greater innovation in healthcare.
Beth Walsh
Clinical Innovation + Technology editor
Editor Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in health communication. She has worked in hospital, academic and publishing settings over the past 20 years. Beth joined TriMed in 2005, as editor of CMIO and Clinical Innovation + Technology. When not covering all things related to health IT, she spends time with her husband and three children.